Lux (The Nocte Trilogy 3)

He was by my bed,

He’s been here the whole time,

humming to me.

“Is Dare safe?” I ask her breathlessly.

“A sacrifice has been made,” she answers. “It’s been accepted. Don’t change it.”

Her voice is small because the sacrifice was Finn.

“Our story is so sad,” I tell her, because it is. The saddest thing I’ve ever heard, because it makes everything seem hopeless, as though our own actions don’t matter, because we pay for the sins of those who came before us. Olivia shakes her head knowingly.

“It’s not. The saddest thing is if everything was in vain and if history keeps repeating. Don’t let that be, girl. Save my son. Save yourself. Don’t sink into the oblivion. You’ve got to open your eyes. Open your eyes.

Open your eyes.

Open your eyes.”

I startle awake, the insistence of her voice shocking me into lucidity.

My eyes open.

The light is so bright it’s blinding.

The humming stops.

Chapter Thirty-One

The room swirls white and medicinal, filled with beeps and blank walls and cold skin. Goosebumps chase each other in confusion up my arm, and I gulp hard.

I’m in a hospital.

I’m cold.

I’m afraid.

But.

Dare is.

Dare is.

Those are the words in my head, and the words sound like Finn’s voice. And at first I think it’s an interruption in the sentence, but then I realize. It’s not Dare is… it’s a statement. Dare is.

Dare exists.

Dare is alive.

I exhale, and I think about where I am.

I wiggle my fingers and they’re heavy, and there’s pain, and I can breathe.

Slowly

Slowly

Slowly,