𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐅𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐄𝐍 𝐏𝐄𝐓𝐀𝐋𝐒 | hunger games ✓

chapter 29

━━･❪ 🌸 ❫ ･━━

"Caelum!"

Panic seized Daphne's heart. She gripped his shoulders, giving him a violent shake. He didn't respond. Not even a flutter of an eyelash. His head simply lolled to the side.

"No," Daphne's voice hitched in her throat. "No, no, please!"

She lay him down flat on the ground, pressing her palms over his chest. She began rapid chest compressions, frantically thrusting the heel of her hands against his sternum. Her mind was a whirlwind of hysteria, her own breath becoming harder and harder to push out of her lungs.

Tears sprung into her eyes after a full minute of compressions. What if she was too late? How long has it been since he ceased to breathe? What if she'd slept through the cannon shot, and he was already beyond saving?

With a desperate whimper, Daphne pried his jaw open. After a moment's hesitation, she pinched his nose and lowered her mouth onto his, lending him her own breath. She felt his chest rise the slightest bit upon her exhale, his lungs filling with her air.

She alternated between chest compressions and mouth-to-mouth, begging him to wake up. Her voice was hoarse, wracked with distress and held-back tears. Her arms ached, she was winded from giving up so much of her own breath, but she couldn't bear to stop. His skin had turned worryingly ashen.

Finally, finally after another thirty seconds that felt like an eternity, Caelum's eyes flew open. Daphne, in the middle of a round of mouth-to-mouth, scrambled backwards, squeaking in surprise. Caelum propelled himself upright, gasping deep breath after deep breath. His entire body trembled with the effort. His eyes, now a dull shade of murky green, slowly lifted to meet Daphne's dark ones.

"What happened?" He rasped, his chest heaving as if he'd just completed an intense sprint.

Daphne didn't reply immediately. She lunged forward, wrapping her arms around him. She felt him tense beneath her, but she was too swamped with relief to care.

"I thought I lost you," she whispered, squeezing him tighter. "You stopped breathing and you wouldn't respond. Damn it, Caelum, don't ever do that to me!"

"I'm sorry," Caelum huffed a chuckle. "I'll try not to go into respiratory arrest again."

Daphne didn't want to let him go. Her heart seemed to speed up as she nestled her chin into the crook of his neck, finding that it fit perfectly. His own arms were around her as well. She let her hands drape across his back, feeling the wings of his shoulder blades and the lithe muscles bordering his spine. His very bare spine.

Daphne drew back then, untangling herself from the embrace and turning around before he could see her cheeks flush. She reached for his shirt, balling it up and throwing it at him. "Put on some clothes, damn it."

Though the wetness of the blood had dried overnight, the stains were still stark against the gray fabric. Nonetheless, Caelum tugged it on, then his vest over it.  To Daphne's surprise, he had a crooked smirk on his face.

"Why?" He teased, a mischievous glimmer in his eye. "Don't like what you see?"

"What-" Daphne stared at him, nearly incredulous. Her face must've been glowing like Rudolph's nose. "You must be loopy from oxygen deprivation."

Caelum's smirk turned into a lazy grin. It was the type of grin he often used with his friends, joking around between classes at school. The type he used to give her before he went cold a year ago. It was very out of character now. Daphne refused to admit whether she liked it or not.