“Hi, baby,” he said in that deep voice of his, an unsettling grin on his face. “Didn’t think you’d fall for me so soon.”
“Wh-what are you—” My words morphed into a scream as the pain in my head worsened. It felt like my skull was splitting intwo. I twisted my fist into Byron’s dark black shirt as I tried to stay conscious, but this vision was coming on fast. It wouldn’t be long before I was lost to the darkness.
A cool palm cupped my jaw. “What do you need?”
I whimpered, unable to form a sentence. My thoughts were so scrambled.
“Wilder,” Byron said firmly. “Open your eyes for me and tell me what you need.”
I hadn’t even realised I’d closed them, but they were scrunched up so tightly that it took me a second to relax enough to look up at Byron. He was so terrifyingly beautiful. All sharp lines and strong angles. A dark brow that descended in a steep slash and those goddam eyes. Two pools of impossible blue. Cold and empty but so clear and bright. They haunted me when I slept and captivated me every time that they held mine. I couldn’t look away.
“What do you need?” He repeated. Why did he look so serious? His thumb traced my bottom lip. “Wilder. Tell me. Please.”
“Sofa,” I managed to blurt out before my mind was consumed by shadows.
Billows of smoke swirl through the shadows.
A pair of pitch black eyes reflecting fire.
Laughter. So much laughter.
Ravens caw. Wings flutter.
A wasteland engulfed in towering flames.
Laughter, echoing, ringing, burning.
I’m lost. Caught in a space with no time. Just fire and ash.
A large raven sits in a tree, his human eyes watching me with patience.
I spin and turn. There’s no direction, no end. No nothing.
Just those black eyes in the sky, reflecting the fire.
It burns. God, it’s so hot. It sears my skin.
The world burns until there’s nothing left.
Nothing but darkness and space without time.
Consciousness came back to me in pieces. At first, I felt like I was floating. As weightless as a feather caught on a breeze but little by little, sensation returned to my limbs. It started at my fingertips and travelled along my arms until it settled in my chest like lead.
Everything suddenly felt heavy.
I blinked my eyes open and stared at the fancy moulded ceiling above me. Images of angels looked down at me whilst my mind dragged itself from the depths of the nightmare. My thoughts were sticky and slow, and my body felt like it had been through a blender.
“Wilder?”
I froze, my body tensing at the sound of his voice.
Byron Blake.
I looked to my left and found him sitting next to me on a chair that he’d pulled close to the side of the sofa.
He’d stayed?
Why would he stay?