Page 17 of Luna's Forgotten Vow

"Mom?" I call out, feet shuffling around the porch as I search for the damned switch, only to find it already flipped.

Great. The electricity is out, too.

My throat clogs as an emotion that feels too much like fatigue overwhelms me, but I shake it off. No. I can't afford to be tired. Can't afford to hate all of this or my life. Not one damn moment of reprieve?—

Sudden movement in the back room Mother prefers makes my ears perk and I start towards there. "I'll just light the candles. I got the tablets and?—"

The wind carries a sharp foreign scent towards me. It stinks of stale breath and copper. Lots of it. It settles in the back of my throat and my heart stops when I realize what it is.

Blood.

The parcel falls from my hands as I break into a run, my hurting calves screaming at me to stop. "Mom!" I cry, bursting into the room.

The splintered door knocks into my shoulder and I barely register the ache as I fall to my knees. She's lying face down, her black hair scattered around her. A wrecked sob spills from my lips. Liquid trails from the strands—too dark to be anything but blood.

I grab her shoulders, twisting her, and her eyes...they're vacant and there's so much blood on the side of her face and she isn't breathing and... I can't... can't breathe either.

Something rustles behind me and my head snaps back. The sharp glint of a knife is all I see in the moonlight before my instincts kick in and I stumble back, barely missing being stabbed. Hungry golden eyes flash in the dark. "Money? You got any?"

My eyes dart from the man to my mother's unmoving form, to her vacant eyes that stare listlessly at the caving ceiling. Tears blur my vision making it harder to see a thing, and a snarl rumbles through the room. A drunk slur. "The bitch wouldn't stop rambling. Pushed her." A distressed sound. "Give me anything you've got and I won't harm you."

He kicks at my old bag in the corner, uncaring. "Empty it out."

I don't move, can't move. I should have been home earlier. Had I been, she wouldn't...she wouldn't be...oh gods. I lunge for her, and at the sudden movement, the male moves, his boots kicking into my side.

The scene distorts slightly, and for a moment, I'm somewhere else...on a road, and someone's smile flashes in my face before a fist rams into my stomach.

But I'm suddenly hurled back in my mother's bedroom, screaming as hands I can't see grapple for me. My feet kick, my fists fly. I am hurled into the wall, a hot stinking breath so close to my face. The rogue snarls again and I gag as his hands grope for my flesh, searching for the pockets in my pants and jacket.

Mine grapple for purchase and close around what feels like a pen dangling out of his pocket and I stab blindly, the sharp end breaking the flesh of his neck and there's so much blood running down my hands, I can't tell if it's his, or mother's?—

Another distortion and I'm back on that damn road.

"Persistent little thing, isn't she?"

Every bone in my body wails in pain and I'm suddenly falling, black and white staining my vision as faces haze, trees blur?—

My head slams against something hard and the crack I hear comes from somewhere inside. And for a moment, there is only silence. The world bleeds in and out, and a figure that hazes around the edges stands in front of me protectively. I see a halo of silky blonde hair. I see warm brown eyes filled with panic and concern. And so much love, my heart aches. I try to reach up to tell him I'm okay, that our child will be fine, but his eyesswiftly change from those beautiful depths to an ominous red. And when I blink he's no longer standing, but kneeling before me, canines elongated. "You shouldn't have run, Fina." His voice is layered, distorted. And then, he pounces and tears into my throat?—

I scream, jolting upright from the bed. Darkness bleeds into the atmosphere, so thick, the moonlight pouring through the window does nothing to aid my vision.

My surroundings bleed in and out of focus and I don't realize I am running, or that I have moved at all until I'm across the room, jamming my fists into the door, a small sob ripping from my throat. "Please," I croak.

The door opens only a heartbeat later. Soren's face comes to view and his sleepy gaze disappears as he tracks the tears that roll down my cheeks, my fast, panicked breaths and the sweat that sticks against my skin.

"T-the..." My lungs ice over. My shoulders shake. "The l-lights...h-he...I c-can't..."

Warm hands grab my cheeks, forcing my head up. Hypnotic, black-green eyes latch onto mine, devouring the darkness of the room behind me. "Breathe."

His voice is nothing soft. It is hard, domineering, like he expects that because he speaks, everything must bend to his will. But it is an order I can't obey. I don't even remember how to breathe. My body trembles, limbs locking in place. My teeth grit as I push back against his hold, despising how vulnerable I feel. "D-don't order me around." It's a garbled slur, but he seems to understand me because his warm, minty breath warms my lips as he huffs an amused breath.

"You're shaking worse than a trapped mouse and you're more worried about being ordered around?"

I glare at him, or try to, but I can barely make out his features through my doubled sight. Shit, if I don't get air down soon, I'll pass out.

"Breathe." The layered command cuts through the haze, slicing through the darkness curling around my mind.

I suck in a breath—ragged, shallow. Then another. And another. Until, finally, the tight band around my chest loosens.

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