Page 14 of Awakened Gifts

“God, no,” Kellan says, turning and gazing at something in shock.

I push past them all, not seeing any-damn-thing, until my heart flips me the bird and tries to expire. Dark hair is splayed across the ground, a small, delicate body is resting in a sleeping position, beautiful eyes are closed, and there’s no heartbeat coming from the still girl on the ground.

Slowly, I approach as my heartbeat thuds in my ears, my mind screaming for me not to get any closer, but still, my heavy feet trudge on until I reach her. Tears ravage my cheeks as the sobs rip free, and I drop to her side.

Her cheeks are still red from the tears she cried—the ones she shed because of me—and her body is limp, meaning this has been recent. She’s just sleeping, though. She’s not dead.

“Wake up, baby,” I whisper, my voice too muffled by my emotions to fully understand my words as I wrap my arms around her and pull her to be closer.

Once her head is nestled into the crook of my neck, and her body is encased by my arms, I start rocking her. My tears fall harder when she doesn’t respond, and I block out Araya as she repeats no over and over, her words becoming an almost hollow shrill.

“Please wake up,” I whisper, pretending as though her skin isn’t ice cold. She’s just sleeping. She’s not dead. She’s not gone. She’s just tired.

“Oh dear God,” a voice whispers as several stomping feet become noticeable. Vaguely, I can hear the chaos of the minds behind me, letting me know Captain Fricks just followed us with an army. He was prepared to fight someone, but he doesn’t have to. Aria is here. She just has to wake up.

“Baby, you have to wake up,” I say more urgently, the panic in my chest expanding and becoming painful as it presses down with the force of ten hybrids.

“Jase,” Mel murmurs, but she finishes her words with her mind. “She’s gone.”

“No,” I say through the emotions choking me, objecting to her mind’s words.

A roar behind me tells me Rex is losing it, but I don’t turn around as my sister wrestles with him to take the olophine. Aria isn’t gone. He’s overreacting. She’s about to wake up, and then I can explain everything. Then she and I can get married tonight. No more waiting.

No more waiting ever again. I’ll never waste a minute with her. She just has to wake up and let me prove it.

“You have to wake up,” I murmur even as her body grows colder. “We have to plan our wedding. Our eternity.”

Simone comes to stand behind me, tears covering her face as her mind says the same thing everyone else thinks. But she’s wrong. They’re all wrong.

I try to read Aria’s mind, desperate to find out why she’s not waking up, but nothing is there. I can always hear her thoughts unless she manages to block me out. She’s the only person I’ve never been able to tune out.

As my breaths grow harder, I pull her to me, kissing her soft lips and ignoring their chill. My rocking grows more consistent, and I ignore the jab at my shoulder, pretending as though my sister hasn’t just stabbed me with a uranium dipped needle and injected me with the burning medicine I don’t need.

I won’t go savage. There’s no reason. She’s going to wake up. We still have an eternity together. She’s not ready to die.

“You bastard!” Rex barks as he rips me away from the girl I love.

The first crunching punch he delivers to my face doesn’t even hurt, and I don’t shield myself from the next five punches either. I just lie there, letting him swing his fists rapidly and enduring the punishment.

“Rex! Stop!” Mel screams, diving onto him and pushing him away.

But I don’t move. My world crashes down around me as reality tears through me like a searing knife without mercy. My eternity is gone, taken by my own weakness to fight when she needed me to the most. She did this because of me.

“It looks like she poisoned herself,” Captain Fricks says, his voice almost an echo as my head spins viciously, making the nausea worse.

The sky parts for Araya’s wrath when she loses her sanity against her usual restraint. Monstrous threads of storms start spiraling out of control, and all I can think is how much I hope she takes her anger out on me and kills me first.

“Captain Fricks, can you send for a burial squad?” Simone asks in a rasp whisper. “I can’t stand seeing her like this anymore.”

“Of course,” he says gently. He hugs her to him as she stands and weeps.

I crawl up to my knees, and I lay my head on Aria’s still chest that lacks the heartbeat she needs. I can’t go on without her, so death has to find me and show me mercy.

Chapter 6

JASE

“It’s been two weeks,” Mel says as I sip on the whiskey, not turning to face her as the darkness around me tries to hide my misery.