But one knew. One slowly walked up, pried my body from Mike’s arms and walked away, speaking a name into my brow as he left the arguments behind.
“Put me back, Arthur,” I said quietly, knowing he wouldn’t, even if he did hear me.
Chapter Twenty
David sat by the bedside, holding her hand, whispering a prayer into her skin, while Jason leaned on my dresser, watching through tear-worn eyes. I could tell from how still the body was that she hadn't started breathing yet. They’d sewn her flesh up with tight, jagged stitches, washed the blood away and dried her hair, but she wasn’t there anymore.
And I wasn't going back.
Jason looked up then, to where I stood at the foot of the bed, and his pupils became darker, larger, the colour draining from his face. I looked behind me, saw nothing there, then frowned at him, moving a little closer.
“Jase, can you see me?”
He stood from his lean and unfolded his arms, reaching into thin air. As he moved, I saw a pale-blue light in the reflection—faint, hard to see; its lashing spectrums fading with every tick of the clock on the wall. I felt his fingers go through me, like a sick feeling, and looked down my own body, seeing it as it was when David pulled me from the ocean.
Jase didn't see what I saw—the ruined remains—he saw something beautiful, ghostly, while I was lost in the nightmare of a horror movie.
“Jase?” I looked up from his hand. “Did you tell him—did you tell David?”
He shook his head.
“Kill me—” I looked back at David. “He can never know. You have to kill me.”
“Ara,” Jason whispered, and everyone in the room looked up; I couldn't see their faces, but felt their eyes—their energy.
“What is that?” Arthur walked over and reached out.
And as if I was some freak on show at a fair, several hands came through my body.
“Ara?” David stood, staring; his eyes tracing every inch of what I knew he saw as light. “Is that you?”
His warm hand went through my gut, and my soul broke apart, catching hold of his and latching on, feeling the instant connection; a lifetime of emotion swirled around us both, and I knew he felt it, too; I saw the look in his eye. But in his heart, he was broken. His soul was broken; I could feel that—could feel the darkness coming to get him. If I died, if I faded away, he would come with me—but I realised, as I looked deeper into everything he was, that if I went back, he’d go into the night alone.
“Jason?”
“Ara?” he said. “Just come back to us.”
“No. I see now,” I said, looking at David. “I can never tell him.”
“Ara, you don't need to—”
“What’s she saying?” David cut in.
“Ara?” Jason reached out, as if he could grab me. “Please.”
“No,” I said softly, touching David's face; he closed his eyes, feeling me there. “Tell him I love him. Tell him I always will, but I just…I can't be in this life anymore, Jase. Too much has been broken.”
“Ara.” He stepped closer. “Damn it. Please?”
I looked over at the open, waving hands of the curtains across my balcony door, greeting me like arms of the soul-taker, and felt peace, somewhere out there, away from the sudden panic of everyone in the room.
“Uncle Arthur?” Jase said, his quivering voice panicked. “She’s fading. Do something.”
I stepped away from Arthur. “Tell David goodbye for me.”
“Ara, no!” Jase reached out, but time froze around us, leaving me free to follow the desires in my heart. I kissed my David on the head and stood by the ghostly arms of the soul-taker, looking back once more as time sped up again and darkness took them all away.
* * *
“It’s not the first time she’s done it,” Jason said quietly.
“I don't know that she’s even aware she can,” Arthur added.
“She’s not. And it stays that way,” Mike said.
“Talent like that could be dangerous if she’s left in the dark about it. I'm telling her,” David said, and my eyes flew open.
“David?”
“Ara?” He rose up from a chair beside my bed.
“David? What are you doing here?” I tried to sit up, but he pinned me down by my chest.
“I found you.”
“Found me? I was lost?”
He looked off to the side of the room.
“You had an accident,” Arthur said, appearing in my peripheral.
I rubbed my head. “What kind of accident?”
“You don't remember?” Jason popped up on the other side of my bed and took my hand.
“Um.” I looked at David then at Jason, trying to find any memory, but everything was just white—even what I had for breakfast. “No. Did I get hurt?”
“Yes.” Arthur stood at the foot of my bed. “We suspect you fell from the lighthouse.”
“What?” I sat up. “What was I doing on the lighthouse?”
“We don't know.” Jason rearranged the pillows behind me, smoothing my hair down after. “We all thought you were safe in bed, until David came in screaming.”
Hot, silent air stopped my words like a golf ball in my mouth. “I don't remember going out there.”
“Perhaps—” Arthur looked down at me, “—it was a case of noctambulism.”
“Huh?”
“Sleepwalking.” David smiled.
I laughed a little. “Oh. Well, it wouldn’t be the first time.”
“Yeah, well, because of your little brush with death, the whole kingdom knows David’s alive,” Mike said from across the room.
“What?”
David looked at me, shaking his head. “I brought you back to the manor and came straight through the Great Hall.”
“Yeah—” Jason reached over me and punched David softly. “You should’ve seen the look on their faces when I walked up to see what all the yelling was about.”
David rubbed his brow. “I just wasn't thinking.”
“It’s in the past, son.” Arthur touched his shoulder then looked at me. “Everything has been smoothed over.”
“What did you tell the people—about where you’ve been?”
“The truth. We told them we were trying to conceive a child that could kill Drake—that we’d gone to great lengths to keep my existence a secret.”
“Were they okay with that?”