He was giving up...
“I’m so sorry,”the deep voice murmured with his words warped and still from the other side of the wall.
My eyes widened, and I took one step toward the stairwell to the front door.
“Rune?” I whispered with a rasp.
ChapterTwo
Heavy footsteps reached me, and a hand whispered on my shoulder, drawing my eyes to Death. His hood still shadowed him, but I could make out the flecks of gold in his blue eyes. His dark hair held a few strands of silver that came with age and stress. I wasn’t sure how an angel would have gray hair and feel stressed since he was a celestial being and all. But my heart broke for him anyway. The little seven-year-old in me wanted to hug him and make things better for him so he wasn’t stressing himself to the point of turning gray.
“Answer his call,” was all he said.
“I failed you.”Rune’s words grew louder and echoed around us.
My eyes widened, and I turned back, glancing around the room for him.
No, no, no! He wasn’t allowed to feel guilty for something out of his control. He didn’t hold the piece of glass and stabbed me. It wasn’t his to take on, dammit!
Iwas the one who failed him.
He’d spent so long searching for me and finally found me, only for us to be ripped apart again. How could any of that behisfault?
I didn’t think it was a cycle—not yet, anyway—of me dying and reincarnating. But I wanted to stop it before it began and for him to never weep because of my deaths.
Tears stung my eyes as I swallowed around the lump in my throat.
I didn’t want to hear the tremor in his voice ever again. As much as I loved him and wanted him to be open with me, I never wanted him to cry again. I only wanted his smiles and the mischievous looks he gave me all the time. The pleasure clouding his face. Anger darkening his eyes.
I’d takeallof those, but the tears glistening in his eyes hurt my very soul.
“How do I heal?” I asked Estrid, or whoever spoke to me.
“Focus on your body in the plane of the living and return to it healed.”
Releasing a shaky breath, I closed my eyes and focused on my body. It was hard since my mind was going every which way and couldn’t stick to one thought.
Squeezing my eyes shut tighter, I envisioned myself alive and back with Rune. Holding onto him and burying my face in the crook of his neck, comforting him and kissing away his tears. All the sounds here in the In-Between dulled until I only heard the memory of my breathing that reminded me of how it sounded with water in my ears. The feel of my heart thundering in my chest and ears that echoed. Even the awful pinpricks of adrenaline rushing through my body. I imagined it all.
The scorching pain I went through as I died slowly came back like a memory becoming reality again. My lungs burned for air and were heavy with liquid that I was sure was my blood that drowned me. My stomach was twisted into knots, throbbing out to the rest of my body. My chest was the worst of it all. I swear it was caved in, my ribs broken, and the piece of glass that broke off inside me was wedged deep.
A muffled screech of a firework jolted me. It felt like I was on the edge of sleep, trying to wake up. When I tried to open my eyes, they wouldn’t.
Why weren’t my eyes opening? Why did I feel like I was about to die again?
“Focus and heal,”Estrid and the other voice whispered. They weren’t in sync, throwing me off.“Focus.”
The sensation of floating upward from the bottom of a deep, dark ocean took over me as I grew closer to the surface. It only made the pain I felt worse. Drawing in breaths was impossible. Nonexistent. My head spun and throbbed as I was right there at the surface but didn’t break through yet. I had to heal myself.
Through my desperation for air, I forced myself to take in a ragged, watery breath.
“Isa?”Rune’s voice broke through but still sounded so far away.
The pain.
Oh god, the pain!
A whisper of a hand brushed over my upper back, sending a rush of pinpricks of fire through my veins. There was heady power in the touch that my body soaked up like a dry sponge.
