Wicked Love | √

Thirty One

It's becoming hard to catch my breath, the air so icy it stings, that my lungs begin to burn as I find myself gasping in desperate need.

Smoke darkly rises from the attic along with the dancing flames that it completely eclipses the moon that once hung so brightly in the sky.

Suddenly a girl is by my side. "Hey, are you okay?" Concern is clear in her words.

But I can barely hear her through the ringing in my ears. Her face is blurry through the tears streaming like a faucet from my eyes.

"I...I just need to go," I mumble out messily.

Preston, my heart aches.

He could be hurt. He could be trapped. He could be dead. Pain stretches in my chest in acknowledgment that I avoided him for days and now I could actually lose him. This is Nathaniel. I just know it. He took him from me in some fucked up revenge.

The entire world feels off kilter. I feel like I'm falling as I try to move through the thick crowd of people that are now surrounding the burning library.

I'm pushing anxiously through people when my shoulder hits someone so hard that it sends me spinning until my back falls into a large chest. Arms instantly wrap around me, catching me, holding my body up and I can't help but sink into them.

Because I can smell him. I can feel him. It is him. I know it.

My hands grasp onto his, needing to feel him, as tears continue to stream down my face and shaky gasps escape me.

"It's okay. I'm here Jameson," he whispers. "I'm here," he repeats as if he knows I need his reassurance.

I rotate in his grasp and tuck my head into his chest seeking out his touch. I let the tears flow from me freely as he holds me close and soothes me. His hands rub against my back and he continues to whisper in my ear that he's beside me. That he's here. Because Preston isn't dead. He's alive and by my side.

"How?" I finally hiccup as I pull back just enough to look up at him. I watch as red and blue lights flash across his face and the smell of fire begins to tinge my nose.

His hand lifts to wipe the tears from my face with his thumb. "I left to come find you."

"Find me?" I question as my heart continues to race in my chest. My brain sees him in front of me and is aware he isn't in the fire, but my body is still rushing with adrenaline and fear.

A ghost of a smile lifts his lips. The wind turning his cheeks pink. "You told me not to let you run Jameson, so I was allowing you space," he tells me.

"Three days was all I was allowed?" I tease weakly with a sniffle.

His thumb continues to trace my jaw gently. "It took all my fucking strength to even give you that," he confesses to me as he moves to tuck a stray piece of hair behind my ear. "I missed you so much."

I let my head fall into his chest at his soft confession. I fall into his warmth, and I breathe him in to help steady my practically bursting heart.

We hold each other until the tips of my fingers feel frozen. Until the crowd around us begins to disperse. He feels me finally give in and shiver in his arms. "Do you want me to take you home?" His words are whispered into my hair and I find myself clinging onto him even tighter, never wanting to let him go.

I shake my head. "I want to come home with you," I whimper.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes," I state without hesitation. I can't even imagine being away from him right now. I need to touch him and see him, because for a few terrifying moments I realized what life would be like without Preston Rothwell.