go of the shirt, hearing her velvet voice soothe me.
She gasped and stepped back.
“I tried to spare you.” I hurried and put the shirt on. It clung to my cold skin. Her eyes seared through it. “Nasty wound, huh? It’s my fatal wound where the tree got me.”
She took a step forward, and I backed up. I couldn’t let her touch me. I was damaged and would never be what she deserved. I was dead, and Bee was everything life should be.
I bumped into the wall and my back was flat against a poster of a pony in a field.
“I want to hear your version about that night. I’ve told you mine already.”
“No.”
“I need to hear it. Please!”
“If this is your attempt to make me ascend, it’s too late.” I put my head down and blonde strands fell into my face.
She lifted my chin. “Please Aiden, for me, for Sabrina. I beg you.”
I fought to hold on to my guilt because I deserved to be miserable. “Your brother was supposed to bring Sabrina home, but he ditched us for some chick after the concert. I drove her instead. I think she was going to tell me everything—about you—about her.”
I paused, taking a deep breath, and continued. “It was hard to see that night because it was raining hard. It was the fifth day straight and unrelenting. Anyways, Sabrina and I were still hyped up from the concert and goofing off. I drove that road every day and didn’t give it much thought.
“I . . . I had plenty enough time to stop if I had paid attention to the road as I should’ve been. I should’ve seen the large crack, the collapsed bridge. I slammed on my brakes, but it was too late and we went over. The windshield cracked and a tree impaled my chest. It didn’t hurt, but I couldn’t move. The car was somehow teetering on a boulder and the fallen tree. Then water rushed at us. It tore the door open and Sabrina lost consciousness. She started to lean toward the open door. I tried grabbing for her hand, but it slipped out of mine. I couldn’t move to grasp it again. I realized if I didn’t do something it would be too late, so I managed to pull the tree branch out of my chest. Blood poured out, and the last thing I remember is seeing Sabrina open her eyes and reach for me, screaming.” Tears filled my eyes and spilled down my face. I struggled to breathe.
Bee took me in her arms and cradled my head in the crook of her neck.
“I tried to save her. I tried! I really, really tried! I remember darkness and then I was on a river with a dead president. Reina rowed next to us in her gondola. Abe was going to take me to a better place, and he soothed me. I was so scared. I begged him to tell me what happened. It was Reina who told me Sabrina had drowned, and I had crashed the car. I refused to ascend.”
She grasped my face in her hands, forcing me to look her in the eyes. “Look at me, Aiden Grant. It. Is. Not. Your. Fault. At first I thought it was my fault, Jaleb thinks it’s his fault. You think it’s your fault, and its fate. Stay still so I can get rid of that nasty wound.”
Twenty
Bee’s energy surged with an overprotective need to heal me. I forgot about my deal with the Ancients when she looked me in the eyes and slid her hand under my shirt. Her warm fingers slowly made their way to my wound. Her emotions were a tangled mess of uncertainty.
Her dark eyes bore into mine, willing me to forgive myself and accept that it was our time to expire. It felt so right to have her with me for eternity. I half smiled at the thought of her wearing a black cloak.
I sucked in a breath that froze my stomach. With careful scrutiny she unfolded her fingers and placed them over the open wound. I could still see the branch through the windshield going into me, the webbed cracks, and the shattered glass.
I closed my eyes when Bee wrapped her arms around my waist and melded into me. Her energy was pure and flowed gently. It tingled, her power was stronger and she knew how to focus it now. Skin filled in over the large hole on my chest.
“What were