Divided Souls (Captured Miracle #3) (18 page)

A tear slipped from my eye just in time for Neil’s interruption. “They will be arriving on the island within minutes. We have a short window to get away undetected, Calix. If we’re going to go - we need to go now.”

Calix’s hands tightened on my arms. “Nova, we need to leave now. I don’t want to force you into the boat, but I will, love.” His eyes were determined and I knew, that if I forced him to act, he would. So, I didn’t force him.

Nodding my head through my fears, I spoke. “Okay, I-I’m coming.”

Calix settled us into the boat. We were sitting at the back while Neil and the other guard, who I still couldn’t remember his name, settled into the chairs at the front. As the boat pulled away from the shore, I felt my heart slamming painfully in my chest. I wanted desperately to close my eyes - to look anywhere but at the terrifying black waters surrounding us, but I couldn’t. I literally could not look at anything but the deep abyss that could, and would, swallow me up at first chance. We’d been on the water for a good five minutes, speeding over the waves, when another boat sounded into the still distance. Sitka town lights glowed into the ebony of the sky stretching above us, and I knew, if we only pushed ahead, we could get there. We could get to safety.

I no longer cared about facing my father and his men. All I wanted was to place my feet on solid ground. I wanted to be safe. I wanted my body - the body that housed my child - to arrive onto solid ground
safely
.

The roaring of the speedboat my father and his men possessed was coming closer and closer - and this time, when the urge to close my eyes surfaced, I was able to close them.

Tilting my face toward the Heavens above, I prayed. I prayed for every soul that balanced precariously on the thread between life and death - teetering unsteadily - on the damning waters beneath us. I prayed for my father and his men. I prayed for everyone in my boat - and I prayed for my child.

Our child was so close to touching life’s sensations. In just over a month, our child would come into this world - loved immensely by two very flawed people. In just over a month, our child would open its eyes to see a blue sky, shimmering stars, and the blended colors of a warm sunset. In just over a month, our child would experience the promise that came with the light of each new day.

“Why are they gaining on us?” Calix demanded, breaking through my painful prayers to rattle me back into reality.

“Our boat is much smaller.” Neil shook his head. “There is nothing I can do.”

“Fuck!” The desperation in Calix’s voice stabbed a place so deep inside my heart, I felt almost heartsick. Reaching across the space between us, I clutched his hand.

“We’re going to be okay.” I promised.

“I’m so sorry, love. I should have known he’d find us. I should have been moving you regularly.” He shook his head. “I’m sorry.”

“We’re going to be okay.” I repeated - because right now, I couldn’t believe this night would result any other way. I needed for us to be okay. I needed for us to survive this night - no matter how bleak and unpromising that possibility seemed.

Against all the odds, I needed to believe we would all live to watch the sun rising over the sturdy Alaskan Mountain Range.

Just then, as though fate was determined to prove my promise wrong, my father’s boat sided up next to ours. I could see him standing in the center of the boat - his eyes angry on mine.

Shaking my head at him, I stood up from my seat as a large man lifted his body onto the edge of the boat - and then he sprung forward. Neil twisted the wheel of the boat, steering us sharply to the right. My balance teetered and time slowed as the man landed beside me. I watched as Calix reached a hand out to catch me, but the man cold clocked him in the jaw, intercepting his saving reach. My legs hit the back of the boat and before I knew what was happening I was tumbling over the side. Something hard hit the side of my head, as a bright light pulsed behind my eyes.

Right before I hit the water, I heard my name rip from Calix’s lips - and then there was nothing but the stifling silence of the water surrounding me - filling me - crushing me.

It’s cold. So terribly cold - and dark. I can’t see anything, and every time I open my eyes, the icy salt stings them.

So, I don’t open them.

I can’t see anything, and I can’t stop thinking of the creatures lurking within the dark abyss surrounding me in its glacial blanket of death. The thought numbs me - or maybe it’s the cold water - I don’t know. All I know, is my feet stop kicking and my arms stop flailing.

I’m sinking.

The water swallows me whole - its greedy belly eager to taste and savor my life. I can feel my body sinking lower and lower, my clothing weighting me down. As the pressure constricts my lungs, and bubbles tumble from between my lips - there is a moment - a blissful, beautiful moment, right before my world turns black - where I am not afraid.

For a moment, I feel warm.

And right as the darkness closes in - a peace settles over me - and I know with clarifying certainty - my fight is over.

Chapter 19

Calix’s POV

The sight of Nova falling into the dark waters, her pale, delicate skin stung by the chill of the iced depths, flipped a dangerous switch in my brain. The man I’d been trying to be for my wife’s innocently delicate nature morphed into the monster lurking beneath the thin layer of my skin.

Time slowed.

The look on her face as she lost her footing as the boat shifted sharply, was a look of utter horror. It seared to my brain like a slideshow on pause. It was funny how, in that moment, as I watched her fall - all I could think about was how terrified she’d always been of dark water. Throughout our relationship, I’d forced her, repeatedly, to face that particular fear - but the look on her face now wasn’t a look of acceptance. Terror flashed in the depths of her honey colored eyes and her lips were frozen in the shape of an O but no sound escaped from their parting.

Then, there was a splash. It was like a condemnation - the chilling ring of a prison cage closing in on a death sentence.

My brain didn’t register the sound tearing from between my lips, as a cry of utter agony tore into the night air. And it was in that moment - that particular instance - where the monster existing within my entity made his rancorous appearance.

The man who’d intercepted my reach for Nova looked ready to jump into the water after her - but I couldn’t allow him near her. I just couldn’t. My motions were quick and decided - instinctual. My fist connected with the side of his head in one quick, deliberate hit - and his body thudded to the floor. Stripping from my jacket, I dropped the material to the floor as blood rushed loudly in my ears. I couldn’t hear. I couldn’t focus on anything, but getting to her.

My motions were quick as I dove into the water where the floating tube bobbed, falling beneath the waves only to rise again. The string I’d tied around Nova’s waist was pulled tight - and I knew - if I followed its length, I would find her.

Swimming down into the darkness along the length of the rope, I fought through the pain of the stinging salty chill to keep my eyes open. And then I saw her. Through the ominous darkness, there was a soft, deathly soft white glow. I realized, with a painful pang in my heart - that it was her skin. Gripping her fingertips, I tugged, feeling her body and its deadweight strain my body, begging to be left within the cold abyss. My legs kicked desperately as I struggled to pull her up to the surface. And then, suddenly, there was movement. As my heart lodged in my chest, I recognized the movement as her father. He was working deliberately at her clothing. First, her boots - and then her jacket. His arm circled the swell of her waist as he kicked upward, pushing with his other hand and I swam alongside them, my fingers still holding tight to hers.

***

“I’m so sorry, Nova.” I breathed across the smooth, pale skin of her throat. My hands slid through her soft dry hair splayed over the pillow around her very delicate face. “I’m so sorry. You have to wake up, love.”

“Enough.” The sound of her father’s voice startled and infuriated me, but I refused the monster within his desire to tear through the son-of-a-bitch sitting on the other side of my wife’s bed. He was sated by the knowledge that she was alive and here,
because of him
. He’d been the one to do what I hadn’t been able - pull her from the waters deathly hold.

I didn’t look away from her face as I replied. “She’s not safe with me.”

“She won’t be safe until we decide this feud between us is over.” He replied tensely. “Neither will my grandson.”

At the mention of my son’s safety, my eyes connected with Mark’s and I felt my spine straighten - my monster raged within my body for release. Nova’s body has been through so much. Upon arriving at the hospital in Sitka, Nova was immediately taken in for an emergency C-section. She’d had an internal bleed that, if not operated on, would have ended both hers and our sons life. I’d sat in the waiting room with my men, while her father and his men sat next to us. There was an unspoken agreement within that room - a promise of war if she didn’t make it out of the operating room with her life intact. But to be honest, I would have died a happy man if only to join her in the afterlife.

However, the moment they called me in to see my son for the first time - everything changed. I knew that I couldn’t leave this world when this small soul relied so much upon me - but he needed his mother. And then, for the very first time in my life, I prayed. I fell to my fucking knees and I prayed. I didn’t know what or who I was praying to - but I had nothing else. Her life was the only thing I couldn’t buy. Her life was the only thing I wanted in this world - and it didn’t come with a price. For the first time since my parent’s death, I felt completely and utterly lost. Even the night she was taken had nothing on this feeling of desperation that was curdling within my body - because that night I had been willing to give my own for her happiness. Now, all I wanted was the chance to give her another eighty years of happiness with me. I would do anything, give anything, to be given that chance. So, I prayed - because everything I had to lose was on the gambling table. Prayer was a gamble - and I was going all in.

Feeling my thoughts come back to the present, I sneered. “Are you threatening my son, Mark?”

“I would never threaten my grandson.” The tense undertone in his reply mirrored my own. “Or my daughter.”

I turned my attention back to my wife, “Nova, love, open your eyes. I’m sorry for everything - please, open your eyes.”

Mark sighed heavily. “It wasn’t your fault, Calix.”

“I couldn’t save her.” I lifted my eyes to his, hating myself more in this moment than any other before. “I couldn’t save her from drowning.”

“You’ve not been trained.” He stated matter of fact - and in the silence after his words - I realized what he was doing. He was offering his acceptance of me in his daughter’s life. Before I had a chance to speak, he continued. “I’ve spent my life training for situations like the one we faced - but we will never, ever, face a situation of the like again, Calix.”

I nodded. “What are you saying?”

“I’m saying this is over.” He gestured to the space between us. “I’m saying that I won’t fight you any longer. I won’t object to you in her life, because no matter how you got there, she loves you. It has become clear to me just how deeply she loves you, and I know, that nothing I do will convince her you’re wrong for her.”

“I am wrong for her.” I replied under my breath.

“You are.” He agreed. “But that doesn’t matter, because she is all that matters. You are her choice - you made certain you were her choice - so you’re going to be the man who continues making her happy. You will be a father to my grandson, you will love my daughter, and you will accept that the past has happened.” I flinched at the veiled mention of my parent’s death. “Because the past is the past. If we refuse to let it rest, it will follow us into the future.” He looked down into Nova’s face and my eyes followed his. “Focusing on the past has brought us here. If we don’t let it go - more people will be hurt.”

I knew what he was saying - and looking down into Nova’s pale skin - I knew in the deep of my heart that I could allow no other to suffer for the sins of the past. Forgiveness wasn’t something I’d ever practiced - nor would I offer it to the man who ended my parents lives - but the vendetta dies tonight.

“There will be no more lives lost.” I replied darkly. “It ends here and now.”

Mark nodded stiffly. “Hurt her and it all begins again.”

My eyes flared. “I love her.”

He flinched at my words, but he acknowledged them none-the-less. “I know.”

***

Nova

My mouth is dry. It feels as though it’s been coated in - velvet?

My body feels heavy and - stiff.

My eyes - they don’t want to open.

In the distance, there is a beeping. It’s persistent and slightly annoying - constant.

I am warm.

The realization that I’m warm hits me hard, and then there is a rush of sensation that moves through my body - like a violent ocean wave. And I remember.
Everything
.

I remember the island.

I remember trying to escape in a small boat across dark waters.

I remember falling into those waters.

And I remember peace - the peace of a presumed death.

And then, in that moment, I remember my baby.

I am warm and there is a beeping that my mind now registers as a hospital monitor. There is a pain lurking behind my eyes that pleads for me to close them as soon as they open to the assaulting bright lights, but I don’t. I can’t.
My baby...

My eyes look down to my belly - it’s less swollen. The sight makes my throat feel tight and I fear for a moment that it’s closing. Sorrow is closing in on my soul as I realize - my baby is
gone
.

The room is large. My bed is sitting in the center of the room, against a wall. There are two chairs, and two men, sitting next to me on either side. My father - and my husband.