Page 57 of Kiss the Dawn
“Little Silver. Back so soon?”Ezekiel said. “Good news, I hope.”
He was here. Waiting. And that filled my heart withlight. I crossed the room and wrapped my arms around his waist.
He chuckled, hugging me back. “Good to know that I was missed.”
It had only been three days, and yet it felt like forever, and God, I’d missed him, and I was so fucking grateful I’d survived to see him again.
For a moment I was back on that table, strapped and helpless, with the acute sense that I was about to die. That I’d never see him or anyone that I loved again.
He tensed. “What is this?” He pushed me away and strode to the balcony, where an image had formed of three faces. The witches, and then my voice…
“I have people I love waiting for me. I have a life. Please, don’t take it away from me.”
“I’m sorry. I truly am,” a male voice replied.
Oh shit. I was doing this. My mind. My memory. It had encroached on our vista, and I had no idea how to get rid of it.
I shook my head and squeezed my eyes closed, willing it to dissipate.
“Fucking let me go, you bastards!”the Orina in my memory said.
I rushed over to the balcony. “Stop it. Go away.”
But the memory persisted, bright and sharp, here in a place I couldn’t escape it. Zarin materialized holding up the syringe filled with poison.
“What is that?”memory me asked.
“Yes, what is it?” Ezekiel echoed through clenched teeth.
“I call it rest in peace. You’ll fall asleep and not wake up. I would have given it to you while you were unconscious, but it wasn’t quite ready.”
A sob swelled in my throat, and I grabbed at Ezekiel’s arm. “Ezekiel, don’t look. It’s over. I’m fine.”
He continued to watch, chest heaving as Zarin brought the needle closer. I turned away, my chest to his torso, head down because I didn’t want to see this, I didn’t want to relive it.
Dream me’s pleas rose above the thunder of blood in my head.
“Please don’t do this…”
“Stop! Don’t!”
“Please, don’t…”
Then silence.
“Look at me,” Ezekiel demanded.
I raised my head and looked at him through my tears.
His golden eyes were fractured with rivers of crimson, his face a terrifying mask of wrath.
“They tried to kill you.”
“Lorenzo saved me. I’m okay. I’m home and?—”
He misted into nothing, leaving me standing in our vista alone.
“Ezekiel?” I ran back into the main room. “Ezekiel?”
