Page 64 of Remnants
If it acts on my innermost wishes…
If it doesn’t hurt what I don’t want it to…
Pain implodes in my chest, then squeezes my lungs in a chokehold.
Then I really did kill Vera.
Her death wasn’t an accident.
My knees give out.
“Woah!” Kellan catches me before I hit the floor, instantly looping an arm beneath my legs to carry me. “You alright, beautiful? Was it the training? I’ll be damned if you tell me his kiss made you weak in the knees.”
“I’m alright,” I gasp, even though it feels like I’ve lost all my strength at once. “I just need a minute.” My eyes instinctually seek out Aiden, who nods.
“Take her to the snack bar,” he tells Kellan, then moves around us to address the room.
I don’t hear anything he’s saying as Kell brings me to the other side of the massive room, putting plenty of distance between me and the others. We walk through the door to the smaller room. The outer wall is lined with windows in a curve that exposes the sidewalk just outside. There are small square tables and chairs in the middle of the room and then a bar with stools on the interior wall. It feels like an old diner that sells ice cream shakes.
Someone walks by the window, and I freeze in Kellan’s arms. “Can they see us?”
He sets me down in a chair. “No. It’s tinted glass. We can see out, but no one can see in.”
One of the other chairs squeals as it’s pulled back across from me. Dane plops into it, then leans his forearms halfway across the table. “Are you okay?” He reaches for my hand.
I hesitate, and his expression falls.
Drawing a slow breath, I take his hand. I notice Jackson sitting up on the bar, one foot up on it, as he leans into his knee and watches us. Watches me. Kellan’s sitting on the next table over, arms crossed.
I try to block them out and focus on Dane. “Sorry. It’s just…” His amber eyes are so open, sowarmwhile they look at me. My heart aches, and I pull my gaze from his. Maybe that makes me a coward, but I don’t think I’ll be able to say it while looking him in the eye. “If what Jack said is true about my gift, then…when I…killedVera…”
Dane squeezes my hand. “Stop.”
He stands and shifts next to me, his hand never letting go of mine. Dane kneels and cups my face with his other hand, drawing me to look at him. “I’m done wallowing in the past. You keep saving my lifeover and over again. You owe menothing. You got that?” He waits for my small nod before he continues, “It doesn’t matter. None of that matters anymore. I’m not thinking about it, and you shouldn’t either. We’re focusing on the future now.”
I breathe in shakily, and when I release it, it’s like a weight falls from my chest, expelling with the used air.
If he’s moving forward, then so am I.
Dane smiles, rising and pulling me up with him in his arms. I breathe in his warm, citrusy scent, soaking him in as my heart calms to its normal pace.
Once I know I’m okay, I pull back and find Aiden has joined us in the room. “The others?” I ask him.
“A group started in the weight room. Cibrina took another group, and Evie and Silas are working with the last group for now,” he replies smoothly, with no sense of urgency or rush to get us back out there.
“Should we—” Movement through the windows catches in my periphery, and I turn toward it. A dark shape drops on the concrete. I run to the window, then gasp when I recognize who it is.
Chapter eighteen
Raegan
“It’sReid!”Ishoutover my shoulder, and the others are around me in an instant.
“I’ll grab Cassandra,” Aiden says first, then leaves the room. Thankfully, she’s only in the next room over, so the rest of us meet them outside over Reid’s body.
A trail of dark red blood spreads over the concrete from underneath him, his body still and quiet.
“Reid!” I yell, hoping for a reaction and getting none.
