Get away from her!
“And the honest to God truth, Eleanor? It made me fucking sick to my stomach for what I caused. Instead of going behind Sinclair’s back, I should’ve served up my warnings directly. Actually, I did tell him—after what he did to Jupiter, Neptune, and Calico—that I’d had enough. That he’d overstepped too many rules. I’d hoped we had enough mutual respect that he’d at least think about what he was doing with those goddesses’ lives. But…anyway, that’s in the past, and I cannot change what I’ve done—just like he cannot change what he’s done before you came along.”
Eleanor sighed softly as if he’d touched her.
Don’t lay one finger on her!
Don’t go near her!
The man continued, “I’m at your service, Goddess Jinx. I will help you free those girls. I will do whatever it takes to give them back their happiness, and I will do it without sending Sinclair to jail because that would mean I’d break your happiness, and that is a price I cannot afford.”
My brain bled with information.
Facts I couldn’t compute. Words that held no meaning.
Goddesses?
Goddess Jinx?
So…she was immortal, after all?
Why else was she named after a deity?
And who the fuck were Jupiter and Neptune? Were we in a different galaxy where such planets were touchable? Unlike on Earth where they were so, so far away?
I choked as the darkness thickened.
I clutched harder to the glowing string. My only light and constant.
“Come, I’ll take you to Calvin. We can begin dismantling Goddess Isles immediately.”
A pause before Eleanor murmured, “I can’t leave him.”
“Of course, you can. He’s in good hands with the three doctors in the other room. They’ll keep watch.”
“No, you don’t understand. Each time I stop touching him, he crashes.”
The man scoffed. “I’m sure you’re reading into things. The long journey will have made him weak, but he’s home now and has a stable environment. Come…the sooner we do this, the safer he will be.”
The longest pause in my sorry excuse of a life.
“Eh…” Eleanor’s fingers feathered around mine. “Sully…I’m not leaving, okay? I’ll only be half an hour or so. I’m not leaving, you hear me? Just…hold on and I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
No.
You can’t.
I was weakened from the nonsense they’d spoken.
I was riddled with confusion and exhausted from my lack of memories.
I was afraid.
Fucking terrified of what I was and what I’d done and why this man spoke of me as if I was a demon.
Don’t go!
“I love you. I’ll be back as soon as I can.” A soft kiss on my cheek. “I love you so much.”
And then…nothing.
The glowing string vanished.
Darkness plummeted.
Nightmares closed in.
Sharp teeth gnashed in the black.
No!
Eleanor.
I fell backward, free-falling with nothing to hold on to.
No anchor, no grip, nothing to stop me from vanishing.
Eleanor!
I spiralled.
I forgot everything I’d just reclaimed.
I fell in perpetuity, never hitting the bottom, tumbling and tangling.
Fading and dissolving…pain.
Pain spooning out my insides. Pain crushing my skull.
Stop
Come back.
Fuck, please come—
“Sully!”
The string reappeared, glowing silver and crimson instead of just gold.
I grasped it, bleeding and panting, weaker than I had been in a while.
I dangled from her bond.
I didn’t even have the strength to lift my head and focus on their conversation again.
All I could do was sway there like bait on fishing line just waiting to be swallowed by something far more vicious than me.
From far, far away, Eleanor said, “See? I can’t leave him. He gives up if I do. I…I’m sorry.”
I couldn’t hear the man. I no longer had ears that worked, but I felt Eleanor curling into me.
Her heat warmed my icicle-riddled soul.
Her love once again had a flavour.
When I’d fallen for her while taking her in Nirvana, love had tasted sweet and sour. It’d smelled of fresh rain and new beginnings.
Now it tasted of comfort and longing. A scent of commitment and orchids.
I love you.
I’m sorry.
I blanked out.
Chapter Twenty-Three
I HAD A DILEMMA.
I needed to free Sully’s goddesses before the police returned. I had documents to shred and emails to hack into and delete. But…how could I do a damn thing if Sully kept trying to die the minute I couldn’t touch him?
Going to the bathroom had to be done in short bursts. Eating had to be done curled up by his side. Whenever Louise and her team changed his catheter or inserted a new IV with sustenance to keep him alive, I clung extra hard to his hand, just in case he felt the discomfort. In case he confused one touch from another and slipped.
For two days, I’d tried to figure out how to protect Sully from future complications all while doing my best to keep him safe from the current one. I wished Calvin wasn’t injured, and Jess wasn’t in a coma. Why were the only people I knew all in different stages of maladies and utterly useless in a mass freeing exercise?