He’s awake.
Those two words were now my favourite in the entire English language. I smoothed out the damask and pulled a needle free from a pincushion.
He’s awake.
Better than alive.
He’s awake.
Fate had finally been kind—the tables had finally turned.
Everything will be different now.
Cut, Daniel, and Bonnie would take Jethro and Kestrel’s place in the ground. The balance of good and evil would right itself. And Vaughn and I would continue with whatever dreams we had with no guillotine hanging over our future.
Switching on another side lamp, I bent to my task of repairing the lace with painstaking needlework. It wasn’t late, but the sun had set a few hours ago and Hawksridge creaked around me, depositing its residents into the night. The growls of motorbikes shattered the wintery air, Black Diamonds disappearing to run another smuggling delivery.
I lost myself in the exquisite craftsmanship, giving myself over to scattered thoughts. Jaz and Vaughn’s rescue mission had gone unnoticed. Flaw had done the impossible. Jethro had cheated death.
We won.
Could Cut tell? Could he feel that his sons weren’t dead?
It didn’t matter.
His arrogance was his undoing.
Tick tock. Tick tock.
His time is running out.
“She wants you, Nila.”
My head snapped up.
My room was no longer empty. It had invited a visitor while I napped on the chaise. The lace I’d been working on littered the carpet and the needle harpooned my denim skirt, sticking upward like a tiny lance.
Flaw headed toward me, hands in his pockets. “Did you hear me?”
I blinked.
By day, I left the dresser pushed away from the doorway in case legitimate requests meant I had to open it quickly. But by night, I shoved the heavy armoire across, allowing a false sense of safety.
How long have I been asleep?
Sunshine sparkled on the horizon, turning my side lamp mute with fresh daylight.
Oh, my God, I slept all night?
I didn’t feel rested. I felt tired and foggy.
Jethro…
He’d been in my thoughts all day. All night. All my life.
He’s awake!
I missed him so much—missed his golden eyes, his hesitant smile. I missed the epiphany when he finally broke and let me put him back together again.
I miss you…
“Nila…you awake or sleep walking?” Flaw clicked his fingers in front of my face.
I flinched. “I’m awake. Sorry, just a bit fuzzy.”
“When was the last time you slept properly?”
I shrugged, plucking the needle from my skirt and stabbing it into the pincushion. “Can’t remember.” My eyes burned from tiredness; wooziness existed in my brain.
He scowled. “You do realise they’re safe. You can relax a bit without grief ruining your sleep.”
Standing, my body creaked in protest from sleeping on the chaise. I stumbled forward with vertigo and my cell-phone thudded to the carpet by my feet.
Huh. I don’t remember retrieving it from my bedside.
Flaw stayed silent as I blinked away my illness and collected it from the floor. I must’ve grabbed it while dreaming, hoping for a text.
Did he message?
I swiped it on.
Nothing.
No messages. No calls. No emails.
I’ve been completely forgotten.
Some part of me hoped that now Jethro was awake, he’d text me. That for the first time in months, we’d talk like we had before this mess started. Kite to Threads. Inbox to inbox.
“Has he been in touch?” Flaw glanced at my phone.
My lungs deflated; I shook my head. “No.” Brushing stray hair from my eyes, I said, “I heard that he’s awake, though. You?”
A slight smile tilted his lips. “Yes. She told me.”
I smiled back. I’d entered Hawksridge believing everyone was my enemy. Turned out, only a few people were worthy of that title. Most of them were kind and honourable, wrapped up in their own issues, but ultimately generous and just like any stranger—frightening and mysterious until the boundary of no acquaintance distorted into friendship.