Total pages in book: 56
Estimated words: 52864 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 264(@200wpm)___ 211(@250wpm)___ 176(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 52864 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 264(@200wpm)___ 211(@250wpm)___ 176(@300wpm)
“I told you to forget about what I’d said before,” I muttered, feeling the floor drop out from under me. I gazed into her sad, confused eyes, my heart sinking. “I did not mean it, Piper. I was only trying to tell you…” I groaned with trepidation. “I did not mean it. I do not want you to forget everything I’ve said. You must remember, Piper. I command you.”
She looked at me and then smiled sweetly. “Remember what?”
Oh God. Fucking hell. I had unintentionally erased everything I’d ever said from her memories. And all that remains are her feelings. Feelings that had no context and made no sense to her. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck!
I sat next to her on the bed. “Piper, I am commanding you to remember everything. Every word I have ever said to you. All of it.” I was more powerful now. This had to work.
“I don’t know what you mean.” She took my hand, kissing the top. “But I’m here for you. Whatever you need. Anything at all.”
I covered my face with my hands. This cannot be happening.
“Draco?” My mother’s voice came from the other side of the door.
I looked up, startled. “What are you doing here?” How had she even gotten in?
“I came to talk,” she said.
“I will—I will be right out.” I looked at Piper. “Get dressed. We’re going to figure this out. Maybe my mother knows what to do.”
“Do about what?” Piper said.
“Fuck. Never mind. Just, please, put on some clothes.”
Suddenly, I heard heated whispering in the living room. “Ansin, what are you doing? I said no. We have to talk to him first.”
“Fuck that,” he said. “My job is to protect you and our family. He’s not my family.”
Suddenly, smoke started coming from under the bedroom door. It smelled like lit newspapers and pine needles or something.
I ran to the door and opened it. A wall of flames jumped toward me. I slammed the door shut, blocking out the heat and fire.
“Jeni!” I yelled. “What are you doing?”
“Draco, what’s happening?” asked Piper, still on the bed, looking like a lost puppy.
“I do not know.”
The phone on the nightstand rang, and I picked it up. “Hello?”
“I am so sorry, Draco.” It was my mother. “I didn’t want to do this. Please forgive me.” She began sobbing, and then the line went dead.
“Who was it?” Piper asked.
“My mother. She came here to kill me. Get dressed.”
Outside, sirens and alarms went off. I expected the overhead sprinklers to turn on, but they didn’t, and I could guess why. My mother and Ansin intended for me to die here.
“What are we going to do?” Piper had finally put on her jeans and a shirt and was standing on the balcony. The worried look in her eyes tore me apart. I’d fucked her and fucked her mind.
It wasn’t that she’d stopped being Piper or could not comprehend our lives were in danger, but she didn’t know why—why she was here in this hotel or why she’d been in my bed. She was lost in an emotional swamp where nothing made sense.
I knew because I could see inside her head. It was too dark, too depressing for even me. Every thought she had crashed into a wall because I had sliced pieces of her memories away. Not just a moment, but entire blocks of moments.
I have to help her. Fucking hell, I cannot leave her like this. Whatever it took to make her whole again, I would do it. That was, if we survived.
“Draco! We have to get out of here.”
“I know, Piper. Stay calm.” I joined her on the balcony and leaned over the railing. Below, guests scrambled outside, and firefighters rushed in. The staff ushered people away from the structure.
We had fresh air, which would give us time, but there was nowhere to go. The fire was already burning through the bedroom wall, turning the plaster black. Soon, it would reach inside the room, and we were too high up to jump or be rescued by ladders.
I sat down at the small table outside and closed my eyes. Think, Draco. Fucking think. I had all the power in the world, but it had not prepared me for this.
How could my mother do this? It did not make sense. Back at the beach, I’d felt her remorse. I’d felt what was in her heart. She wanted to help me.
Help you, like she did thirty years ago? I said to myself.
My entire body sagged with defeat. Then came the rage.
Piper kneeled in front of me and took my hand, pressing it to her lips with a lingering kiss. “As long as I die with you, Draco, I’m happy. You’re everything to me.”
I snapped my hand away. “Do not say that. You will live, even if I have to kill everyone on this fucking planet to build a damned ramp. You do not end here.” Especially not as this pathetic version of herself.