Page 25 of Unraveling Fate

I’m not staying.

Legs shaking, she clambered over the mess of twisted metal sticking out from under her car to swing a leg over the fence.Nausea rolled through her belly, and she clutched a post to stay upright.

Not staying. Not staying.

A rhythm feathered against her skin. The same rhythm she’d felt last night. She snapped her head up, but the world spun, forcing her to drop her forehead back down on the post, breathing through clenched teeth.

Whistling floated out of the trees. Taran strode around the corner, and the whistling cut off. “Cadenza? What happened?”

She heard his feet sprinting to the fence but stayed grasping the post. “Idiot ran me off the road.” Slowly, she raised her head and managed to lift her other leg over the fence.

“Ran you off the road?” He pointed at the crumpled car. “It looks more like they tried to run you over. You’re bleeding.” He pulled a tissue from his pocket and pressed it to her forehead. Drums exploded in her ribcage.

The ground tilted and her stomach lurched, a record scratch in the middle of a symphony. She grabbed his wrist to keep her balance. Bass notes thundered up her arm, and she yanked back like she’d been burned.

“Sorry,” she said. “I’m feeling a little unsteady.”

“I’m not surprised. That’s a nasty goose egg you’ve got.” Taran brushed her hair away from the wound, frowning. “We’d best get you up to the house and cleaned up. Come on.”

Cadenza took two steps. Stopped. Bent over with her elbows on her knees. Her pulse thumped in her skull, competing with Taran’s frame drum.

“I think I just need a minute.”

Taran leaned down next to her. “Don’t think me out of line, but I think you need more than a minute. You look about to faint. May I?” He held out his arms like a cradle.

“What, like carry me?” Cadenza almost laughed out loud. She must have heard him wrong. (Wasn’t confusion one of the signsof shock?) Because how could this beautiful, golden-eyed man—the only person she’d heard music from in her entire life—carry her all the way to the apartment? He couldn’t carry her. She couldn’t even touch him without drums slamming into her like an ocean tide. Yes, she must be confused.

She straightened and tried to walk. The nausea peaked, the edges of her vision darkening.

“Ok, fine,” she groaned. “Ocean.”

“What?” Taran looked at her with concern.

“Means yes.” She held out her arms. “Carry me. Please.”

He nodded and scooped her up.

Drums pounded through her middle, rolled out her limbs. His rhythm stirred the fog clouding her thoughts. Heaviness pushed her eyelids closed. “Here comes the ocean…”

“Do you think you might have a concussion?” Taran asked. A back corner of her brain told her the beautiful man was trying to keep her awake.

“No, it’s just my head pounding.”Maybe it’s been my head this whole time because how crazy am I if I’m hearing people now too?

“Aye, your head. That’s what I’m worried about,” he said.

Cadenza peeled her eyes open to stare at Taran’s profile.Stupid, beautiful man.She scowled. Why did he have to be beautiful? She couldn’t afford to be distracted from her goal. He wasn’t allowed to be beautiful.

The bridge lay behind them. Taran hurried up the hill into the oaks, but Cadenza felt no jostling in his arms. Just drums.

Drums and bass.

Pounding.

Booming.

Thundering like the ocean on the shore. It filled her, flowed into every part of her till she thought she would burst.

No,she told it groggily.I can’t burst. I have to go to Italy. My mother…