Page 562 of Reign

I grip his phone so tightly my fingers ache.

The screen is dark. Rafael told me he was coming. Four minutes. He said he was less than four minutes away.

Four minutes is supposed to be nothing.

Four minutes is the longest amount of time that has ever existed.

I want to turn on the flashlight.

My thumb finds the button, but I can’t press it.

Luciano told me to keep the light off. If one of those men is still alive, they could see it. They could find me.

Or I could see Luciano.

No.

No, no, no.

He’s alive.

He promised me.

My other hand moves to the necklace around my neck. I close my fingers around Mamma’s charm and pull it against my palm until the edges hurt.

I don’t know if this is how any of this works.

I don’t know if she can hear me. I don’t know whether people stay somewhere after they die or if we only pretend they do because the alternative hurts too much.

But I need her to hear me now.

“Mamma,” I whisper.

My voice echoes softly through the pipe.

“If you can hear me, if there is any possible way any of this works, please.”

Tears spill down my face.

“I only want one thing. I don’t need anything else. I lost you. I can’t lose him too.”

My fingers close tighter around her necklace.

“Please bring my husband back to me.”

Something moves outside.

I stop breathing.

Leaves drag against the ground.

A branch snaps.

I press myself farther against the curved wall, trying to disappear into the darkness. Luciano’s phone trembles in my hand.

What if someone hurt him?

What if they’re coming for me now?