Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 140780 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 704(@200wpm)___ 563(@250wpm)___ 469(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 140780 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 704(@200wpm)___ 563(@250wpm)___ 469(@300wpm)
Her lungs didn’t even expand.
Wet bubbles appeared, hinting her lungs held water instead of air.
“Fuck!” Pure terror gave me strength to get to my feet and haul her into my arms. I needed her head below her chest. I needed gravity.
Spinning in place, I spotted a fallen tree in the dark—the trunk horizontal and covered in moss. Carrying her to it, I draped her limp body face-down over the trunk, ensuring her torso hung over the other side, her arms dangling, and hair dripping onto the bushes.
Raising my hand, I hesitated for a heartbeat.
I didn’t want to hurt her but...I couldn’t let her die.
Taking a deep breath, I slammed my palm between her shoulder blades.
She jerked but remained lifeless.
I did it again, shifting her further over the trunk until her forehead almost skimmed the ground.
“Come on,” I growled, hitting her again. Harder this time. With my fist instead of my palm.
She moaned. A thin stream of water dribbled out.
Not enough.
Not nearly enough.
“That’s it. Come on.”
That strange bond in my heart caught fire, filling me with urgency as her soul flickered against mine, wanting to stay but fading, fading—
“You can hate me for this when you wake.” I hit her. Hard.
She jackknifed over the tree. A torrent of bloody water burst free.
I waited to see if she would keep retching.
But she went still instead.
That awful sensation of her leaving me wrapped viciously around my throat.
Still not enough. Not all of it.
“Again.”
I struck her. I whacked her hard enough to break a rib or two, forcing every last dreg to expel in a gush.
“Breathe. Breathe and—”
She gagged as her body jerked in a seizure.
“Shit.” Snatching her off the trunk, I placed her on the ground and tipped her chin up. Sucking in a huge breath, I sealed my mouth over hers and forced as much air as I could into her.
This time, her chest rose before collapsing.
“Wake the fuck up, Rook.” I breathed into her again.
I pinched her nose and kissed her hard, forcing all the oxygen I could deep, deep into her cells.
She spasmed and moaned but I kept breathing for her. Drowning her in air. Fighting with the grim reaper because no way in hell was I giving her to him.
She convulsed.
Pushing her onto her side, I patted her back as another trickle of water came up. But then blood followed. She coughed—a thick river of blackened crimson that torrented over her lips and stained the leaf-littered ground.
Ice flashed in her spilled blood, killing everything.
A tearing sensation ripped through my chest.
I doubled over with it—my heart threatening to burst with despair.
She choked on more blood, the black thickness becoming frothy instead. Pink bubbles painted her lips before rolling down her cheeks. She moaned and flopped onto her back.
My eyes caught on her legs. On the way they stayed crossed and...unnatural.
No...
My stomach hollowed out.
My gaze dragged upward, slow and unwilling, cataloguing the damage I’d refused to see. Her back was kinked, the line of her spine no longer straight but...broken. Deep abrasions sliced into her from where the whirlpool had chewed her up and spat her out. One side of her torso was punctured—ragged and dark, bubbling with blood each time she tried to suck in a painful breath.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” My hands hovered, terrified to touch her in case I made it worse. And I’d thrown her over a goddamn tree! I’d hit her. I’d made things a thousand times worse. Even if I had the best doctor in the world—even if they operated immediately—they wouldn’t be able to save her.
An animalistic sound tore free.
I’d failed her. Left her to suffer and—
Her chest hitched as she choked for breath. Her lungs made a wet, rattling sound as more pink foam appeared on her lips. Every part of her quaked as she entered the death throes...everything twitched apart from her useless legs.
My throat closed as I fought the urge to cry.
I hadn’t cried since I was thirteen, yet now...even sobbing wouldn’t relieve the catastrophic helplessness I felt at watching the girl I’d fallen irreversibly in love with...die.
My cracked hands balled.
No.
I wouldn’t accept this.
I would never accept a world where she didn’t exist.
Grabbing the nearest rock, I dragged it fatally deep along the underside of my charred forearm. I snagged on the stitches that’d stopped me bleeding in the bed and breakfast. I tore open everything. I would happily die here...trading my life for hers.
Blood poured free—thick and luminous, gleaming scarlet-gold as it splashed hot and fast to the ground. Little flames appeared where it landed, igniting the decaying leaves. They shrivelled into ash a moment later, killed by whatever lurked in my veins.
Rolling her over, ignoring how her legs refused to cooperate, I pressed my arm against the hole in her side—the hole popping and wheezing with every fading breath.
She cried out as my blood mingled with hers, dripping inside her—going straight to the source of her death.