Series: Cobalt Empire Series by Krista Ritchie
Total pages in book: 234
Estimated words: 226965 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1135(@200wpm)___ 908(@250wpm)___ 757(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 226965 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1135(@200wpm)___ 908(@250wpm)___ 757(@300wpm)
Eliot gently rests a black cat in with the others. “That’s it, brother. That’s the last one.” I hear him say.
I count only six. “There’s seven kittens.” I know there are. I feed them every time I’m here.
“That’s it. This way.” He’s directing me out the basement’s backdoor. “Time to go.” We’re all leaving. I see Beckett. He’s cradling Audrey in his arms. She’s lucid. She’s coherent. She’s awake?
“She’s okay.” Who’s saying that Tom or Charlie?
I feel drunk. Intoxicated with visceral emotion I can’t escape. No matter how much I repeat she’s okay in my head. With one blink, I’m going from point A to point B. Soon, I’m in the very back of Beckett’s SUV, holding onto the beer box as the kittens let out tiny meows. I press my forehead to the cardboard edge.
Someone is rubbing my back. Beckett? He should be with Audrey. She needs him, and it’s the first time I look over.
Charlie is beside me.
It makes no sense. But what has? He comes into powerful focus. And the first thing he tells me is, “Don’t puke on my lap.”
Yeah.
That’s Charlie.
It strangely calms me. The bitter, biting familiarity of him. He’s looking straight into my eyes, and again, I don’t know what he sees. They feel bloodshot. My face feels slick with silent tears.
“She’s okay,” he says, and now I’m more certain that he’s the one who said it the first time. “She became responsive immediately. She never lost a pulse. We’re taking her to the hospital. Do you understand?”
I nod.
It’s not helping. Everything he said—it’s not helping me, and I don’t know why. It should. She’s okay. Our little sister will be okay. The reassurance is in outer-fucking-space. I have no way to fly there without being asphyxiated. It feels like I’ll never reach it.
“What’s the problem?” Charlie asks with a great deal less annoyance than usual. It roils my stomach. “Ben?”
I shake my head over and over. I can’t be here. I can’t be here. I can’t be here. I can’t be here.
I can’t be here.
I’m going to hurt everyone I love.
“Ben.”
I lift my gaze to his.
Confusion—confusion I’ve never seen from Charlie—stares back at me. I am confusing a genius now? There is so much agony inside my body, and I can’t verbally translate even an ounce. Just kill me, I want to tell him.
Then I think about the blood. Beckett’s car. Can’t do that.
Then I think about her, and I nearly break down. “Harriet,” I choke out.
Someone hands Charlie a phone—minutes later? Moments?
He’s putting it against my ear.
“Ben?” I hear her tough voice, and I wipe a hot tear that rolls down my cheek. She continues when I don’t say a word. “Is everything okay? Tom didn’t even insult me. He said you need to talk?”
I struggle to speak.
“Cobalt got your tongue,” she says flatly. “Get it. Lions, cats…dumb joke, I know.”
I clear the knot in my throat. “I’ve actually heard that one before.”
She intakes a sharp breath of relief. “Yeah? Here I thought I was finally being clever…Ben. Are you okay?”
No. I pinch my watery eyes. “Can you do something for me?”
“Anything.”
“Can you just read to me for a second?” I swallow a rock, holding the phone tight against my ear.
“Yeah,” she says fast. “What are you in the mood for? I have an O-Chem textbook that’ll put you to sleep or we can go dark and moody and read about Pyramus and Thisbe—I vote O-Chem.”
I feel a smile somewhere in me. “Scared of the dark, Fisher?” I hoist my glassy gaze to the roof of the car.
“Sorry to say, me and the dark were friends before you.”
I rub at my wet jaw, releasing a long breath. Peace is cresting the edge of the horizon. I’m fighting to go there. “You kick your friend to the curb?”
“Yeah. With a little help from my best friend.”
I shut my eyes. Tears slip out of the creases. Stop fucking crying. Please stop. I want to stop.
Very softly, she says, “You need help, Friend?”
I nod. “Yeah,” I rasp out. “Read to me. Just read to me.”
And so she does. Science jargon goes in one ear and out the other, but I listen to her voice. I stop thinking about everything that happened. I stop fixating on my washing machine of thoughts. I just listen to Harriet. And I breathe and breathe.
“He’s strangely calm now. It’s kind of freaking me out.” I hear Tom whispering to Eliot in the seat in front of me.
Eliot rotates to inspect me.
I say nothing. Tears have dried. I’m numb.
“He’s in shock,” Eliot guesses.
Beckett has been monitoring Audrey’s pulse. He still has her in his arms, her legs splayed on Eliot’s lap. She peeks back at me.
“I feel…rather good now, you know?” She’s clammy.
I nod. “I’m glad, Audrey. You still need to get checked out though.” We’re on the way to the hospital.