Page 94 of Scarlet Wars
The thought slammed into me like a body blow, knocking even more air from my lungs before it even had a name.
I’m suffocating.
“Thompson. Your breathing’s labored. Tell me what’s happening.”
I tried to answer, to anchor myself to that sound, but even though he was right in front of me, I couldn’t see him. Colors were bleeding into shadows until the tunnel turned liquid and he was just a shape, blurry, and dissolving.
I’m dying. I’m fucking dying here.
“Answer me.”
I opened my mouth. I felt my lips move. No sound came out. Not a word. Not a breath.
And then, darkness.
It didn’t descend; it swallowed me whole. No light, no shape, no sound but my own pulse hammering in my skull, a drumbeat too fast, too loud.
My eyes were open. They were. Weren’t they?
No—no, they were. But when I forced them wider, the cave disappeared, and before I could figure out what was happening, I wasn’t in the cave anymore.
The stink hit first: mildew, rot, rust. The bucket I used as a bathroom sat in front of me, chipped and corroded, as solid and real as it had ever been. Chains bit into phantom wrists. The atmosphere tasted like old metal and hands that weren’t mine.
I was back in Dave’s cellar.
“No… no, no. I’m not really here. I’m not really here.”
“Emma.”
A voice. Dave’s voice.
His hands clamped around my arms and I jerked away, hysteria ripping up my throat like barbed wire. “Don’t touch me!”
“Oh, but it’s not you I want, little witch.” His rotten stench filled my lungs, choking me from the inside out. “I only need you to make me rich and makeherfall in love with me.”
He released me, and terror lit my veins because I knew where he’d go next.
Stop him, Emma! Move!
“Don’t touch her!” I screamed, lunging, but the chains yanked me back, hard, biting into my wrists until sparks burst behind my temples.
“Who? Emma, talk to me.” The foreign words pushed up against the haze.
Dave’s fist knotted into Amy’s hair, jerking her down. “I’ll take her even if she doesn’t want to. You have the power to make that less painful. Use it, witch.”
I broke. Sobs tore through me, every word splintered. “Don’t you dare hurt her. I willtearyou apart!”
“Emma!” The other voice again, louder now. “Stop fighting me and listen to my voice. It’s Caden.”
“Caden…” I whispered, still staring at Amy, my heartbeat hammering like a drum. “Caden will come. He’ll get us out of here.”
Amy’s voice trembled through the haze. “Who’s Caden?”
I didn’t answer her. My voice cracked instead, ragged and small. “Caden will come for me.”
“Baby, I’m right here.” His tone was a growl of fury laced with desperation, like he was dragging me back by sheer will. “Come back to me. Wherever you are, come back to me, right now.”
Arms. Warm, solid arms. Around me. Real. Unyielding. Safe.
