Breathe

Chapter 11

Cian

When I returned to Vinny's bedroom with a mug of black coffee and a frown on my face, he was seated on top of his bed, legs pulled to his chest, sheets wrapped tautly around him. He was still shuddering, but seemed less dazed than he had been when he'd come to. Lucie sat in Vinny's favorite bean bag chair, in the corner of the room, her expression dull yet apprehensive. Her round eyes, dark as the night sky beyond the window, met mine as I strolled in.

I handed off the coffee to Vinny. He blinked at it, then at me. "Caffeine at night isn't good for—"

"Like you want to go back to sleep after that?"

That silenced him. He took the mug from me, and I took a seat on the edge of his bed. "Want to tell me what just happened? What you mean by you were dying?"

Lucie scooted her bean bag chair closer, twisting her hair up into a ponytail. She looked exhausted, and that much made sense—it had to have been a while since she'd gone back to her own house, let alone had time to sleep. I was so selfish. I'd asked her to wait around for me, without even thinking about what she wanted. Her parents had to be worried sick.

The gleam in her eyes, however, told me her parents were the last of her worries.

Vinny took a hesitant sip of the coffee I'd brought him, paused, then set the mug on his nightstand. Wringing his hands, he said, "I went to sleep, and, it was this horrible...this horrible nightmare, yet it felt so real. Like I was really drowning again. I don't remember much. Just that I was dying, and then you woke me up, and I was confused for a second. I didn't understand why you kept calling me."

"That's all?" Lucie pressed. "That's all you can remember?"

Vinny lent her an apologetic glance. "I'm sorry. My brain was going crazy. If I do remember anything else, I can't put it into words. I'm just glad it was a nightmare and not real..."

"Not real?" I scoffed. "Vinny, you started suffocating. Your face turned purple. If I hadn't woken you up, who knows what would have happened. I don't know what the heck that was, but it was more than a nightmare."

"Cian," Lucie snapped. "Don't make him any more scared than he is already."

"Lying to him about this isn't going to do us a bit of good," I shot back.

"Right! Right, because you haven't already told plenty of lies!"

"Lucie—"

"Guys," Vinny intervened, his expression tense. He closed his eyes, holding up a hand. "Don't argue over me like I'm just a kid—"

"I know you're not telling the truth about Nick," Lucie went on, as if Vinny hadn't said anything. I expected him to keep talking, to end this discussion before it began, but Lucie's sentence drove him to silence. I exhaled, fighting images of the fallen angel's sinister smile, his fingers digging into my scar tissue. "He threatened you, didn't he? So you don't want us to get involved? Is this another attempt to keep the both of us safe?"

"If I told you," I cautioned, "then you'd go after him. I know you would. And something tells me that's exactly what he wants."

"So you're not going to tell us," Vinny muttered.

I shifted my gaze from Lucie to him, brushing my tongue over the scar at my mouth, listening to the silence. I had them here, the two people who mattered most in the world to me. My brother, who'd been my companion since I'd held him in my arms the morning after he'd been born, his face red and pinched, only a single lock of flaxen hair plastered to his forehead—and Lucie, the girl who had enchanted me with her daring, coal-colored eyes and unshakeable spirit. These were the people I'd burn cities for, would give my everything for. I had to protect them, even if it meant keeping them in the dark, didn't I?