“We’re on our way now,” she said before hanging up. I let my phone fall into the snow.
The wind moved gently through the wreckage, far nicer to the forest than I had just been. The cold bit at my skin, but I welcomed feeling anything right now, anything to distract me from what was being said in my own head. My rage still simmered under the surface, but it was as tired as I was now from beating up the trees and myself. I just felt so numb, so empty.
I had lost her.
I couldn’t escape that, couldn’t outrun that fact. My brain kept going back to it, no matter how hard I tried to avoid it, just like my eyes kept returning to her blood in the snow. It was frozen now, yet still gleaming like opal dust and scattered gems.
It was beautiful.
It was wrong.
It washers.
I closed my eyes and slammed my head against the tree hard enough that I heard the crack in the trunk and the tree’s worrying groan like it was going to fall like her comrades. Stars sparked in the darkness behind my eyes, but I still only saw red with dancing shades of gold and opal.
Byrd.
Mi vida.
I failed you.
I pulled my knees close to my chest, folded my arms, and dipped my head on top of my arms. And, I sobbed. My tears were as cold as ice as they fell to the ground beneath me. It was the first time in so very many years that I had just let myself cry. I couldn’t even remember the last time I had done that. Was it that night with my father? Had I truly not done it since? I couldn’t bother to try to remember. Instead, I stayed there in the cold wreckage I’d made.
My breathing started to even out.
My outside wounds were healing.
But my inner wounds were still wide open and bleeding fresh.
I kept replaying it in my mind?—
Q-Quinn, help me…please…She called out to me.
Quinn.She had reached out to me.
Quinn. She had begged me to save her, to do anything.
Quinn! I used to love how her mouth formed my name. No one had ever said my name so sweetly and perfectly. But now, as I remembered that moment, I could hear the distress and fear in her voice. I would spend the rest of my life ensuring she never sounded like that ever again.
If I saw her again?—
No. No, I refused to even think about that. I couldn’t?—
Quinn! Quinn! Quinn!
Byrd, I’m so sorry?—
“Quinn!”
Was that Byrd’s voice? Shit, was my mind playing tricks on me now? Did I not remember what she sounded like already? Was I losing it like I lost her?
“Quinn!” Byrd’s voice distorted and shifted until it wasn’t hers anymore.Who is that?
“Quinn!” I thought I was the one shaking from my nerves being so shot, but I was being shaken by my shoulders. “Quinn! Hello?! Are you okay? What happened? You’re bleeding!”
I finally lifted my head from my arms and blinked my tears away. Nat, Simone, and Cole were crouched directly in front of me, with Nat being the one shaking me and asking questions. Cody and Maisie stood behind. Worry clouded their expressions, and I realized it was the first time I had cried in front of my cousins that I could remember.
Simone picked up some snow in one of her palms before covering it with her other hand. I saw the spaces between her fingers and hands light up with a bright aquamarine glow before she opened her hands to reveal a rope made of water. Simone motioned over to my hands, and the water snake was keen to follow her every move. It encircled my hands, wrapping them up in warmth and vibrance. Simone’s magic washed the blood from my hands instantly, and it worked to make me whole even faster. In a matter of seconds, my hands were back to how they werebefore, and I could feel the healing work all the way up my arms. Simone rolled the water into a ball and tossed it toward the base of one of the trees.
