Page 86 of Heir of Broken Souls
“Axel, please don’t say that, you have us?—”
“I havenothingwithout him.”
He spits the words so coldly they freeze me to the spot and lets them linger in the air, letting me taste the truth of how he feels, before he vanishes below.
Sucking in oxygen isn’t easy. I can’t even call what I’m trying to dobreathing. It’s a gasp full of pain. And for the first time since that gods-awful night that changed everything, the tears in my eyes fall.
And they don’t stop.
I fall to the deck, clutching my chest as the pain spreads, as the grief that I’ve so callously suffocated finally gets a spark and goes up in flames.
The sobs wracking my body slam into me so forcefully I don’t notice the shadow that rushes for me until the warmth of his arms is around me, until he picks me up and rocks me.
“I’ve got you, Delilah. Let it all out, Angel. Let it all out.”
The words are my undoing.
Easton’s death.
Annie’s death.
Eleanor’s death.
Ace’s death.
The life that was stolen from me.
The abuse I endured.
The secrets, the lies, the deceit.
It all pelts my heart, stabbing relentlessly. A cry of agony leaves my lips as the pain becomes unbearable.
“Please make it stop,” I beg between sobs. “Make it stop, make it stop, make it stop.”
I claw at my chest, as if I can get to my heart and rip it out.
Because as I feel everything that I’ve been trying to suppress, everything that has been taken from me—I suddenly understand Axel’s desire to not wake up.
“Please make it stop!”
* * *
“Tell me what I can do,” Knox begs.
Minutes, hours, perhaps days later, I lie motionless in Knox’s arms, my eyes dry, no doubt because I cried out everything within me.
The whole time, Knox has been asking the same question over and over.
“Please, Delilah, talk to me. How can I make it better?”
Turning to him and the soft pleading in his eyes, I say the first thing that comes to mind.
“I want him dead.”
He rears back a little, his gaze contemplative and concerned.
“We’re working on it,” he says. “We’re following the leads?—”
