Page 59 of Delirium

Part of me expected her to bolt, to run to her cabin and lock the door behind her, after staring at me with nothing but fear in her eyes.

Instead, she sat up in my arms, looking at me like I held the answers to thousands of questions swirling inside her brain. “Do you mean that?”

I propped myself up on my elbows, smiling. “I don’t usually say things I don’t mean, darling. Besides, removing all the logic I know your brain is fighting with, it makes sense, doesn’t it? It just feels right. I wish I had something more scientific to argue with, but all I have is my heart, and my gut feeling. And my gut feeling is that I love you.”

Scarlett blinked. In the moonlight, she was striking, half in shadow, half bathed in an ethereal glow. I realized what her soul must really look like. Half shrouded in mystery, secrets she refused to even acknowledge herself, half shining so brightly it hurt to look directly at.

“I think I love you, too,” she whispered, and as she spoke those words, filled with a reverence, even the frogs drew their chorus to a close. “Is that crazy?”

“No.” I shook my head, refusing to let even a sliver of doubt surface. Doubt was the downfall of too much, too many good things. I wouldn’t let it take this from me, too. “I think it’s just two souls who recognize each other from a past life.”

“Except… what if I’m with Camp, too?” Her voice wobbled, unsure.

I only smiled, knowing her being with Camp had never bothered me, and pointed up toward the sky, where the stars seemingly hung just for us. “I think we’ve loved each other far longer than these stars have been in the sky, don’t you?”

Her gaze followed my hand, staring up at the endless abyss in front of us, an entire lifetime of possibilities and potential. “I think so.”

We fell into silence, her nestled against me, the stars above us, and the river below. Today was done, yesterday was long gone, and tomorrow was a different day. But for right now, in this quiet moment, lost in the gaps of life, I found peace against Scarlett’s skin.

For right now, it was enough.

Part Three

Full Dark

Chapter

Twenty-One

JAMES

I’d heard people describe the dark as oppressive. Thick. Heavy. I’d read it in books, seen it happen in horror movies and thrillers.

But it wasn’t until I opened my eyes in the middle of the night, that I realized quite how crushing darkness could truly be. No curtain covered my small window, and when I’d come to my cabin, the stars in the sky had offered me more than enough light to see, so at some point since I’d been asleep, the clouds Nash had warned us about had crept in.

Fuck, it was sweltering in here. I kicked off the thin sheet I lay beneath, tossing my shirt to the side, and still the heat clung to my skin like syrup. I couldn’t wait to get back to my apartment with air conditioning at the touch of a button.

I stared up at what I assumed to be the ceiling, waiting for my eyes to adjust. Tiny purple stars danced in my vision. I blinked several times willing them to disappear. They wouldn’t leave, not even as my eyes finally began to tell the difference between darkness and shadow. Barely, but it was enough.

A few more days. I only had to endure a few more days of this, and then I’d be back to my normal life, this entire situation far in the past. I had no idea what I was going to do about Clancy, or my missing funds, but that was a problem for a different day. I wasn’t about to go back to that city, not even if you paid me a million dollars. Clancy was on his own. Hopefully one day, he’d come to his senses, show up at my door, apologetic and no worse for the wear, with a nice fat check in hand.

A man could dream, right?

My cabin door creaked and groaned, but not with the weight of the shifting boat. Someone was opening my door. I sat upright, frozen, barely able to distinguish between the opening door and the wall, giving me a weird sense of perspective. A shape shifted in the shadows, emerging from the hallway. My heart picked up speed.

It looked like a bear. A bear with angry, glowing eyes, eight feet tall at least, hobbling toward me with a grumble growing deep in its chest.

There were no bears in the rainforest though, were there? I was still dreaming. I had to be. Even if there were bears in the rainforest, how the hell would it have gotten on the boat? Yet, the logic did little for my pulsing heart, and the blood rushing to my head.

How did one fight a bear? How did one fight a bear on a boat in the middle of the rainforest? I was losing it. I had to be. But I wasn’t about to go down without a fight.

Then the bear spoke. “Are yougrowlingat me?”

I blinked. It wasn’t a bear. It was Scarlett, standing in front of me in the dark. “Um. My apologies. I thought you were someone else.”A bear, in fact. I thought you were a bear.

“Someone other than the four of us on this boat at the moment?” I could hear the laugh she was trying her best to hold back.

“Yeah, well. I’m a little tired.” I tried to rub my eyes, an attempt to see her clearer, but she still remained a blur in the dark in front of me. “What are you doing here?”

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