Vengeance

Chapter 23 - recovery

Noah's POV

I return to my room spotting Liberty on the bed. She wasn't hyperventilating anymore and the tears on her cheeks had dried.

"Is he okay?" She asked, looking up with sad eyes.

"Yeah" I mutter as I turned away from her, struggling to maintain eye contact as I lie.

"Come here" she says, patting the spot on the bed next to her.

I swiftly stride over to the bed and sit down next to her, wrapping my arm around her waist and hoisting her onto my lap. I bury my head into the nape of her neck, her calming vanilla scent enters my lungs.

I feel her arms rest around my shoulders as we sit in silence. A storm of emotions battled in my chest: anger, sadness, betrayal.

Her weight shifted as she lifted my chin forcing me to look into her eyes.

"You okay?" She whispers.

"mm" is all I manage to say as a wave of guilt washes over me. "Just tired." I add as her unconvinced frown deepens.

I force a smile as I rise to my feet, my arm still around her waist as her legs tighten around me.

"Let's get ready for bed" I say placing her down and walking into the bathroom.

I hear her soft footsteps behind me as we enter my bathroom.

I hand her pink toothbrush to her as I rest against the counter with mine in hand. We brush our teeth in silence; I barely notice as the train of thoughts run off the rails in my mind.

Albert's secret sessions with Andrew and I are draining me physically and mentally, but the most soul crushing aspect about it all is lying to Liberty.

My eyes drift to her noticing her mouth moving but not registering her words.

"huh?" I let out softly as I pull her closer

"What's on your mind? You seem distant." She repeats softly. I stare into her bright blue eyes, which shimmer like sunlight dancing across water.

"Just thinking about everything...and how beautiful you are" I grin at her trying to lighten the mood.

Her pale cheeks turn a subtly pink as she giggles softly, "what's 'everything'?" she air quotes as she gains composure.

"Battle strategy and stuff" I grumble as I turn to rinse my toothbrush and put it away. I noticed that she had finished brushing her teeth. She gives me a sceptical look before we walk back to the bedroom.

I turn off the light then pull my shirt over my head before climbing into the bed next to her. We lay silently facing each other. A soft frown rested on her face.

"Don't worry about me Libby" I say then kiss her temple as I pull her closer.

"I always worry about you Noah... I love you" she says into my chest. My hand tightens around her waist as I feel the world slow.

Her words hang in the air, ricocheting through my head, flooding every part of me with warmth.

I wrest my chin on her head as we cuddle.

"I love you too." The words slide off my tongue as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

I could feel her chest rise and fall reminding me that this was real.

I lay awake as her breathing evened, this moment making me forget everything else.

Maddison's POV

The next morning I sat on my desk staring at Liberty's grey orbs as her hair floated upwards. I observed as the items around me began hovering in the air. She was sat cross-legged on my room floor.