She laughed and reached out to hit my arm like she always did when I said something stupid. But her hand stopped in midair. She held it there for a second, frozen, before she slowly brought it back down to her side.
That small moment broke something inside me. She was awake and sitting right next to me, but it felt like she wasn’t really here. I missed her so much even though I could see her face and hear her voice.
It hurt that I couldn’t touch her the way I wanted to. Couldn’t kiss her or hold her without those damn gloves between us. I felt miserable and I knew
she felt the same way.
I could see it in her eyes, the way she was trying so hard to pretend everything was normal when nothing would ever be normal again.
And it broke my heart that there was nothing I could do to fix it.
‘I’ll be back in a few minutes,” I said as I got up from the bed. “Wait for me, okay?”
She nodded and I made a silent prayer that when I came back, I would still find my Athena sitting there. Not some hollow version of her. Not that thing
with the silver eyes.
In the bathroom, I took the fastest shower of my life. I was sure I didn’t spend more than a minute under the water. I was too scared of wasting time,
too afraid of what I might find when I came back out.
When I stepped out of the bathroom, my feet stopped moving.
Athena was still sitting on the bed, but her head was bent down like she wasn’t the one controlling her own body anymore.
“Ath, I called out.
She didn’t answer.
“Ath, I tried again, louder this time.
Still nothing. That pit feeling started growing in my stomach. The feeling that the universe was playing some cruel joke on me. Why did it have to be Athena? Why did she have to go through something like this?
‘Baby,‘ I called, putting more volume behind my voice.
She lifted her head and looked at me. For just a second, I saw it. That gold light flickering in her eyes like a candle flame. It was there and then it was
gone, but I had seen it.
My breath caught in my throat.
“Yes, I’m sorry,” she said, blinking. Her eyes were back to their normal brown color. ‘I dozed off for a second.”
I let out the breath I’d been holding. “There’s no need to be sorry. You can lie down if you want. I’ll call you when I’m ready.”
She hesitated and my heart cracked a little more. She was scared of falling asleep. Scared that when she woke up, she wouldn’t be herself anymore. And
I was scared of the same thing.
1/3
15:28 Sat, Jan 10 G MR
Chapter 199
I smiled at her and tried to look encouraging. “It’s okay. Get some rest.
She gave me a nervous smile back before she lay down on the bed and closed her eyes.
I got dressed in the clothes Sarah had brought for me the night before. My hands were shaking as I pulled on my shirt and jeans.
Every few seconds I looked over at Athena to make sure she was still breathing, still looking like herself.
When I was finished getting dressed, I walked over to where she was lying and knelt down beside the bed. I reached out to brush a strand of hair away
from her face.
The moment my skin touched hers, it felt like I’d grabbed a live wire. Electric shock shot up my arm and I jerked my hand back.
What was happening? Why had touching her felt like that?
Athena’s eyes snapped open and she sat up quickly. ‘Did I hurt you?” she asked, looking at my hand.
“No, I lied. “I’m fine.”
But I wasn’t fine. None of this was fine. Have we lost her? Could she ever get back to being the Athena we all knew and loved?
She stared at my hand like she could see something I couldn’t. “I felt it too,” she whispered. “When you touched me. It was like… like static electricity,
but worse.”
I wanted to reach out and comfort her, but I was afraid to touch her again. “Maybe it’s just because you’re still recovering.”
‘Or maybe it’s getting worse,” she said quietly.
We sat there in silence for a moment. I could hear voices coming from somewhere else in the house. Orion and Sarah were probably in the kitchen making breakfast, trying to pretend like everything was normal.
“We should go eat,‘ I said finally.
Athena nodded, but she didn’t move from the bed. “Tristan?”
‘Yeah?”
‘What if I can’t control it? What if next time I hurt someone who doesn’t deserve it?‘
The question hung in the air between us like a dark cloud. I wanted to tell her that wouldn’t happen. I wanted to promise her that we would find a way to fix this and everything would go back to the way it was before.
But I could I make a promise I wasn’t sure I could keep.
2/3
Sara Lili is a daring romance writer who turns icy landscapes into scenes of fiery passion. She loves crafting hot love stories while embracing the chill of Iceland’s breathtaking cold.
