Page 217 of Chandelier Enthralled
I screamed his name into the storm, struggling to escape my brother’s ironclad grasp, praying with all my being…
“Please, Willa, they’ll do everything they can,” Cameron said, refusing to let go of me, his own shallow breaths proving he was frantic for his friend.
I saw a blur of movement in the distance.
Greyson emerged from the water and wiped his wet hair out of his face. His white shirt clung to his chest, his soaked pants hanging heavy.
He moved forward effortlessly, his presence commanding. The water beaded on his skin, glistening in the moonlight, and with every movement, he exuded a quiet confidence. The vision of him was magnetic.
Greyson was an embodiment of undeniable heroism.
The others ran towards him, entering the water, and he let them know with a wave he was okay, despite everything he’d been through.
He swapped words of comfort with them and then moved swiftly towards me.
Cameron let me go, let me run to meet Greyson, the space between us feeling too wide, too impossibly vast, until I crashed against his chest and fell into his arms, burying my face against him, hoping my body heat would radiate into him.
Holding him in my arms once more, the universe seemed to shift, as if the very fabric of reality had settled into place. Greyson was the gentlest truth amidst the chaos of life. In his presence, I was reminded of all that was pure and beautiful in the world again.
“She’s gone,” he said, reassuring me.
And Jewel had taken his secret with her. No one would ever be able to threaten him like that again.
“Are you okay?” He was more concerned for me.
I nodded, smiling up at him.
“We have to get you dry,” he said.
Someone else was saying that about him, too. About all of us.
Stepping back from him was going to be the hardest thing I ever did.
Without Greyson, life would have lost its magic, but with him, enveloped in his comforting arms, I knew this was how true love felt—honest and devastatingly real.
Greyson had risked his life for our cause.
“I love you,” I whispered, scared to admit it out loud in case nature snatched him away again.
“I wasn’t going to let you go, Willa. Not after finally finding you. Fighting for you is the easiest thing I’ve ever done.”
Finally, Greyson pulled away. “We need to get her inside,” he told the others.
“Which way?” asked Atticus, looking toward the mouth of the cave and then back toward the boat.
“I booked us a room,” said Shay. “You know I think of everything, right?”
A smile finally broke across Cameron’s face. “Always the perfect plan.”
We had risked it all—because things were worth fighting for, even when the cost felt terribly high, even when losing everything was possible.
Yet despite all of that, we had witnessed what we were capable of when it came to protecting each other.
Side by side, we moved toward the cave’s entrance and then retreated into the passageway of the secret tunnel, leaving the chill and crashing waves behind us.
In the stillness, we all walked briskly toward a new beginning, leaving nature behind us to devour the past.
Ifound a beautiful gown covered in silver sequins waiting for me in Greyson’s bedroom.
