I don’t know what’s happening to me. I’m desperate to get closer to him. My heart is racing. I’m faint and restless and aching.
Can you trust me?
Rosabelle, do you trust me?
I’m alive with a chaos I don’t understand. I want to press my cheek to his chest and feel him breathe. I want to climb into his body and live there, inside of him.
If you trust me, we can fix this together. If you trust me, everything is simple—
In the lens flare of my imperfect vision, his irises are bluer, his edges blurred, all of him blasted with light.
All right, sleepyhead. Let’s get this over with.
“Rosabelle?”
I’m with you, Rosabelle. Are you with me?
I’ve been watched by infinite eyes all my life, but no one has ever looked at me and made me feel safe.
No one but him.
If you do manage to kill me and make it out of here, I thought you might want to give this to your sister—
Something is happening to me. Something is breaking inside of me. It occurs to me, as my body begins to shake, that this damage might be irreparable.
I already told you. I pay attention.
The monitor grows only angrier, alarms triggering, and only then do I see the disembodied mass of people, bodies crowding the room.
I’m here. I’m with you. You’re safe—
A stake of fear drives straight through my chest.
“Rosabelle?” James says desperately. “Are you okay?”
No, I want to scream.
NO—
I understand then that I would kill for him without question. I would die for him without hesitation.
He lives, or no one lives.
I will protect him with my life.
“No,” I whisper.
What’s left of my frozen heart shatters.
23
Warner
There’s a sudden explosion of commotion.
Alarms blast, warning lights flashing across all systems as Rosabelle seizes suddenly in her hospital bed. Her eyes nearly roll back in her head. She takes convulsive breaths, strands of white-blond hair cutting across her face. She looks limp and ashen, like she might lose consciousness. Her body seizes again.
Fascinating.
