Page 92 of Embracing Sky
“I’m trying,” Fletcher whispered.
I wrapped my arms around my mate. “We’ll get him back,” I promised, but it made me wonder… Was that a promise I could keep?
Fletcher began to weep softly into my chest, and it felt like my heart was breaking all over again.
54
SKY
I groanedand rolled over on the cold tile floor, my body sluggish as I pried first one eye open, then the other. Bright white light poured in. I blinked, then squinted.
Where was I?
I pushed myself up, so that I was sitting and looked around the barren room—a familiar prison cell of white, white, white. The fluorescent lights blazed overhead.
My heart thumped unsteadily in my chest as panic climbed up my throat. No.No, no, no…
It all rushed back to me then, like being struck on the head with a hammer.
The forest. The knife. Dr. Thompson’s threat to drag me back to hell.
He made good on that promise.
Something inside twisted, sick at the pit of me. My hands flew to my stomach, feeling for my baby. My pulse rushed between my ears as I held my breath and waited for a kick, for a nudge, for something—anything—that told me that Thompson hadn’t hurt her.
Blessedly, it came. She kicked against my palm. She was okay. Tears stung the corners of my eyes. I gasped for breath, staggering to my feet despite the fact that my legs felt unable to hold my weight.
I paced the floors, my hands rubbing at my belly through the papery hospital gown I was now wearing. The tile was cold beneath my bare feet, reminding me of the floorboards at home in the morning.
Fletcher… I’d never see him smile again. Never hear him laugh. Never feel Adam’s lips on my forehead, his warm fingers on my cheek.
I went to the door and began pounding on it.
“Hello?” I cried out, the sound escaping me before I could bite it back. “Help! Help me! Adam! Fletcher!”
I screamed as panic flooded me, my fingers digging into grooves carved by claws so many years ago. Made by a younger version of myself, clawing so desperately until my fingers bled, screaming and pleading until my voice went hoarse.
“Please! Someone! Anyone!Help me!”I screamed, but it was futile. No one was coming to save me. I was back in my nightmares for good this time.
I collapsed on the floor near my cot and wrapped my arms around myself, sobbing as my heart broke open.
Did Fletcher and Adam wonder where I went when I never came back? When they arrived home from work and I was gone? Were they worried about me?
And Fletcher… He’d lose his chance at finally having a baby, a family, because of my foolishness.
I cried harder. I cried until exhaustion took over, until my heart felt like a shell and my body went limp from grief. Then I curled up on the cot, wishing I had a blanket from home to cuddle with.
I was just drifting off when the door swung open. I jerked awake, sitting bolt-upright. Two people in medical coats came in.
A woman with her hair slicked back in a severe bun pointed at me. “Get up. Dr. Thompson wants to see you.”
The man didn’t wait for me to move. He came over, grabbed my wrist, and yanked me to my feet. I stumbled after them, pushed along like cattle. Just like always.
I knew better than to fight them; they were armed, both with weapons and with sedatives, and I could only imagine what Dr. Thompson would do to me while sedated.
It wasn’tmeI was worried about, though. My hands fell to my belly, and a tendril of fear wrapped its way around my heart. If Thompson hurt her, I might lose my mind.
We came to a large room with various medical machinery in it. In the center was a metal examination table.
