But he was, in that moment, the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.
He was at my side before I could even respond. His expression held a striking mix of terror, pain, and relief. Hayden grasped my face. I didn’t even care that it hurt. “Ember, oh God, Ember, please say something.”
I started to cry and blabber at once, telling him things I was sure he already figured it out while he shrugged out of his sweater and tried to tuck it around my shoulders. Beyond him, I saw Kurt in his cowboy duster poking at Theo with his booted foot.
“Holy shit,” Kurt muttered, shaking his head. “Isn’t he an English teacher at the high school?”
Hayden peered behind me and swore violently. “Kurt, get over here. Em, just hold on a little while longer and we’ll get you out of here.”
“How… how did you find me?” I asked, shivering uncontrollably.
“Parker traced you, with Phoebe’s help.” His breath felt exquisitely warm against my chilled skin—
something I thought I’d never feel again. “When I woke in the hospital and found out you weren’t there—
that you weren’t even at the accident—I knew something was wrong. I got ahold of the twins, who called Kurt. They picked me up and we started driving around until they could feel you.”
“Jesus,” Kurt muttered again. “These are metal. There is no way we’re going to get them off.” He slid out of the duster and dropped it over me. “Jesus. Ember, stop shaking. You’re ripping the skin off your wrists.”
“I… I c-can’t help it.”
“It’s okay.” Hayden tucked the edges of Kurt’s coat around me. He stroked my face and my forehead with quick brushes of his fingers. A strong shudder ran through me as he brushed back my hair. “Em, I need you to open your eyes and look at me.”
I didn’t realize I’d closed them.
“I need to melt the metal to get you free.” He paused, his eyes sharpened by a protective shine. “I need you to be perfectly still.”
“O-Okay.”
Hayden glanced over at Kurt and nodded. “Make sure she doesn’t move.”
“You got it.” Kurt shifted closer and groaned. “Dammit—rats. I hate rats.”
“M-Me too, b-but I think they h-hate me more,” I said.
Kurt laughed, a real honest-to-God laugh. “Trust me, that’s a good thing.”
I rested my head against Hayden’s chest as he felt around behind me. His body heat felt marvelous, so much so that I ignored the first flare of intense heat, but then I felt pain. Real pain.
I stiffened.
“Don’t move,” he whispered. “You helped us find you, did you know that?”
I flinched and squeezed my eyes shut. I should’ve thought about it more when he said he needed to melt the metal. The kind of heat needed to do that had to be ridiculous. My wrists felt like they had been shoved in an oven. Pressing my face into his chest, I whimpered.
“Em? Did you know?” he asked again, coaxing a response from me. “
N-No.”
“Yeah, you kept thinking about Mr. Theo and being in a basement. We wouldn’t have known to check down here if it hadn’t been for you. You did really good, Em.”
Searing, red-hot pain shot through my arms, but I managed not to move. Melting metal stung like holy hell. But it was working. The cuffs were already loosening.
“It’ll be just a little bit more, and we’ll be done.”
“She’s pretty messed up, Hayden,” Kurt said like I wasn’t right there. “You need to hurry up. Her leg is bleeding real bad.”
Probably due to my heart rate skyrocketing. Between the burning around my hands and everything that’d happened, I was pushed to my limits, but I needed to make sure that, if they failed, they wouldn’t take me to my sister. “P-Promise me, you won’t take me to Olivia. If t-this doesn’t work—”
“This will work,” Hayden said. “And if it doesn’t, I’m not losing you.”
“Y-You can’t use Olivia again. I-I won’t allow it.”
“Dammit, don’t argue with me about this!”
In that instant, I realized Hayden would risk anything—anyone—to make sure I lived. But I couldn’t expose her to this. Not again. The handcuffs melted enough that, with Hayden and Kurt’s combined efforts, they broke apart. My muscles screamed in protest, but I ignored them.
I grabbed Kurt’s hand, the raw flesh around my wrists bubbling. His mouth dropped open, a mixture of fear and disbelief crawling across his face. “Don’t let Olivia see me like this. D-Don’t let her touch me. Please.”
Kurt’s gaze bounced to Hayden, then back to me. “Okay. Okay.”
“Dammit, Kurt,” Hayden roared. “I won’t let her die!”
But Kurt was on his feet the moment I let go of him, digging in his pocket. “Jonathan has connections at the hospital, Hayden. He’s already on his way. I’ll call him.”
The heat of his anger poured off him. “If anything happens to her…”
“I know. You’ll kill me.” Kurt pulled out his cell and cursed. “I have to go upstairs. I’m not getting a signal.”
“I’ll get her. Just go.” Hayden turned back to me, already dismissing Kurt. His gaze traced every inch of me, enduring every cut, scrap, and bruise. His voice turned husky. “Em, I thought—I thought I’d lost you.”
“N-No, I’m here.”
Hayden leaned in and brought his mouth down on mine. I sank into him—his warmth and his love.
When he pulled back, his eyes shone in the dim light.
“I want to go h-home.”
“Hospital first,” he said. “Then we go home. Together.”
My eyes fell around the dark recesses of the cellar—the area I’d thought would be my final resting place. They roamed over the damp walls covered in mold and over Hayden’s shoulder where I saw Mr.
Theo—on his feet, gun in hand.
“Hayden—watch—” But it was too late. Hayden gasped and shifted as if he planned on shielding me with his body. I broke into a wild struggle, so powerful that Hayden jolted to his left just as the gun fired.
Mr. Theo missed, but he was aiming again.
Using the last of my strength, I pushed hard. I heard Hayden yell my name, but I focused on Mr. Theo.
He fumbled with the gun. With all the burns, he moved in halting jerks. Anger and desperation propelled me across the slick floor. The pain didn’t matter—nothing did but stopping Mr. Theo.
He leveled the gun, not at me, but at Hayden. I stretched out, running my hand under the hem of his charred pants and circling the sticky flesh of his ankle. He jerked once, twice. His entire body went rigid, even his fingers. The gun slipped from his hand, hitting the floor with a sharp rattle of finality. I held on.
Mr. Theo dropped to his knees, arms splayed out like some kind of fallen angel. A grayish color raced over his skin, veins bulging and darkening as if someone had taken a charcoal pencil and traced the fine lines. He turned his head and stared down at me, mouth gaped in a silent scream. In that heartbeat, our eyes met.
I felt my lips spread into a smile.
A great and terrible spasm rolled through his body, then his eyes rolled back and he fell face-first into a cold puddle. Mr. Theo didn’t move again.
Over the next couple of hours I slipped in and out of reality. When I woke in a warm place, I reached for Hayden. My fingers curled into the empty air until someone gently guided my arm back.
Cromwell moved into my line of vision. “Hayden’s all right. Just getting checked over again.”
I blinked and my head rolled in the other direction. A white curtain fluttered and a machine beeped.
There were voices far away. Or were they close? Things were kind of foggy from there on out. Someone in medical scrubs shot a syringe into the IV tube snaking from my arm, which didn’t help with my observation skills at all—not to mention I felt like I was floating halfway off the bed.