Total pages in book: 25
Estimated words: 23329 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 117(@200wpm)___ 93(@250wpm)___ 78(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 23329 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 117(@200wpm)___ 93(@250wpm)___ 78(@300wpm)
I tip my head back against his shoulder to peer up at him.
"Look at it, baby."
I swallow hard and reluctantly shift my gaze toward the old house. It feels…different seeing it now. Five years ago, it seemed bigger, more ominous. Now, it's just a sad relic in a dying, decaying neighborhood. The windows and doors are gone. The siding is covered in slime. It doesn't look like the same prison that used to haunt my nightmares.
And it did haunt them. The nightmares started about two weeks after Constantine rescued me. I'd wake up in tears, thinking I was back there again. He was right beside me for every single one, holding me through them, reminding me that I would never be back here again.
They lasted for months before they finally stopped. It took a lot of therapy and distance. It took a lot of healing.
I frown when I notice that we aren't alone. The Silver Spoon Falls fire department has set up shop on the opposite side of the street. They're watching us, even though they discreetly pretend they aren't.
"What's going on, Constantine?"
"They're demolishing it, starlight."
I gape up at him, shocked.
"Everything has been stripped out of it. If you want to do it, you can light the match that sets it ablaze. If anyone has that right, it's you."
"They're burning it?"
"To the fucking ground," he confirms.
I gape at him and then at the house. It'll be gone, burned away as if it never stood there at all. As if all the awful memories were just a bad dream and the men who died inside were just a figment of my imagination. I'll never have to worry again about someone else being locked up inside. Or about Victor Carmona's evil escaping.
"I want to do it," I blurt, my heart racing.
Constantine tips my chin up, his eyes shining with pride. "You're still the bravest fucking person I know, starlight." He touches his mouth to mine in a hard kiss and then waves over someone from the fire department.
I listen with half an ear as the firefighter—Chief Banger—explains what I need to do. Constantine helps me don a hard hat and flame-retardant gloves. He and the Chief walk with me in silence across the grass to the pit they dug around the house to keep the fire contained.
"Whenever you're ready," Chief Banger says.
"I'm ready." I expect him to hand me a match, but he hands me some sort of Molotov cocktail contraption instead.
When I look at him, he just winks at me. "Figured you'd like this better. It'll be our little secret."
I heft it in my hand, testing the weight of it. I eye the gaping door and take a breath before nodding at the Chief. He helps light the end of the fabric sticking out of the bottle. It ignites with a soft whoosh of sound.
I close my eyes…and let go.
The bottle shatters somewhere inside the house, spreading whatever liquid it contained. Constantine pulls me away from the door as the rest of the fire department moves in, quickly taking over.
Within minutes, smoke billows from the house as it goes up in flames.
Constantine and I watch in silence from across the street, his arms wrapped tightly around me. We don't move until it's fully engulfed. Then and only then do I take a full breath.
"Thank you." I turn to him, tears of gratitude welling in my eyes. He's given me a lot of gifts over the years, more than I can name. But this is the second time he's given me freedom, only this time, it feels complete. As if I'm not just stepping out of the prison they kept me in, but out of the past, too.
He cups my cheeks in his palms, turning my face up to his. "Never thank me for loving you, starlight. Knowing you and our kids are happy is everything I need in this world. It's what I live and breathe for."
Tears spill down my cheeks, wiped away as soon as they touch his hands. "I love you, Constantine Attias. Until the day I die."
"That's not long enough, starlight," he breathes, tipping his head down to press his lips to mine. "I want eternity."
"Then it's yours. I'm yours, in this life and every other."
He smiles against my lips. "Yeah, you are."