“Right.” I said slowly, trying not to smile at the idea of how weirdly cute I thought she would look with Darius, especially on account of how she talked a lot and he didn’t speak often. It seemed like an adorable opposites attract thing.
“Don’t tell Henley though.” She smirked, and I promised not to share.
“Listen, I meant to talk to you before. But now is better than anything else.” I pointed to the tattoo on her arm as I promised not to share her secrets. “I’m glad you’re with us. I’m happy you are part of my family and I know I haven’t exactly been… well, been around or been useful. But I want to make sureyou know that I am here for you, for anything you need. I always will be.”
“I’m happy to be here, too.” She squeezed my arm. “I’m also here for you, Sapphire. You can talk to me if you need to. Even if I am a dumb kid who doesn’t know anything other than how to hold a tune. And like, I might not have been taken for as long as you were, but I know how it feels to be helpless and a prisoner. I know how it makes your head feel when the world around you can’t be trusted and you have no idea how you’re even breathing.” She swallowed hard, blurting out her confession as fast as she could. “Even before I was kept in that place, dad used to beat the fuck out of me. For anything – for eating, for breathing, for just existing. So trust me, I know how it feels to be powerless and I know it fucking sucks. But I also know that eventually it ends, and eventually you get out of it. And I know you’re feeling funky right now, but you got out – you’re home again. And things will always find a way to work out.”
It was oddly strange how the tables had turned on us. When we’d first met, Delilah had been terrified and needed saving – she had required comforting words and promises from me to make her feel a little better until she could sort herself out and return to the bubbly girl she had once been. Now she was doing the same for me.
She was offering me comfort and trying to help me feel like myself again…
“Lilah.”
She glanced at me. “Yeah?”
“You’re not powerless anymore. You’re a Montana and we are the ones with the power – we’re the ones that other people should be scared of. And I also appreciate everything. The things you say, or do, or whatever. You are a brilliant girl, and I am honored to claim you as family now.”
I had offered her my surname for a reason. Not just out of the desire to claim more family or give her the fresh start she so desperately craved.
She scoffed a laugh, eyes burning bright. “Damn fucking right – you ought to remember that too. I know I will when I meet my dad again and show him how it feels to be the victim for a change. You’re gonna do the same to the twisted fuck who had you — we are both going to win. I can foresee it right now. So you just need to remember who you are and exactly what you can do.”
She was right.
It was time I remembered who I was.
What I was capable of.
It was time I won the game I’d long been unwillingly playing.
Chapter Twenty Four
Blood dripped through my fingertips, staining the floor as each droplet of scarlet tainted the fire-licked room around me. It didn’t seem to matter how much I fought, or tried to run, the flames and death choking the air followed without remorse.
Every ounce of my body hurt – agony had been searing along my flesh, getting worse with each passing moment. And I screamed. I screamed and didn’t stop – couldn’t stop.
There was no stopping this.
I was trapped.
The walls were closing in, the fire burning brighter. My hair was the first to go, my skin following suit. Each touch of the red-hot flames seared me down to my soul and…
I woke up screaming with a start, feeling the presence of someone in my space despite knowing I went to sleep alone thelast time I’d been awake. Logan had been with me, but he had been required to help Lincoln with something with the car and had vanished far too early for me to want to get up with him, too. I’d told him I was fine to sleep for a bit by myself. But clearly it had been a lie.
I wasn’t okay.
I couldn’t fuckingbreathe.
“Hey, pretty girl.” Logan was right there though, hands on my shoulders, lips moving with soft words as he grabbed me tight. “It’s okay, Saph. You’re safe now. You’re not trapped anymore.”
I hadn’t even heard him come back into my room, let alone get into my bed and hear me screaming long enough to understand what I had been seeing. But missing my naptime visitor wasn’t as important as learning how to breathe again, so I let it go for a while, as he continued to hold me, stroking his hand down my back and promising I wasn’t stuck in a nightmare anymore.
I was home.
I wasn’t dead.
Eventually, I calmed down enough that I could pull back, looking at his concerned face instead of staring at a spot on the floor, hoping it would swallow me whole.
“I’m sorry,mi sol. I don’t mean-”
