A Hellion Heart (Ceasefire Book 4) by Claire Marta

Author:Claire Marta [Marta, Claire]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-05-27T16:00:00+00:00

15

Cade

My leg throbs with the venomous toxin; the agony only builds. There’s a fire burning under my skin. I’m aware of it every time I stir toward consciousness before the darkness coils around me pulling me back under. Voices fade in and out, but nothing they say makes sense. Calaban’s poison works its way through my system stealing my strength. Shooting pains stab chaotically through my aching muscles. Licking my dry lips, I try to swallow, feeling the thickness of my saliva.

A gentle hand cradles my head. Something drips into my mouth. I recoil at the coldness of the water. Words are spoken, soft and insisted, telling me to do my best to drink. The rim of a cup meets my lips, pouring a few more drips of the liquid down my gullet.

It does little to soothe the inferno blazing away within me. There’s no strength to my voice to speak. Chest rising with the shallow breaths leaving my lungs, my head pounds, thoughts confused and unstable, drifting into unconsciousness.

When I rouse again, I sense a looming presence hovering over me. Eyelids too heavy to open, I flinch at the cold caress of a ghostly hand. Death, waiting to carry my soul to wherever it deems fit to send it. Numbness shrouds me stealing away emotions, the feeling of floating lifting me up. The stories of my ancestors play through my head. Valhalla, the afterlife. Perhaps it’s a Valkyrie here to take me to the hall of the heroes. To feast and tell stories of my life.

That’s when I hear it.

Singing.

Quietly at first, more of a low humming, it fills my ears. Melody growing louder, it morphs into a wordless song. The voice comes in sorrowful waves, graceful and haunting. It speaks of rolling hills, blue skies, forest glades, and a wild freedom my soul craves. Curling itself around me, it draws me back from the other place out of the waiting icy hands trying to pluck me from my body and into a dreamless sleep.

Awareness filters in. The firmness of a mattress beneath me. My skin cooler and sticky with sweat, no longer caught up in the fever that had consumed me. Eye’s cracking open, I take in the sparse room. Rays of sunlight spill in through a window, showing off the beauty of the multi-colored tiled walls. It’s the woman beside me who steals my breath away.

Jinx.

She sits in a wooden chair beside the bed, her long blonde hair caught up in a messy ponytail at the nape of her neck. Yellow eyes unfocused with inner thoughts, her teeth chewing furiously on her bottom lip with whatever has her so distracted. I note the old faded Metallica t-shirt she’s wearing, her long legs sheathed in a tight fitting pair of dark blue stone washed jeans. She looks positively angelic in the warm golden light. The way it plays over her skin, reminding me of summer.

I love her.

It ignited so fast, took almost dying and trekking halfway across a frozen wilderness to realize the truth of what I’m feeling.

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