Ink & Dagger (Sins of Eden #1)

11. Chapter XI

Chapter XI

Emily

I stared curiously at the makeshift grave marker I made fourteen years ago in front of the empty charred lot as an eerie feeling washed over me.

This - this wasn’t right. Was I sleep projecting again? I didn’t remember choosing to come here. I could feel myself fading. Closing my eyes, I tried to focus on the tether that bound me to Ghost and pull myself out of the in-between, but it was as if our bond wasn’t there.

What the Hell is going on? I thought as I frantically looked around me.

“Emily,” a soft feminine voice whispered, like a soft caress against my skin.

My chest rose and fell rapidly and I turned in a circle, trying to look for the voice while my brain worked to rationalize what was going on. No matter where I looked I couldn’t find the woman that the voice belonged to.

“Emily, love, you need to wake up. You don’t belong here,” the voice said.

“Mom?” I called, continuing to search for the voice. Something was wrong.

“Emily, you need to go back,” it said. “You need to stay with your other half.”

A steady beeping noise faded in and out around me as words like “induced coma,” “collapsed lung,” and “internal damage” bounced around lazily inside my aching head. If I tuned everything else out I could make out the soft sound of quiet sobs and feel a slight pressure on my left hand as if someone was giving it a gentle squeeze.

I tried to recall what had happened and where I was as I struggled to open my eyes, but all I could feel was numbness throughout my body as I recounted hazy memories of violence and pain.

Shit. Erik happened. Images of his glazed, angry eyes and brutal blows caused my heart to race as I took in the muffled conversations around me.

“Will she be okay?” A familiar voice asked.

I couldn’t hear the response, but the pressure around my hand increased for a moment before it disappeared altogether. I tried to force my body to respond to my brain's demands, to reach out and make them come back, but no matter how much I tried, I couldn’t move.

“ Don’t leave me. Please, don’t leave me.” I tried to say, but my lips couldn’t form the words that were stuck in my chest.

The soft beeping beside me increased and my anxiety spiked. Loud footsteps and shouting ricocheted in my head before darkness took me deep into its quiet embrace once more.

Opening my eyes to the dark room around me, I panicked as I tried to ascertain where I was. A steady drip drip and soft beeps of a monitor came from somewhere beside my head and I shifted my body as I looked for the sound. A sharp pain shot up my side and I groaned as I tried to reach across myself to clutch at my aching ribs, becoming tangled in a wire that was attached to my right hand.

My head felt like it did the day after my twenty-first birthday when Charlie and I spent all day out in the hot sun at a music festival. I’d spent the entire day drinking, crowd surfing, and scream-singing every song, meanwhile Charlie played babysitter to my drunken shenanigans. She let me live out the glory days of our past and we had a blast, but I was still peeved that she didn’t let me hex the bitch who ratted on us for sneaking into the VIP section to meet the vocalist of my favorite band. Charlie knew good and damn well that snitches got stitches and ended up hexed by Witches, and I didn’t let her forget it as both her and security physically dragged me from backstage.

It wasn’t until years later that she admitted to doing a little magic of her own that day. She’d wrapped that bitch up in vines and left her in a random port-a-potty at the festival before we left. She may not have wanted me to drink and hex, but my girl had a vicious streak of her own if you crossed the ones she loved.

“Emily? Mother, Maiden, and Crone, are you awake?” Charlie asked from nearby, her voice trembling.

I tried to respond, but all I could get out was a dry rasp as I tried to say her name.

“Nurse. Nurse! I think she’s awake,” she yelled far too loudly beside me.

I clutched my hands to either side of my head and winced in pain from the abrupt shout. Pain medication or not, this migraine was fucking brutal. I tried once again to call out to her, but couldn’t get out more than a dry cough.

“It’s okay honey, I’m here. You’re okay,” she soothed as she found my hand in the dark and gripped it tightly.

Bright fluorescent lights made me wince and it took a moment of blinking and squinting before the room around me came into focus. A short woman in blue scrubs strode into the small room and stood beside my bed.

“Hello sugar, my name is Katelyn. I’m here to do a brief preliminary checkup, if you could please follow the light with just your eyes,” the young nurse said, holding a small light up to either eye as she trailed it back and forth.

“Good, good. Can you tell me your name dear?” She said softly as she checked my vitals.

“Emily. Her name is Emily Cross,” Charlie said anxiously from beside me.

“Very good, honey, but I need her to answer for me this time,” she said looking from Charlie and back to me. “How old are you, Emily?”

I tried to answer, but my throat felt like I had swallowed a box of razor blades.

“Why can’t she talk? What’s wrong with her?” Charlie asked in a panic.

“Here, honey. Take your time,” the nurse said, handing me a small cup of water. I drank greedily from it before handing it back to her and I tried again.

“Twenty-nine,” I croaked out.

“Very good. Emily, do you know where you are?” She asked.

“The hospital,” I answered, looking away from her and back to Charlie’s tear filled eyes as embarrassment flooded through me.

“You’re lucky to be alive sugar, if your friend here hadn’t gotten to you when she did I’m not sure you’d still be with us. I’ll give you two a moment alone while I let the doctor know that you’re awake.” She picked up her clipboard and strolled out to the hall, leaving Charlie and I alone.

“Water?” I croaked to Charlie. She quickly leaned over with shaking hands and poured more water into the small cup before handing it to me.

“Oh Em, I’m so fucking sorry. I never should have taken the pendant off. If I hadn’t, if I’d known - fuck,” she choked.

The tears she’d been holding back streamed silently down her face.

“I love you, Charlie,” I told her quietly, taking her hand in mine and squeezing it with as much strength as I could muster.

“I love you too, girl,” she said, covering my hand with her other and holding onto me as though if she let go, I'd disappear.

“Ghost?” I asked, terrified to know the answer.

“Ghost is okay. He’s with Cerys at my house trying to rest. Goddess, bless him. He tried apparating here to be with you after your surgery, but we almost got caught. I promised him that I’d bring him here in my bag to see you soon if I could, but -,”

Surgery. My ears rang as I stared at the chart on the wall across from me and thought about that one simple word. I couldn’t listen to more. Last time Erik put me in the hospital it was a few taped ribs and a concussion, but needing surgery. Fuck.

“How long have I been here?” I asked, blinking my eyes and refocusing on Charlie.

The look on her face was enough to tell me everything I needed to know.

“You’ve been here for two weeks,” she whispered. “You may heal quicker than doctors know what to do with, but this time it was like your magic wasn’t kicking in. You scared the Hell out of me.”

My breath caught in my throat as I thought about the studio and all the clients I would have to call. My body would heal, but my shop couldn’t financially sustain that kind of time off.

As if reading my mind, Charlie spoke.

“I’ve already called all the clients that you had booked for the next month and told them you’d been in an accident. Your mystery man has been blowing up your phone daily with calls and texts. I hope it’s okay, but I took the liberty of answering one of his texts after he threatened to “rain Hell’s Fire down” if he didn’t hear from you soon. I didn’t tell him what happened or where you were, but I told him that I’d let you know and have you call him back when you could. I think he might be in lo-”

The hard glare I sent her was enough to make her close her mouth before she finished that sentence. Regardless of what I thought I felt about him, love was what had gotten me into this whole shitty mess. There was no room for that in my life ever again.