Fight With Me

Chapter 36

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Chapter — There Is No Outside

Josie

I wake up with the feeling that I am somewhere I am not supposed to be.

My skin feels damp, like I have been outside for hours. My chest hurts when I breathe. For a moment I am sure I am not in bed, that I am on the ground somewhere cold and open and exposed.

I sit up too fast and hit Hope's shoulder.

She wakes instantly, turning toward me like she was already halfway there. "Hey," she says, quiet but sharp with concern. "What's wrong?"

The room looks normal. The windows are closed. Everything is still.

My stomach twists hard enough that I have to grab the sheets. "I thought it was raining," I say. The words feel thin in my mouth. "I could feel it."

Hope pushes herself up, fully awake now. Her hand is already on my arm. "Raining how?"

I try to remember, but the details are already blurring. "It was dark," I say. "It hurt."

She goes still.

"I dreamed that too," she says.

That is when the nausea gets worse.

I lean forward, pressing my forehead into her shoulder. The second I touch her, the dizziness eases just a little, like something inside me settles when I am close enough.

Hope wraps her arms around me without hesitation.

"Okay," she says, low and steady. "You're here. You're with me."

I nod, even though my hands are shaking.

For a few seconds, it works. The room feels solid again. My body stops trying to fold in on itself.

Then my vision flickers.

The walls ripple like heat over pavement. The ceiling darkens, bleeding into the shape of trees. I blink hard, but it does not go away.

"Hope," I whisper. "I think something's wrong."

"I know," she says immediately.

I pull back just enough to look at her.

She is staring at the door like she expects it to explode inward. Her jaw is clenched. There is a thin line of blood at her temple, like she hit her head on something sharp.

My breath catches. "You're bleeding."

She frowns and touches her temple. Her fingers come away clean.

"I'm not," she says. Then, slower, "Are you seeing that too?"

The floor tilts.

I nod. "I can smell smoke."

Hope swears under her breath and pulls me closer, almost rough with it. "Stay with me. Do not let go."

"I'm not letting go," I say, panic rising. "You're the one who looks like you're somewhere else."

Her grip tightens until it almost hurts.

"Josie," she says, her voice shaking now. "I can feel you bleeding."

I look down at myself.

There is nothing there.

My heart starts racing anyway.

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Hope

The problem is that I cannot tell which pain is mine.

My ribs ache like I took a bad hit. My head is buzzing. I can feel fear in my throat that does not feel like it belongs to me, sharp and sour, like a reflex that did not come from my own body.

Josie is shaking in my arms.

Every instinct in me is screaming that something is trying to take her.

"Hey," I say, forcing my voice steady. "Look at me."

She does, and for half a second her eyes are not her eyes. They are too bright. Too empty.

My magic flares without me meaning it to. The air in the room pulses outward, rattling the windows.

Josie gasps like she has been punched.

"Hope," she cries, clutching her stomach.

I freeze. "I didn't mean to. I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

I pull my magic back hard, like grabbing a live wire. The pain in my chest spikes when I do it, sharp enough to make me hiss.

Josie presses herself against me again, desperate. "Don't pull away," she says. "Please."

"I'm right here," I say, even though my hands are trembling now too. "I'm not going anywhere."

There is a knock at the door.

Then another, louder.

"Hope?" Freya's voice, tense. "We felt a surge."

Josie's fingers dig into my shirt like she thinks they are going to drag me out of the room.

"No," she says immediately. "Don't let them take you."

Freya opens the door anyway.

The second she steps inside, the pressure in my head doubles. Magic snaps across the room like static. Josie cries out and drops to her knees, dragging me down with her.

Freya swears and rushes forward. "Okay. That answers that."

Keelin appears behind her, already assessing, already worried. "They're reacting to proximity changes," she says. "The room shifted when you opened the door."

Rebekah leans in the hallway, arms crossed, trying for humor and failing. "You know, most couples just get annoyed when someone interrupts."

Josie glares at her, eyes wild. "If you make her leave, I will break something."

I do not doubt her for a second.

Freya crouches in front of us. "Josie," she says gently. "We are not trying to separate you."

My stomach twists violently.

Josie makes a small, broken sound. "You're lying."

Freya exhales. "We think the bond is enforcing closeness. The more you stay together, the stronger it gets."

I feel it then. A sharp pull in my chest, like something inside me tightening its grip.

Josie clutches my wrist. "That's not true," she says, shaking. "She's the only thing keeping me grounded."

"I know," Freya says softly. "That is what makes this dangerous."

The room blurs again.

For a moment, we are not in the compound. We are standing in the woods, blood on our hands, something screaming behind us. I cannot tell whose memory it is.

Josie screams my name.

I wrap my arms around her and refuse to let go.

"Then you'll have to kill me," I say, my voice low and feral, "because I am not leaving her."

No one argues.

And that scares me more than anything else.

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