Changing You ✦ The Sequel

Chapter 17 {Z}

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✦ ZACH ✦

I woke up to the sound of my name.

"Zach," she muttered under her breath, sounding strange. "Zach, please."

Her voice was tight with despair and my head yanked around to check on her.

In a split second I realised we had fallen asleep with the lights on and I was still wearing my jeans.

But one look at her, and I really didn't care.

Her face was scrunched up, almost as if she was in pain, her eyes squeezed so forcefully shut I didn't understand how there could still be tears slipping out of them.

I felt my heart stop. Drop. Break. Shatter into a million pieces. And it hurt. It hurt so much to see her like this.

I had seen her battling death, every inch of her covered in blood. I had seen her panicked out of her mind. I had seen her losing control. I had seen her scared. Hurt. Angry.

But even after everything we had been through together, I had never seen her cry.

It felt like an anchor dropped down in my stomach. The sudden urge of protectiveness that overwhelmed me caught me off guard.

I wanted to do everything to make it stop. I wanted to do everything for her. I'd carry her to the other side of the world, I'd give her every coin I could find until she was rich, I'd fill her head with so many happy moments that every bad memory was forgotten.

I'd hunt down every person who was guilty for every single tear drop. Even if that someone was me. And no God could make me have mercy on them.

"Riley." I heard the worry in my own voice as I placed a hand on her bare shoulder, her skin boiling, clammy with a layer of sweat. "Ri, I'm here."

She didn't acknowledge me, didn't show she had heard me.

It took me a second to realise she wasn't awake at all. She was still fast asleep; stuck in what had to be a nightmare.

"No," she choked out, her hands clenching into fists around the sheets. "Stop. Let him go." She pressed her head further into the pillow. The sound of her sobs pierced right through my heart like glass splinters digging their way inside.

I ran my hand up and down her arm. "Hey, Princess, you gotta wake up for me right now," I said softly.

She flinched away from me, her voice rising, the agony on her features increasing. "Don't touch him!" She sobbed, shaking her head slightly. "Stop. Stop hurting him." She choked on her own voice, on her own tears, her words softening. "Please stop..."

I was shaking her awake by now, repeating her name and telling her to wake up louder and louder, over and over again.

She shot up so fast her head almost knocked right against mine. She gasped for air, her eyes wide.

My hands were on her arms, grabbing her shoulders, cupping her cheeks, steadying her. By the panicked way her eyes were darting around the room, blinking against the faint line between reality and fantasy, I could tell she had no idea where she was.