Lucy’s POV
The next time I came awake, things were different. Above, was a bright source of light that immediately hurt my eyesight, forcing me to throw and arm over my face. After a few moments of understanding that there was no one out to harm me, I sat up and looked around. I was in a quiet little room with white walls and simply a bed, which was the one I sat on. As I studied the place, familiarity came to me, reminding me that this was one of the rooms in the infirmary.
“Hello?” I called out. My voice croaked and cracked, sounding grating even to my own ears. I needed water. I slid off the bed and slowly made my way to the door of the room, wanting a way out. I didn’t like the fact that I was all alone. I wrapped my arms around myself and the little, papery gown that had been placed over me. My skin was now clear and free of any trace of blood.
Before I reached the door, it opened, and Shaun stepped inside looking better than I had seen him in a while. A strangled sound dropped like a pearl from my throat and I found myself reaching out for him desperately.
“My love,” he said, pulling me to him in a singular move so fluid and sweet that I almost melted from the relief and love bursting out of my chest. I had missed him so much. “I’ve missed you too, Lucy.”
I couldn’t stop myself from finding his mouth and kissing him with all the passion that remained inside of me. He returned the kiss with equal fervour, stirring up a flame inside of me that might have been absent for a while, but never quenched.
Before the kiss could deepen too much, I gently pulled away from him. “What about Scott and Seth? Tessa? Rosa? Tell me that Rosa is okay, please.”
The calm of face turned into sadness. He didn’t even have to say anything.
I shook my head. “No. That can’t be possible. She has to be fine! She has to be!” I tried to pull away from him, but he held on to me tightly, pressing my head to his chest as I started to cry. “No. She can’t be dead. She’s my family . . .”
“I know, and I’m sorry . . .”
“I want to see her.”
“Lucy . . .” his eyes were conflicted, but I could tell that he didn’t want me to suffer more than I had to. “I don’t think you should.”
“I want to. I need to see her, please.” I sagged against his body, feeling too weak to even hold myself up. She couldn’t be gone. “I fought for her. I fought for all of us. She couldn’t have left me.” A sob broke out of my throat so harshly. “She couldn’t have!”
–
The room she had been kept in was still full of light. It was a white room just like mine had been, but this one clearly served a different purpose, because it was away from where the living were tended to. She had been placed aside-already cast away from the living, and it tore my heart apart.
When Shaun showed me her body, I walked over to the silhouette covered with a sheet lying on a bed. There were no bloodstains. Nothing to indicate the trauma she had gone through before meeting this fate. Still though, in some strange way, I kept up the hope that maybe I was going to open it and see someone else.
Grabbing the edge of the white sheet with a shaking hand, I pulled down the sheet, revealing the face of one person I had hoped to never see in such a state.
My knees stopped trying to be strong, and buckled underneath me, sending me to the floor. “No . . .” Even my voice sounded defeated. I had lost so much . . . So much. And all for what?
“Rosa . . .” The sobs in my throat made it hard to say her name properly. Her face, white and pale, faced the ceiling, with her eyes closed in a peaceful expression. At least she looked. . . peaceful, and wasn’t left with any memories of how she died, or who had killed her.
Shaun came up to me and crouched behind me, touching my shoulders as a way of showing support. “It wasn’t your fault, Lucy. Despite everything, she supported you, and you didn’t let her down. Her last few moments, were ones where she was already a free woman once again. Hold on to that, Lucy.”
“I told her that things were going to be better. That we would find a way to fix things . . . But look at where she is now. She’s dead because I was careless, and the Admiral was able to find out about my connection to her.” I placed my head in my hands, full of shame.
“Don’t blame yourself. You did the best you could, and she knew it.”
“You don’t know that, okay? You don’t!” I tried to pull away from him, but as always, he just knew that that was the best moment to pull me even closer to him.
“I don’t want to say goodbye . . .” I said, feeling my resolve break. The evidence was right before my eyes, and I had no choice but to believe it.
My best friend was gone. And it wasn’t like the times when we’d fight and would still somehow find our way back to one another. This time, she wasn’t going to come back.
I turned around and buried my head in Shaun’s shoulder, allowing myself to crumble in his arms.
–
When my cries had finally gone silent, Shaun pulled me into his arms gently and lifted me off my feet. Against the warmth of his body, I could pretend that things weren’t as bad as they appeared. That somehow, I was going to just wake up and see someone entirely different.
“You have to see something, Lucy,” he said into my ear. “It’s very important.” From the seriousness in his voice, it sounded important. I looked to his face and saw that he wasn’t smiling either.
“What is it?”
“You’ll find out soon,” he said, before turning to Rosa’s body one last time, and giving her a silent farewell that could only be conveyed through a sincere gaze and a slight, deliberate nod.
We left the room, and he carried me all the way to a different wing of the palace. As we progressed, my mind reluctantly brought up the other pack leaders who had been enslaved as well.
“What about the other pack leaders?” I asked Shaun as he carried me.
“They’re fine. Some went home the very day you killed the admiral.”
“But what about the rogues? Aren’t they still on the loose?”
He glanced at me, and in his eyes I could see an expression I couldn’t name. “You’ll find out very soon. It’s part of why where we’re going is somewhere you need to be.”
I nodded, and waited quietly as we kept moving towards the main hall of the palace, where the nightmare had first started.