The Camp (Chateau 2)

I wouldn’t lie. It would just hurt more. “Melanie, I’m sorry… He’s probably not gonna make it.”

The pain on her face was indescribable. Her whole world crashed down around her, the horror and heartbreak conveyed in the expressions she made. Her hand moved over her mouth, and she stifled a sob she couldn’t control.

I’d already shed all my tears at the camp. I didn’t have anything left.

Raven turned her sister into her chest and let her cry against her, holding her the way a mother held her daughter. She cupped the back of her head and rubbed her back, letting her fall apart.

I wanted to be with my woman, to feel her comfort me because I’d already lost a part of my soul, but I knew she was pulled into two different directions and she had to choose.

She made the same choice I would’ve made.

I turned away and gave them their space. I went back to the chair, sat down, and stared at the floor once again.

They stood together for fifteen minutes, Melanie cycling through sobs and hysteria before she turned quiet. But then the whole thing would start all over again. She eventually excused herself and went to the restroom to clean up.

Raven came to me.

I was on my feet so fast and moving into her like we were two magnets that were unable to oppose the forces that attracted our souls. My arms held her body, and I brought our faces in close together, reunited with the woman I’d worked so hard to come back to. I was covered in bruises and scars, but nothing that would change my life.

“Are you okay?” Now it was her turn to shed tears, to release happy tears that I had returned to her. It easily could’ve been the other way around, with me on the operating room table dead, but Fender had made sure that didn’t happen.

“Yes.”

She examined the cut on my head where I’d been hit with the cane and saw the bruising emerge from underneath my shirt. She looked me over, visibly in pain at my discomfort but still happy that I was there and whole. “I don’t know what I would’ve done if you didn’t come back to me.”

“But I did come back.”

Raven’s eyes watered as her hands moved to rest on my neck.

“Napoleon was gonna kill me. Fender saved me. That’s why he’s in there…and I’m not.”

Her eyes watered. “I’m so sorry…”

She understood exactly how that would make me feel. Instead of wanting my happiness at being safe, she focused on the guilt and the pain that I must be feeling, knowing the cost of my life was his. It was another reason I loved her so deeply, that she understood my feelings so easily without my having to explain them. “Yeah…”

“There’s still hope, Magnus.”

I shook my head. “He’s lost too much blood. There’s too much damage. I’m surprised he made it until the chopper got there.”

“Then don’t be surprised if he makes it out of surgery, too. That man has a lot to live for, and I know he will fight his hardest to live for you.” She cupped my cheeks and watched my eyes water like hers without any judgment. “Don’t give up on him.”

“It’s just easier to assume the worst because if I get my hopes up…” I shook my head. “I know he’s done bad things, but he’s a good man. He’s always taken care of me, ever since we were kids. He told me he would sacrifice his life for mine all over again. Doesn’t matter how much we fight, how much we disagree, his love has always been unconditional. I have no idea how I’m going to go on without him.” That was something she could understand because she’d refused to leave Melanie in that camp. Raven never took the easy way out because she was always committed to being at her sister’s side. Raven and I were two sides of the same coin, two people of the same soul.

“Fender is the kind of man you should never underestimate. Let’s not underestimate him now.”

Melanie wasn’t able to sit the entire time. She would pace in the waiting room, take a walk through the hospital, just kept moving because sitting still was too difficult.

Raven sat beside me and held my hand. “It’s been six hours. That’s a good sign.”

I turned to look at her.

“That means he’s still alive. If he’s lasted this long…”

Maybe there was hope.

“What happened to the girls?”

There was another couple in the waiting room, but they sat on the opposite side, and the woman had fallen asleep on her husband’s shoulder. “They were released from the cabins. I told the men to walk them down the trail to the end of the road. Trucks will pick them up and bring them back to the city. They’ll get some money and some clothes. Then they can do whatever they want…”