Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 78026 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 390(@200wpm)___ 312(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78026 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 390(@200wpm)___ 312(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
“Alicia can’t be gone. Not today.” Her voice is brittle, haunted even. “She can’t, Jonathan.”
I wrap my arm around her back and she bunches my jacket in a lethal grip, her body shaking, breaths trembling.
It comes back to me then.
Aurora received the news of Alicia’s death the day she reported her father’s crimes. No idea why I haven’t thought about that fact before.
All her tragedies happened in one day. One blow after the other. She was only sixteen and didn’t know what life was before it was snatched away from her.
No wonder she needed a rebirth.
Now that a part of her nightmares is back, she’s been shoved back eleven years in the past.
I carry her in my arms and she snuggles into my hold, her body still shaking. Despite being considerably tall, she’s light as a feather.
The way her curves mould into me feels natural and effortless. Like it was always meant to be.
A whimper tears out of her as she nuzzles her nose into my jacket. “Alicia…”
“She’s not here, but I am. I’ll always be here, wild one.”
22
Aurora
“I’ll always be here.”
Those words trickle in and out of my consciousness. Like a shadow you can see, but you can’t touch.
By the time I open my eyes, I don’t know whether what I’m seeing is real or a mere play of my screwed up imagination.
The first thing I notice is that I’m not in my flat lying on the floor, reliving my gruesome memories.
My room in Jonathan’s house comes into view with its huge space and elegant ceiling. When did I get in here?
“You need to eat.”
I startle into a sitting position and that’s when I notice Jonathan seated on a chair opposite my bed.
He’s in a pair of dark blue suit trousers and a white shirt with the sleeves rolled to his elbows. The top buttons of his shirt are undone, revealing the taut lines of his collarbone and hinting at his chest muscles.
That’s the most skin I’ve ever seen from Jonathan, aside from his veiny arms. It’s like he lives in a suit — or was born in one.
Not that he had to get nude before, all he needs is that firm hand to make me fall all over the place.
He’s been focused on his phone, but now, he slides it in his pocket and lifts a bowl of soup from a tray on the bedside table.
“You brought me here?”
“Why ask a question you already know the answer to?”
Did he listen to Alicia’s voice message? Worse, did he see me at my lowest on the floor?
“How…how did you get access to my flat?”
“I have my ways.” He offers me the bowl. “Now, eat. You haven’t had anything since this morning and it’s nine in the evening.”
How the hell does he know that? I don’t bother asking, because he’ll just say he has his ways again or bluntly ignore me.
My nose scrunches at the scent of food. “I’m not hungry.”
If anything, nausea is about to hit me for no apparent reason.
“Is this part of your rebirth? Skipping meals?”
“So what if it is?”
“You cannot escape Maxim by stopping everything you used to do when you were with him. You do realise you’re only fooling yourself, right?”
My nails sink into the duvet as black rage bubbles in my stomach. “You know nothing about me to say that, okay? Nothing! And I told you not to say his name.”
“There, clear evidence that your rebirth never took off. If you’re a mess after a meeting with his solicitor, how do you intend on facing him when he resurfaces? Because he will resurface, Aurora. If it’s not with parole, then it’ll be with something else. People like Maxim don’t like to be pushed to the shadows. He’ll steal the limelight and he’ll come after you. So instead of running away from the ghost of his name, get your shit together. Flight mode never works, so you might want to start trying the fight mode.”
My lips part as the weight of his words strikes a deep, dark corner in my chest. It’s almost like he was with me during the years I looked over my shoulder, expecting the ghost of my past to catch up to me.
In fact, I still do. It’s a curse without a solution.
Some of my nightmares are about vacant eyes, but most of them are about me pedalling down that road and I always, always get pulled back into the forest’s clutches by a dark hand.
“Now, are you going to eat or would you rather I make you?”
I snatch the bowl from between his fingers and don’t bother with a spoon. I drink it all in one go as if I’m chugging down alcohol.
Once I’m finished, I slam the empty bowl on the bedside table and wipe my mouth with the back of my hand. “There. Done, your majesty. Leave me alone.”