us over to the shore, the water rushing around us.
I want to answer him, but I’m chattering too hard to form any coherent words.
He shakes his head, his muscles wound tight, water dripping from his soaked hair and onto his face. “Why the hell did you jump?”
I want to gape at his stupid question, but exhaustion is grasping ahold of me. My eyelids start to lower as water drips down my face.
“Don’t you dare go to sleep,” he growls as he drags me onto the shore.
My clothes are soaking wet, and I realize my jacket is no longer on my body.
“You wanted to be stubborn, so you keep it up,” Zay says, leaning over me, his storm cloud eyes full of fire. “Do you understand?”
I give a feeble nod. Or, well, I think I do. My head feels so heavy.
“My jacket …” I mutter. “I need it …”
“Forget your fucking jacket,” Zay snap, droplets of water dripping from his lips as snowflakes fall around him. “It’s gone.”
I start to cry. Well, I think I would, except my eyes are too frozen. “I need it … It’s important to me …”
When he lets go of me, I peel my eyelids open and try to move, but my arms are useless lumps of frozen flesh. So instead, I slump into the dirt.
Zay shouts something, his words muffled, sounding so far away. I’m drifting into the cold with the snowflakes …
Hunter’s gorgeous face appears over mine, his skin as pale as the snow. “Jesus,” he whispers. “I can’t believe you did that, little raven. Why …?” He crouches down beside me and rakes his fingers through his hair. “We need to get her somewhere warm.”
Again, I don’t understand why they’re acting as if they had no part in me jumping.
Jax only adds to that confusion as he rushes down the hill, shouting, “We need to get her in the car and get her warmed up before hypothermia kicks in!” When he reaches us, he nudges Hunter out of the way and scoops me up into his arms.
A drop of warmth starts to seep into me as his body heat engulfs me, but the cold hastily takes over again.
Numb.
I feel numb.
I feel nothing.
Weightless.
And it’s kind of blissful.
“Get the car running,” he orders as he jogs up the muddy, snowy incline that leads to where the SUV is parked.
Hunter hurries ahead, running up the hill much quicker than Jax, but he’s also not carrying my frozen ass. That doesn’t explain where Zay is.
I try to peer around Jax and see what Zay is doing, but my body is useless. Giving up, I turn my head toward Jax’s chest and close my eyes.
He feels so warm…
And smells like snow…
Snow I could drift away with…
Drift away back to that peace I felt for a split second as I sank…
“Raven, look at me.” Jax’s demanding tone yanks me out of my daze.
My eyes roll in my head as I try to do what he said.
Dizzy. Everything is spinning. But I’m starting to not feel cold anymore.
“Dammit, open your eyes,” he orders with a trace of anger in his tone. “Or I’m going to pry them open.”
I force my eyelids open, but only to glare at him.
“Don’t look at me like that. You keep your damn eyes open or I’ll do it for you. And it’ll be a lot more painful if I do it.” His expression is hard, his eyes as cold as that damn water.
I want to keep on glaring at him, but it’s becoming extremely complicated the more numbed over my body gets.
My eyes roll into the back of my head again as my eyelids force their way closed.
“Dammit,” he curses, quickening his pace. I’m not sure it’s going to do any good. I’m fairly sure I’m dying. And while part of me is scared shitless over the idea, another part of me, a part I wasn’t even aware existed, welcomes it.
I deserve to die for what I did to them.
I continue fading in and out of consciousness until Jax sets me down. That startles me enough that I force my eyelids open to see where I am. I half-expect to be lying in the snow somewhere with them beside me, digging my grave. But I’m not. No, I’m lying on the back seat of the SUV, soaking wet and shivering. I can’t see any of The Raven Three, so maybe they decided to set me in here while they dig my grave …
“Are there any