Rivulet (12 page)

I held his gaze as my mind became flooded with the not-so-innocent memories I had seen in the North Wing, the ones where he passionately loved Genevieve, the ones that stole my breath, the ones I shied away from when they began. I shied away because the longing was too painful.

Phoenix glanced at Skylynn with what looked like contempt, then back to me. “My dear friend Skylynn mentioned that the two of you have been mates for a while.”

I didn’t answer him for a second. I was too caught up in my thoughts, running through my old memories. I could not figure out how any of this was real, and since I had never told anyone—not even Skylynn—about the memories I saw in the North Wing, I was alone in this questioning moment.

“Been through a lot,” I managed to say.

Phoenix pursed his lips as he looked down at the bar. A second later, his eyes moved across the wood to where my hand was still limply lying.

I heard the bar phone start to ring, but we all seemed to ignore it. We also ignored the new customers that seemed to fill the bar instantly, the loud music that came out of nowhere.

Phoenix let his long fingertips outline the snow-white skin that the scarf had covered for almost seven years. “Missing something?” he asked in a whisper that was almost drowned out by the sudden life the bar seemed to have.

I couldn’t think. Vibrating warmth was tingling the skin under his touch. I’d seen him do this in the North Wing, but that was just a visual. The memory carried no weight because I put distance between it and me, but right now—I remembered this. I remembered his touch as clearly as my name.

“Unfortunately.” I meant for that to sound sarcastic, but instead my tone brought pain to that one word.

Phoenix let his gaze rise to meet mine. “I can’t give it back…but I can give you this for now.”

Nervously, my eyes fell to my wrist. Now there was a pearl bracelet that looked utterly priceless and absolutely familiar.

I gasped as a beaming smile erased my perplexed expression. “I suppose I lost that again.” I don’t know why I said that aloud, why I was claiming that life I witnessed in the North Wing. I just knew it felt right. Everything about Phoenix felt right.

“Again?” he said, as if he did not believe I said that.

The last time I saw this bracelet was this morning, when the memories of the last night Sebastian and Genevieve spent together came to life in the North Wing.

Desire, a warm, sinful, desire swarmed through my veins as my gaze rose to meet his again, as I dared to confirm that yes, I said ‘again.’ Yes, I know you are Sebastian Falcon. Yes, I know that I was—am—your Genevieve. A war took you from me, and yes, I never forgot you. Yes, I know exactly who you are. Who I am. And no, I do not understand any of this.

Before any of that came out, Gavin’s uncle opened the bar door. “Indie, good God. I’ve been trying to call every phone you have. Doc said to call you. Your grandmother has taken a turn for the worse.”

What was odd was that he wasn’t looking at me, he was looking to the left of where I was standing.

I focused my eyes, trying to figure out what the hell was going on. Gran was fine hours ago, really fine. But then I noticed that Skylynn and Phoenix had vanished and that the bar was full of people. Apparently it was an insane night here.

Grief slammed into me. Did I really just fabricate all of that? Was he not real? I didn’t have time to dwell on those thoughts. I was harshly pulled back into the life that was mine, a life that looked like it was only getting worse.

Wilder was in a corner booth with that girl, and Mason was at his drums, Sophia a few feet from him. Cadence and Gavin were at the other end of the bar, playing on a laptop.

I was now stuck in a dark world—one that I didn’t want to be in.

Chapter Seven

I climbed the bar, pushed through the people that were there, then jumped down and weaved through the crowd, glancing back to see Gavin and Cadence hurrying to follow me and Mason stopping the beat of his drums and rushing to where I was.

Wilder stood from the booth where he sat. The seductive blonde nonchalantly tried to stop him, but he ignored her.

“I’m driving,” he stated flatly, opening the door for me.

“Go back to your girl,” I demanded, trying to steal his keys, but he refused to give them to me. Instead, he opened the door and pushed me out into the parking lot.

I stood in shock. There were only a few cars here a second ago, and now it was packed and the day had turned to night. Wilder pulled me forward, thinking shock and grief were paralyzing me.

When he touched me, though, I saw that girl, and an entirely different scene played from what I’d witnessed before. Instead of her coming in and leaving moments later, he brought her in. He didn’t say a word to us. Instead, he huddled in the corner with her. A time or two, he tried to glance at me or walk over to us, but she’d pulled him into a deep kiss, distracting him from us, from me. That new memory caused rage and jealousy to erupt in my soul.

Before I could reason why I had those new memories or why one second I was given the one thing I always wanted—Sebastian in the flesh—and the next I was here, Wilder had me in his car and we were weaving through traffic, trying to get to the manor.

“D, it’s going to be okay,” he promised, reaching for my leg. I dodged away from him.

“I deserve that.”

“I don’t have the energy to figure you out. I think I’m going mad.”

“What about me do you have to figure out? You told me to move on. I did.”

“Yeah, well, I didn’t tell you to act like I didn’t exist. You guys look serious. Have fun with that. She looks nice and warm.” I pulled my fist to my lips. Why did I say that? Why did it feel like I said it before? What the hell was going on?

“You all right, D? You’re acting like you just saw a ghost.”

I drew a sharp breath, knowing that there could be some truth to that.

“Weird day.”

“Too many old flames in one room?” he said with a smirk as he changed lanes at Mach speed.

There was far too much irony in his tone. I glanced back, trying to find a reason to believe that I wasn’t rushing to my grandmother’s deathbed. She was fine, and I had finally laid eyes on my two beats.

“D –”

I held up my hand to halt him. “Who’s behind us?” I asked, noticing the blinding lights in the side mirror, wondering if that was my guards but it couldn’t have been because in the reality I was in now, there were no guards.

“Gavin and the others.”

My stomach clenched with dread. “Call him. Tell him not to follow us. It’s dangerous!”

“Like they would listen.”

“You don’t understand!” I bellowed, trying to find his phone on him, feeling in his jacket, his pants.

“D! Stop it! We’re going to wreck!”

Before I could tell him truer words had never been spoken, his car slid off the road and downhill; he couldn’t stop it if he wanted to. A few feet later, he found a gravel road and managed to stay on it but he did not lose his speed. I didn’t even have to glance back to know that Gavin had followed our path.

“STOP! STOP! TRAIN!” I screamed, bracing my arms on the dash.

“There is no train!” he yelled, trying to keep control of the car. I was sure I was impairing him, my emotions were making everything freeze, the road more dangerous.

At that second, I heard the whistle. I felt adrenaline explode in my body. There was nowhere to go. He had turned to avoid the train that was quarter mile or so in the distance, and there was no way he was going to stop before then.

When he turned and plowed through the brush, I saw the lake. It wasn’t frozen until my eyes landed on it and that was when ice captured the waves and the wheels of Wilder’s car slid across it.

I was a fool, though. My relief that I’d frozen the water caused the ice to vanish, and the car that we were in was basically a frozen block of ice and began to sink immediately.

I struggled to get loose from my belt as the freezing water rose over me. Wilder was already kicking out the windshield, but he used too much energy too fast, and when the water went over our heads he passed out within seconds. I knew how to get out. I kicked out the back window and pulled him with me, cutting his arm again, waking him with a scream once again.

We swam past Gavin’s truck that had, of course, fallen on our car. After a gasp of air, I went back, ignoring Wilder’s protest.

He reached the truck before me again, but I knew where to go: to the back window.

Mason’s lips were on Sophia’s. He was trying to give her air, calm her down, a survival skill he’d learned countless summers ago. I got her belt loose, and he pushed her out but now he was out of wind.

The others were thrashing around in the front seat. I couldn’t figure out why they would not just go, what were they fighting about.

Finally, Wilder pulled Cadence and Gavin out. I looped my scarf around Mason and pulled him from the truck just after it tumbled deeper into the water.

My insane fear was causing the ice to form around us, making getting to the top near impossible. When I did finally get air, I couldn’t make the ice stay long enough to hold up Mason, who was delirious.

This was my dream, moment by agonizing moment, but when I finally reached the shore with Mason and looked back I couldn’t figure out why in the dream I would have gone back for a camera I didn’t have. That’s when I reached in my pocket to find the skeleton key gone.

I knew the current would whisk it away if I didn’t go back for it, but just as I dove back into the water a blinding light stopped me.

Breathless, I found myself perched on the beams across the top of my room, the same turned over bookcases and lamps only this time it wasn’t Cadence staring up at me. It was Skylynn.

My insane, rapid heartbeat almost made me lose my balance. I felt the ice under my hands, and on instinct I reached for my scarf, but it wasn’t there. Instead, there was the pearl bracelet. My heart ached at the sight of it. What the hell was going on!

Skylynn moved forward a few steps, holding my stare. “You want to come down from there?” she said in an exhausted tone.

“You’re a psychotic break,” I said with a gasp. “I’ve finally lost it. Maybe I never had it,” I said, trying to take in deep breaths. Though I was pulling air in, I still couldn’t breathe.

“You’ve definitely lost something, but it’s not your sanity.”

Terrified that I was going to fall, I turned my body, letting my arms support me, then swung my legs to the bookcase and climbed down. Slowly, I turned to face her.

“What did I lose, then?” I said after I swallowed nervously and saw all the bruises on my arms surface again.

Her angelic blue eyes filled with sympathy. “Your life.”

“Wh—what?”

She was in front of me in that instant and had pulled me to her, rocking me from side to side. Flashes of everything pushed through my mind.

I could smell the lake all over me. I felt the cold, the desperation, the fight for air. The fight for life.

“I’m not dead,” I stated flatly, having no choice but to believe that.

She urged me over my bed and sat me down. She reached in her pocket and pulled out a small velvet bag.

“Breathe this in,” she said, holding it near my mouth. I could smell lemon, and oddly it was bringing me a soothing calm. I took the sack from her and breathed in deeply, feeling her hand rub across my back.

“This can’t be real,” I said. After a few minutes, I let the sack fall and stared at the pearl bracelet now on my wrist. “What happened to me…?”

“I told you.”

“I’m breathing right now. I’m not dead.”

“It’s an illusion. Truth be told, where your body is, a machine is breathing for you. Right now, you’re standing at the edge of the veil. Your soul is plotting its course.”

“I’m not dead. This is a dream. I remember this dream. Cadence, Rasure, Mason holding me, talking to Gran…” I glanced down at my bracelet, feeling those two beats once more. “I remember everything.”

She reached for my hand and gripped it. “This accident happened almost two days ago. From what I gather, you were told your grandmother was dying. As you rushed to her, you had an accident…a car ran you off the road. Now you and your friends are all clinging to life. Without the machines, you would already be gone. Your brother Ben is keeping you alive, but Rasure is pushing to pull the plug. The doctors are on her side. They’re saying that all of you are clinically dead.”

“I talked to Rasure. I talked to people today,” I argued.

A protective anger masked her angelic image. “Everyone you talked to today…was not alive.”

“Gran,” I gasped.

Skylynn gripped my hand. “Her soul lingered only to tell you her peace. She’s moved on now—she is in bliss. I saw it with my own eyes.”

My eyes moved back and forth rapidly. Replaying my day, remembering that besides my friends and Gran I’d only talked to Rasure and Mrs. Cambridge.

“Rasure,” I seethed.

Skylynn let out a jagged breath. “I never wanted you to know this, any of this, not this way. You weren’t supposed to die.”