Page 24 of Fractured Constellations
“You will get tested, why?” she asks, her eyes narrowed as she looks at me, and then past me at Chase.
“Because I don’t want anyone else contaminating what belongs to me if I can help,” Chase replies, and damn, I’m nodding even if I know it’s a fucked up thing to think.
“I don’t belong to you,” she snaps, and my palm cups her face, turning her irritated gaze to me.
“Yes, Goldie, you do, and we will help you in any way we can. You can have our blood, our bone marrow, anything if it means you’ll get better.” I surprise myself with how much I mean my words, how the mere idea of her not being here to face off against us is so abhorrent, panic fills my stomach at it.
“I don’t understand. Why? Why have you changed?” Her brows are furrowed, her eyes searching mine for answers that I’m not sure I have.
“Our Mom died of cancer when we were fourteen,” Blade confesses from behind her, and my heart jolts. We hardly talk about that time between us, each of us carrying scars that sometimes feel like fresh wounds.
“I’m sorry,” she whispers, genuine pain in her eyes.
“And it wasn’t until she was gone that I realized I didn’t appreciate her while she was here, that I wished I could have done more to help keep her with us,” he continues, and my eyes prick with his raw honesty.
“I always put on a brave face around Mom and everyone else,” I find myself saying, the words flowing from me unbidden. “I used humor to mask the sadness, to hide the fact I cried every fucking night she was ill and for months afterwards.”
A hand lands on my shoulder, Chase squeezing in reassurance.
“Towards the end, I was at her bedside,” Chase starts, his voice thick like I’ve never heard it. “I—I broke down. It was the last time I let myself show anyone else a weakness, a vulnerability.”
I watch as Luna’s eyes fill with tears again, but they are tears for us, and they don’t feel like pity, but sadness at our experiences.
“It must have been so hard to lose her like that,” she says, her hand coming up from the blanket and cupping my cheek, like mine is hers. It stalls all the breath in my lungs. I’m not sure anyone has ever held me like this, not since Mom anyway. “But I don’t want to be just a do-over for you. I?—”
“You’re not,” I rush out, needing her to understand that it’s so much more than that. “We learnt that time is precious, andwhen you find something worth holding onto, worth fighting for, you don’t fucking let go.”
“I felt nothing since the day she passed, not really,” Chase adds, and Luna’s blue gaze looks at him over my shoulder. “Until a certain blonde firecracker stole my room and then gave me hell for the privilege.” He laughs, and a smile tugs my lips upwards. “You broke through my walls, Luna, and I want you to keep smashing them down. I need you to.”
A small smile lights up her face, and fuck me, she’s so beautiful, our little fighter.
“Told you already, Goldilocks,” Blade rumbles from behind her, taking a deep inhale of her addictive vanilla and jasmine scent. “You’re mine, ours, and I’ll fight god himself if he dares to try and take you from us. So what’s a little piece of me if it can make you better?”
A hot tear lands on my thumb, falling from those beautiful eyes that I don’t ever want to dull.
“Okay, we can go through the rest of the treatment plan tomorrow,” Chase says, and I know that this is how he cares for those important to him, by managing them and making sure everything is in place. “For now, clean up and bed.”
Luna’s stomach growls as if in protest, and I laugh. “Okay, I’ll make you some of your favorite porridge and bring it up. I’ll even let you have some of my Nutella stash because I’m that nice of a guy.”
“You’re an asshole.” She chuckles, and my smile grows.
“Maybe, but not to you, not anymore. Pinkie promise.” I hold my pinkie finger out to her, her gaze darting to it, then back to my face.
I hold my breath as she slowly lifts her hand from my face, her little finger extended, and locks it with mine.
CHAPTER TWELVE
“ETHEREAL” BY TXMY, FREYA RIDINGS
LUNA
After Thorn places a kiss on my lips and heads downstairs to make me porridge—the cheeky fucker—Blade and Chase help me out of the bed like I can’t possibly do it on my own.
“I can walk, you know? Been doing it my whole life actually,” I snap when Blade sweeps me up into his strong arms and heads towards my room.
“Don’t care,” he grunts out, and I see we’re back to his limited speech setting. Huffing, I rest my head on his pec, not willing to admit how tired I’m actually starting to feel and how nice it is to be cared for.
I guess there’s a kind of freedom in what they’re offering, aka to take control of things for me. There’s a lifting of the burden that I wasn’t even aware I was carrying. We enter my room, Chase in front of us, back in those damn sweatpants, and the guys head straight to my bathroom.
