Dash’s eyes started to flutter, and it was only a matter of seconds before he closed his eyes and wouldn’t open them for another hundred years. “Charlotte,” Dash whispered my name. He tried to reach for his bow, his movements sloppy and jerky. And then it was lights out.
Seeing Dash lifeless on the ground brought on an intense round of déjà vu I never wanted to feel again. He had only days ago been so close to the brink of death, and here he was again, unconscious, his life dependent on me.
I didn’t want to admit it, but we were both screwed. Spinning around, my fists clenched at my sides, a dangerous cocktail of emotions brewed within me. “Okay, so what the hell do I do? How do I wake him? That’s what you expect me to do, isn’t it?”
I had started putting together the pieces, but it was hard to process all of this when my mind was reeling from everything that had happened in the last hour: the Night’s Guard overpowering us, seeing the Forsaken, fighting for our lives. Somehow my father had gotten it stuck in his thick skull that I had the power to wake people from the Slumber.
Maybe he was right, but it just seemed insensitive to put me through this right now. For his sake, he better be right or I was going to go postal up in here.
“Can we just get this over with?” Ember grumbled.
“Do you do anything other than complain?” Ryker shot back at her.
I ignored all the noise around me, drowning out their voices and dropping to my knees beside Dash. I didn’t know what I was doing, and it made me anxious. Taking a deep breath, I placed my hands on either side of his face, his skin still warm. I forced my mind to concentrate on making him wake up, regardless that it was difficult to see him lying on the ground, defenseless and vulnerable.
I don’t know how much time went by. Seconds? Minutes? But one thing I was certain of: nothing happened. He didn’t wake up, and my head throbbed from focusing so intently.
That was it.
With my head hung low, I slowly got to my feet and spread my fingers out—one by one, energy crackling between them.
I wanted to hurt someone—a dangerous feeling for someone with ungodly power, and I knew exactly who to direct my rage toward. “You son of a bitch.” Venom dripped from my voice, and suddenly, I wasn’t myself. Angry lightning cracked in spears across the sky, shooting down to the ground, shaking it under my feet.
“Charlotte, I didn’t have a choice. You understand that.” My father trying to reason with me was a joke.
I lifted my head, electricity raging all around me as my eyes burned with hurt, anger, and hate. “I’m going to destroy you,” I said in a dark voice I didn’t recognize as my own. A powerful tone punctuated the words. And I meant every one of them. They would pay.
“Charlotte,” Ryker said calmly, trying to gain my attention, but I only had eyes for one person.
My father shook his head. “It’s possible I was wrong, but Dash will wake. I gave him a low dose of Ceraspan. He will only be asleep for a few weeks.”
“A few weeks?” I echoed. Wrong answer. And what would I do while Dash slept for weeks? Return to the Institute?
Oh, that was rich and exactly what my father wanted.
I’d fallen for his trap. I should have known this was always about the Institute getting their hands on Dash and me. It was all they really cared about.
Two guards came into my peripheral vision. “Stay away from him, or so help me God, I will strike you down.”
They both stopped dead in their tracks.
Scowling, my father put on his stern expression. “We can’t stay out here, Charlotte. We must go. No one will hurt him.”
Didn’t he see that he already had? “What makes you think I’d go anywhere with you?” The sight of him churned my stomach.
“This is for your own good, Charlotte. Dash’s too. Together we can save the Heights.”
“You might think so, and although you might make a valid argument, everything you’ve said got vetoed the moment you decided to use Dash and me. We’re not your puppets.”
“We can figure this all out when we get back to Diamond Towers. Your mother might have something that could speed up the sleeping process.”
I chewed on my bottom lip. What choice did I have? I could agree to go voluntarily, or the Night’s Guards would take us by force. Either option ended with Dash and me back at the Institute. My only consolation was that we would be together… if my father kept his word. And that was a big if. “I agree we need to do something to protect us from the Forsaken, but if we come with you, it is on our terms. No locked doors. No dungeons. And no experimenting without consent. And you won’t separate us.”
He opened his mouth and closed it. I could see by the crinkles at the corner of his mouth that he wasn’t happy with the terms, but in the end, he relented. “I give you my word.”
“No offense, but your word doesn’t mean shit to me.”
My father arched a brow at my language. “Then what do you suggest?”
“A leap of faith,” Ryker had the nerve to suggest.
I snorted. Taking a deep breath, I glanced down at Dash, unable to believe what I was about to do. Life sure knew how to throw a curveball. With lightning striking in my eyes, I raised my head and glowered at my father. “Fine, but if you harm him in any way, I will bring down the Institute around you and everyone in it.”
My father nodded.
Leaning down, I pressed my lips to Dash’s. “I’m sorry,” I whispered. “I’m so sorry. I don’t see any another way, but I swear I will protect you as you have always protected me.”
“I hope you do a better job,” said a voice I hadn’t been prepared to hear for weeks.
I rocked back, staring down into a handsomely sculpted face. “Dash?”
His eyes fluttered open, an impish grin tugging at his lips. “Were you expecting someone else?”
I threw my arms around his neck. “You’re awake.”
“Thanks to you, Freckles.”
“Don’t thank me yet. I kind of agreed we’d go to the Institute,” I whispered and helped him sit up.
His brows pinched together. “We’ll worry about that later.” Weariness lined his expression, and I remembered what it had been like the last time I’d been drugged—by my father, nonetheless.
Talk about ironic.
Together we rose to our feet, facing my father. “I knew you could do it,” he said. “Those eyes of yours are incredible.”
“I never should have had to do it.” A familiar feeling settled over me, and I cursed these powers the Institute was so interested in. My hand grabbed onto Dash’s forearm as I steadied myself. He might have said my name; I couldn’t be sure. All the sounds around me were washed out as if I was drowning. But I wasn’t sinking underwater. I was on the verge of drowning in darkness.
Then there was nothing, but it was okay. Dash would protect me. He would keep me safe. And most importantly, he was awake.
Epilogue
DASH
I caught Charlotte before she hit the ground.