Page 144 of Brutal Knight

Death.

I couldn't hold on any longer. The pressure in my lungs was too strong.

My instincts took over, my mouth opened without my permission to drag in much needed oxygen.

The darkness filtered in, the edges of my mind too fuzzy to remember, to stay awake, to stay alive.

I was so tired.

A flicker of a shadow, then right before the darkness...

Cold, black eyes.

A sneer of contempt.

A soft whimper.

"Are you unhappy, pajarita?”

* * *

"Tatiana."Another voice filled my mind, the one that constantly flitted through my memories like golden silk brushing across my skin. "Tati."

I blinked, not wanting to open my eyes to my reality, but something was dragging me from the darkness.

Soft lights, a cool breeze across my skin. Goosebumps prickling across my skin.

Knight's face.

I blinked again.This couldn’t be real, could it?

I didn’t know what was real anymore.

"Knight?" My throat was raw, my body shaking.

"'Thank God," he pulled me to him, his strong arms wrapped around me, pulling me up and into his warmth.

"Am I..." I leaned into him, resting my head against his chest, unable to force out the words. If this was a hallucination, I didn't want to wake up.

"You're alive," his words wrapped around me, comforting, "you're safe." His voice was filled with a desperate edge, almost as if he was trying to comfort himself and not me. The tightened band of steel of his arms around me convinced me thatthiswas real.

"I thought I was going to die," I croaked out.

Somehow he'd found me and saved me from drowning in the pool.

"Never," his arms tightened even more around me. "I'll never let that happen.'

I blinked my eyes closed, unable to accept his words. In this life, safety was never guaranteed. That's why I'd worked so hard to become strong on my own. To learn how to fight, to kill before someone killed me. I never wanted to be helpless again.

Being with Knight again was muddling my senses. Making me weak. Like when I was a kid.

I needed to stop this before I became too dependent on him again.What if he left me again?

I could never go back to being that woman. "Knight."

Soft words, mumbled into his chest, but he still released me, pulling back to look into my eyes. "Yes, baby."

My lower lip trembled and I bit into it to stop it, even though the rest of my body was still jerking uncontrollably. "You have to let me go."

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