Stolen

Chapter Twenty-One

Knox

I'd caught her before she hit the ground and carried her back to her makeshift living quarters. I hated the room. It was devoid of anything of hers. A blank slate for a girl who couldn't remember who she was and what she liked. I sat patiently at the desk and waited until she stirred. When she finally came to, I let out a breath that I hadn't realized I had been holding in.

"What happened?" Her voice was groggy as she attempted to push herself up into a sitting position.

"Well, it could have been one of two things. One, you either loathe the idea of being intimate with me and therefore could not stand to even breathe the same air as me anymore. Or two, the idea of my naked body was enough to make you swoon and you fainted from sheer joy at the idea of it. I'm telling myself it was the latter of the two." I joked dryly. I didn't want her to realize how badly she had scared me when she went down.

"It was definitely the first one." She muttered. I smiled at her playful insult. It showed me that a small piece of her soul was still intact. Ember rubbed at the side of her head before fully turning those green eyes on me.

"Did people see?" It was a quiet, hopeful, question.
I shook my head, "No one saw." I lied.

Ember visibly relaxed as she let her face fall into her hands. "What's wrong with me?"

Her small voice came out in a terrified whisper. It shattered my heart where it was beating in my chest. I dropped to my knees in front of her and pulled her hands away from her face without thinking. Ember let me touch her, didn't try to move from me as I reached up and wiped the tears flowing freely from her green eyes.

"There is nothing wrong with you." I told her quickly.

"Everyone keeps telling me you're the bad guy." She said softly.

I didn't flinch away, "I was. But that's not who I am anymore."

"What changed you?" She sniffled.

For a second I let myself debate whether to be truthful with her. She'd asked me to tell her everything and I had promised I would, even if I had told her half truths to hurt her. I sighed and shook my head. Be honest.

"You did." I admitted.

Ember looked at me warily. She didn't believe me. At least a part of her didn't. And I had no idea just how large that part of her was. She looked at me and her features softened for just a second before confusion took over. I'd seen that look before, when we had been in the square together and then earlier in the booth. I had wondered then the same thing I was wondering now.

"Where did you go just now?" I tapped the side of my head to indicate what I meant.

For a long moment, she just looked me up and down. Sizing me up before deciding how to respond. "It's a war zone in my head right now. I can't even trust my own thoughts and memories. Sometimes I get the strangest sense of Deja vu but I don't know why or what is triggering it. I remember you being the bad guy. The guy that everyone says you are. Cocky and arrogant and full of yourself. But..." She paused for a long moment, "But I have these moments where that doesn't feel like you. It feels like a front. It feels like you're pretending to be that guy because that's who they think you are. I told you I didn't think you were the guy who did this to me, and that was true, but my memories say you are. I don't understand it. Those memories of you...torturing me. They're so hazy and foggy but then..." She stopped suddenly like she was physically afraid to keep going. I reached for her hand slowly, squeezing it gently. She stared at her fingers in mine for a long moment, "Sometimes it's more than Deja vu. I think some of them have come back. Those are the ones that are clear. They're so clear and they feel so real it takes my breath away." Her eyes searched mine as she admitted what had been weighing on her.