Winters (Book Five)

Chapter Six

Chapter Six

"Shit! I knew I should have gone with her!" A voice echo's through my head and I try to pry my eyes open, tell the person to quiet down but everything feels so heavy. My hand knocks into something.

"Lena? Can you hear me, babe?" I try to say something, but my throat is still painfully tight, scrunching my face, I feel myself being shifted.

"Open your eyes, please Lena," a different voice says and when I finally manage to lift a lid, I see my sisters' dark brown eyes practically boring into my soul.

"What happened?" Avi asks me and I see Click behind Hadley, worry consuming her features. Looking between the three women, I try to say something, but nothing comes out.

"Lena? Do you need water?" Click asks me and I nod. Maybe my throat is just dry. But how did I end up on the cement? When did I pass out? What caused me to pass out? I don't normally pass out, it's not genetic or something I can recall ever doing. That's Alexander's thing.

As I am carefully pulled to my feet, Avi stands behind me, ready to catch me if I collapse. As I look around the courtyard, I barely remember being out here. Straining my memories, I can hear Greyson giving us the bad news, Hadley, and Benjamin deciding who was supposed to stay the night as I left.

Every bone locks up and I sag as I stare at the far wall, voices slam into my eardrums but I don't process them. I can still feel her unearthly and bone-chilling presence as her hauntingly bright eyes stared at me, alit with glee. Her soft smile didn't match the chaotic energy slowly consuming the space as the world closed in around me. I was trapped, she had me and there was nothing I could do.

'You won't tell them, right? This is only just the beginning, the phrase echo's on repeat and I clutch my head trying to make it stop. Voices yell loudly around me and I am picked up but I just shut my eyes. The lights are too bright, there are too many people, the sterile smell is suffocating.

I want Avi, I need to tell her. I need to tell someone; I have to tell them. They need to know who is behind this! I don't care what she wants or who she reminds me of! I need to tell someone, prying my tense jaw open, nothing comes out. Panic consumes me further and my pulse drowns out the voices out more as I curl into myself. Struggling to breathe properly, I just want Avi.

"Screw this!" I muffled voice says as I rock back and forth. Warmth surrounds me and I smell a familiar perfume and I can catch my breath for a moment. A sensation of being squeezed overtakes me before the world seems to quiet down and dim. Clinging onto the warmth, I feel the panic recede a bit, but the exhaustion takes over as my body relaxes slightly.

"It's okay Lena," I hear a soft voice whisper to me as I am rocked slightly. Tears form behind my closed lids and slip out without my permission.

"It's all going to be okay, I promise we'll get through this," her voice soothes and I recognize who is holding me, who I am clinging onto as my lifeline. The one person who I have always felt incredibly grounded by.

"Can you hear me, Lena?" Avi asks me and I nod against her shoulder. She hugs me tighter, and I wrap my arms around her neck and hug her back.

"What the hell happened?" She asks me, and there is an edge of desperation to her voice. I try to speak, but the pain that shoots through the muscles in my neck startles me. Sitting back slightly, I touch my throat and feel nothing wrong with it.

"Did something happen to your throat?" Aviva asks me and I pause. I shake my head no, but her gentle hand still brushes along my throat and I see her glasses are down her nose and she doublechecks.

"I don't see anything but your vocal cords are inflamed and the muscles seem tense," she says softly and I reach forward with a shaking hand to push her glasses back up and tuck the loose curl behind her ear.