third book in the Evelyn Black series
• • mature - language, drugs, alcohol, sex • •
• slow slow-burn friends to lovers •
• soft burn romance •
[ all books listed in prologue via chronological order ]
George can't take the silence any longer, and he...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
"Why are you doing this?"
The blood on her face trickles down her porcelain skin like raindrops, her eyes wide and bleached with fear.
"I can't get out... please let me out..."
Needles pierce her back and down her legs, immobilizing her muscles and spreading a fresh, hot pain through her body. It's so sudden she gets lightheaded.
"No, no, no, no— please—"
But it doesn't stop. Her lips are sewn shut. The louder she tries to beg, the quieter her pleads echo inside her head.
She watches dark purple bleed into his flesh, a sharp CRACK pulling away the bones from the muscle under his skin. His scream gargles from his throat—
+++
The blood-curdling scream alerts almost everyone in the house. Fred and George sit up quickly from their dozing states; George is quick to light the lamps with his wand.
"Was that Ev?" Fred asks.
George stands up. "Yeah..."
They bolt out the door, cutting Ginny off in the hall. Multiple other feet clamber around the wooden corridors of the House of Black.
"Ev!" George yells halfway up the steps. He takes them three at a time, reaches her door in two steps down the hall, and bursts into her room; he quickly flicks on the sage-shaded lamp, finding her as quickly as he can.
She's curled into herself, backed against the iron head of her bed as she pants into her knees. A cool sweat coats her forehead, her neck, and her chest, and her hair covers her face.
"Hey, Evie," George kneels on the bed and reaches out to lay a hand on her shoulder. He feels her shake under his touch. "Ev, it was just a dream..." He crawls quickly across the covers to sit beside her.
Ginny leans against the dresser on the other side of the room and Fred hurries around the bed and sits on the edge closest to Ev.
"Evelyn?" Sirius calls from the stairway.
George turns his body towards her. He begins by gathering her hair out from around her face and shoulders and combing it gently down the center of her back.
Her breaths still uneven and her stomach turning with each moment she's realizing she's awake, she leans back into George's touch. Her knees press into her eyes and dull colors dance against the backs of her eyelids. Her lip trembles as she fights the cry prying at her throat, tears squeezing through her eyelids and down her thighs.
"Evelyn—" Sirius stops in the doorway, his silky red robe dangling off his frame. His eyes hold worry once they set sight on his daughter's curled, shaking form. "Are you alright?"
