Page 264 of Breathe Like Hell

Ash.

Dakota was saying something else now, but it was difficult to focus on her voice through the muffled sensation in my head. I turned my head down so she could see I was still here, even though I was terrified and exposed and no longer functioning at the capacity I wanted to. I still had her. There were so many gaps in my memories, so many pieces missing from my brain, but I could remember all of her. The longer I stood here, the more I felt it.

Dakota Masters.

Sitting in the back of my classroom by the windows, eyes turned towards the sky, shoulders rounded so she’d take up less space. Head bent over the table while she neatly circled answers on her exams. Slender fingers typing beauty into the technicality of a lab report.

Uncertainty shining in her beautiful green irises when I asked her to work in my lab.

Trembling fingers. Blue pen strokes. Long hair tucked behind her ear.

Hours and hours of work in isolation.

Just us.

Just me, learning the world again through her eyes.

Just her, learning to believe in herself through mine.

I take care of you.

“Micah,” she repeated, hands pressing to my cheeks.

“Masters,” I mumbled, the shape of the word so familiar in my mouth that my eyes stung. I tried to blink back my tears faster than they could form. How long have I been away from this world? How am I back here now? Why?

“I love you,” Dakota said, stretching up on her tiptoes to brush her lips over mine.

She was different and it was taking me too long to figure out why. Panic strung across my chest like barbed wire. The longer I stood here, the more my mind started to race. Thoughts were coming back to me, too quickly and too slowly at the same time. It was too much for me to comprehend in my state but not enough to me to be caught up with her.

Her eyes were glossed over with concern. I didn’t like that look.

I need a second.

Give me a second.

I didn’t let go of her, though. I love you. Yes, I love you.

“I love you,” I finally managed to say, the words breaking on my lips.

She was so perfect and I wished I could snap back into the person I’d been before. The magnitude of my panic only seemed to be increasing as my mind woke up further. I hated feeling the way I did right now. Uncertain, disoriented, out of control. Why is Mason so far away?

I needed to sit down.

“I saved you,” Dakota said. She looked so tentatively hopeful and proud of herself.

“How’d you do that?” I questioned. The lump in my throat grew.

“You turned me into an angel, and now I’m Sigeian, like you.”

“Oh, right,” I was breathing unevenly. My legs wobbled.

“I kept trying for months to bring you back here. I don’t really know how I did it.” Tears slid down her perfect cheeks. Why isn’t Mason here? I glimpsed him sitting on a rock near the cliff edge through the trees.

“You did?” I couldn’t remember anything that’d happened since I’d slipped away into that darkness.

“I tried to. Can you walk?”

“I don’t think so,” I panted, suddenly realizing how much I was leaning on her. She was supporting most of my weight now. When did she get this strong?