Page 52 of Wreck and Ruin

“He came for you,” I say in awe. Ezekiel turns to me, his eyes brimming with tears of joy, I think.

“No, Little Siren. He came for you.”

Chapter26

EZEKIEL

Strong wind pushes and pulls at my tired, bleeding body, and I hold my girl a little tighter in my arms as I walk along the wharf to where Titan stands, searching the bodies for signs of familiarity. If I had known what all of this was for, how much this actually meant to him, then perhaps things would have played out a little differently than they did.

Women and children are now draped in blankets as Titan’s medics, all dressed in mafia black, tend to their wounds.

My own wounds throb incessantly, radiating ripples of pain throughout my body with each step that I take.

I push it down.

I wasn’t the one almost drained of blood.

Airlie’s eyes widen as she takes in the scene before us. “Who are all these people?” she whispers, staring upwards from my arms, wonder swimming in her captivating, blue-green eyes.

Bewitching and hypnotizing.

She has the kind of eyes a man like me could get lost in, and you know what? I just might. There are dark circles surrounding them from exhaustion, pain, and blood loss, but I’ve never seen anyone or anything more spectacular than she is. Tiny purple veins, like little lines on a map, are sketched across her nearly translucent skin, hidden beneath the deep vermillion red blood belonging to her abuser.

Despite killing the priest, Airlie isn't tainted by death like I am.

Her heart remains pure and kind, and nothing, not murder or decay, could change that about her.

I wish I could say the same.

The truth is, my soul was damned a long time ago. Blackened by death and iniquity before I ever knew what it meant to sin. I only wish that I was half as innocent as she is in all this.

It was Airlie’s unrelenting kindness that first drew me to her. Not to break her and certainly not to hurt her. But to keep her.

My guiding light. The sunshine to the dark, ominous storm that is my tortured, troubled mind.

And there is nowhere else I’d rather be than in that sacred place,oursacred place, tangled in the shadows together.

That's where we come alive.

Somewhere between night and day. Like a fire igniting across the sea, warring with the waves. Two halves, opposite to one other, yet somehow together, are beautiful.

That's how it feels to be with my siren.

This woman is stronger than anyone I’ve ever met, including myself. She saved my life twice now, and about an hour ago, she was nailed to a fucking cross by her palms and feet. I remind myself that she is safe, and that piece of shit priest and those other fucking assholes can’t hurt her anymore.

I gaze down at her, glancing back at me like I hung the moon in her darkest sky. Thousands of questions glint in her eyes, and I vow to answer every last one of them until the day that I die.

“They are being rescued, the people. They, too, were prisoners here. They were locked away in the Cathedral. The others, the ones you see wearing black, they work with me. And that man over there,” I nod toward the tall figure standing off to the side as we slowly approach where he stands, still searching for someone in the crowd.

I know who that someone is.

“That man is Titan King,” I whisper, her eyes widening, her mouth parting slightly as she turns her head and studies him, my boss, her biological father, for the first time.

Titan turns, scouring the multitude of faces until they land where I stand. I hold Airlie tightly, waiting for his green, weary eyes to meet mine. They widen, realizing that the man, covered head-to-toe in blood, is me, then redirects his attention to the woman I’m holding in my arms, my siren.

I watch as all the breath leaves him, the most ruthless, cut-throat man I know, and he falls to his knees at our feet, staring up at Airlie in disbelief.

“Char-Charlotta?”he chokes, his voice as broken as he looks.

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