PROLOGUE
The tasteof copper exploded in my mouth as my eyes flew open, meeting the darkness surrounding me. The pounding in my temples shot another wave of dizziness through my head as I tried getting up, my body fighting through the pain wrapped around every muscle, every atom of me. My tongue darted out, running over my dry lips, and this time it wasn't a coppery taste running through my mouth, but the sweetness mixed with bitterness, reminding me of… Of pomegranates?
What the hell?
My left eyebrow throbbed, and as I started getting more feelings in my limbs, I realized there was something trickling from my eyebrow onto my eye. Willing my arm to lift, to check what was running over my face, proved to be harder than I thought, but I had to. I fucking had to. Sharp stabbing erupted through my arm as my fingers touched my eyebrow, wincing as something wet and sticky ran over my fingers. And as I lowered my arm, as I willed myself to breathe, my mind trying to clear through the fogginess, I saw the crimson rubbed over my pale fingers.
Blood. There was blood on my hand.
But I had no time to think about the reasons why my eyebrow bled. I couldn't see around as my eyes tried adjusting to the darkness of the night. I could barely breathe as the smell of the smoke burned through my nostrils, and as if a light bulb lit up somewhere in the back of my mind, the pictures, the memories, started slamming into the forefront of my mind, my hand stopping in the air, and?—
The smoke?No…
I pushed through the pain, through the agony taking place throughout my entire body, and pulled myself off of the cold, hard ground and turned, meeting the fury of flames coming from the car standing at an awkward angle not too far from me. The car I knew very well.
The car that had the initials of me and my sister scribbled on the back seat, etched when I was barely ten years old. The initials that put me on a mini house arrest. The initials my parents never wanted to remove because they thought we should cherish the memories we had as a family, since we never knew what the future could bring.
"No, no, no," I cried, pleaded, but there was no one to hear me as my heart shattered behind my rib cage as the fire swallowed the car I basically grew up with. The car that was in our family for years, soon to be owned by Thalia, my younger sister.
The sister that was sitting in the back seat of the car, together with our mother, while I drove in the front with our dad.
Where were they? Did they get out? How the hell did I get here?
My ribs protested as I pushed myself to take another step, just one step closer to the blazing fury, holding on to my stomach as if that could stop the pain from spreading. As if my hand could stop the dread willowing through my veins, because I knew evenbefore I took a couple of steps closer what was happening. I knew even before the air cracked with the impending explosion.
I fucking knew.
"Help!" I croaked, willing my voice to be louder, my legs to be stronger, my mind to look around. For the first time in the twenty-eight years of my life, I prayed. I prayed to the God that never listened, and the angels that were nothing more but a figment of imagination for those who lost their way, hoping there would be something to hold on to.
I prayed as I took a step closer, then another. I fucking prayed they weren't inside. I prayed they got out just like I did, but I knew these prayers wouldn't change the reality.
There was no one around, no one to help, and as I turned to my left, and then to my right, I realized we weren't on the road. Picture after picture of moments just before the accident flashed behind my eyes, reminding me what happened.
One moment we were driving, laughing at something Thalia had said, and the next, we were driving off of a cliff, plummeting into the darkness below. The screams, the pain, the terror that rushed through me felt like a fresh wound now, cutting through me over and over again as I tried finding a way to save them.
I couldn't see them when I looked back at the car. Maybe they did get out after all? Maybe they were looking for me as well?
Maybe… A thousand fucking maybes but that same feeling I had before we left our parents' house came back with a vengeance, slamming through me. That same hellish feeling that told me we should stay in, order takeout, and just chill, celebrating All Hallows' Eve inside without going to some stupid fair. That same feeling I had when one of my friends died ten years ago. The feeling I could never explain.
It was here, brimming to the surface of my skin, almost laughing at me because it knew I should've listened. Because my body understood things before my mind could catch up.
"Mom! Dad!" I tried running, but my feet dragged. My muscles too weak to carry me faster than I was going. But I still tried getting closer. "Thalia!" My voice thundered, erupting between the misery and fear, while my heart hoped someone would answer.
But there was no response. Nothing but the blazing fury swallowing my hopes, my dreams, my entire future and as I came closer, just a couple of feet from the car, from the— The final crack shot through the night, destroying the car with an explosion I couldn't predict.
The force slammed into me, sending me flying back, and as the back of my head hit the ground, as the tears rolled down my cheeks, and my eyes closed, I could swear I saw emerald green eyes staring at me from the darkness.
1
KAIRA
11 months and 10 days later
The air tasted like salt,fear, and grief lingering on the edges, engulfing me as the wind swept around me, playing with my hair, pushing it right and left as if it had a mind of its own. My eyes zeroed in on the beach underneath the cliff I was standing on, the black sand looking almost ominous, dangerous somehow, but I wasn't afraid.
At least not anymore.
I could feel the soil underneath my bare feet, the cold ground touching my skin, but I knew I was missing something. Something important. I could feel it just like this wind caressing my skin, this something lingering in the back of my mind. Calling, begging, asking for me. But no matter how many times I closed my eyes, nothing ever came.
