Page 42 of Lethal Truths

The sound of my own voice makes me jump, and I’m vaguely aware of Asher’s rough, shocked curse a few feet behind me. Ignoring him and everything else, I plunge my arms into the hot water and pull Prudence out. With her soaking into my clothes, I fall onto my knees on the floor and take her with me, holding her tightly against my chest.

There are voices shouting, feet pounding across the tile to reach me, but I barely register any of that. Carefully, I lay Prudence on the floor, checking her pulse as I choke out my second word in over a year. “Please,” I breathe roughly, squeezing my eyes shut against the tears burning there. Her heartbeat is weak, but it’s there. She must have just slipped below the water a moment before I charged in. She didn’t drown.

Thank fucking god.

“Pills,” Asher snaps, finally grabbing my attention. I glance at him long enough to see him grab an orange bottle off the counter.

I blink down at my little flame, hating the way her fire is slowly waning. I won’t let this happen, I think to myself. I won’t fucking lose her like this. Frantically, I open her mouth and stick two fingers down her throat as far as I can reach. It only takes a moment before she begins to sputter and cough, and as soon as I tip her onto her side and pull my fingers free, she pukes.

I rub my hand over her back, trying to soothe her as she retches and clears her stomach of however many pills she took. Creed kneels down beside me, pulling Prudence’s soaking wet hair out of her face for her. He and I share a solemn, heavy look while Asher paces by the bathroom door.

As soon as Prudence is finished, a broken sob rips from her chest. And then another and another, until I’m worried she isn’t breathing with how hard she’s crying. I try to move her around and pull her into my lap, but I don’t get very far.

Creed’s hands are shaking as he all but tears Prudence out of my grip and into his. I could fight him for the right to hold her, but if she were thinking straight, I doubt she’d want any kind of comfort from me.

I sit back on my haunches while Creed bundles Prudence against his chest, tucking her head into the crook of his neck while she lets out all the emotions burdening her. My chest aches with jealously and longing. To distract myself, I grab a towel off the rack behind me and then scoot closer to Creed so I can wrap it around Prudence from behind.

She’s shivering, choking on words that make no sense. “Heather d-did it,” she cries, her little fists curled tight in Creed’s black shirt. “She t-told me, but I d-didn’t believe her, and now I’m—“

“Shhh, baby. It’s okay, you’re alright,” Creed soothes softly, rocking her gently back and forth. “We’ll take care of Heather, I swear it. She won’t get to you again.”

I press my lips together to stop from chewing them bloody. Maybe a better use of my efforts would be hunting down Heather? Prudence won’t want me hanging around her once she’s pulled herself together, and she’s got Creed, anyway. Maybe I’d be more helpful tearing down one more person who to hurt her.

I had almost forgotten Asher was here until something orange flies by my head and hits the wall. A glance over my shoulder shows the pill bottle he’d been clutching while I got Prudence out of the tub. When I look back at Asher’s face, I find a frightened and outraged mask instead.

“What the fuck were you thinking?!“ he shouts, making Prudence jump.

I don’t know who glares at him harder, me or Creed. “Leave it alone,” Creed hisses, and I jerk a tense nod in agreement.

But Asher is irate, and I can tell from the swarm of fury in his green eyes that he’s only getting started. He thrusts his fingers through his hair, yanking on the strands while he stares at Prudence in Creed’s arms. “After all I just did — everything I risked — to save your ass, and this is how you thank me? By trying to fucking kill yourself?! If that’s what you really want, why even bother fighting the people who are more than willing to offer your death on a starry fucking platter?”

“Asher!” Creed barks. “Not now. Give her a goddamn minute.”

Prudence sniffles, pushing back from Creed’s chest. He grumbles something in protest, but she doesn’t listen to him, instead focusing her red, puffy eyes on Asher. I expect her to lay into him. They’ve pretty much mastered screaming matches by now. But when she opens her mouth, all that comes out is an agonized, “I’m sorry.”

I don’t know if it’s the words she spoke or the shattered sound of them, but Asher stops pacing, blinking at Prudence like he’s waiting for her to spit something nasty any second. When she only sits there, biting her bottom lip to stop it from trembling, watching him with watery eyes, his shoulders deflate. I’d even go so far as to say he looks disappointed that she’s not fighting him.

Asher tips his head back with a heavy sigh. “What were you thinking, Prudence?” he asks her, his tone cold but slightly less hostile this time.

Prudence shrugs, looking from him to me and finally at Creed, who’s frowning deeply at her, like what she did physically wounded him. Another tear rolls down Prudence’s cheek and she drops her forehead to Creed’s chest as she mumbles, “I didn’t want to… to die. I just didn’t want to feel. It hurts so much, I couldn’t breathe through the pain. I thought… the pills, I— I wasn’t thinking about what might happen. I just wanted to make it go away.”

Creed closes his eyes, wrapping his arms around Prudence and pressing a kiss to the top of her head. “Make what go away, Ember? Did something happen?”

Asher scoffs. “She was kidnapped and held underground for days, or did you forget? She shouldn’t have been left unsupervised for even a second,” he says, admonishing Creed.

Creed cuts Asher a lethal glance, rewording himself. “Did something else happen?“ he asks carefully. Prudence starts crying again, brutal, wracking sobs shaking her small body. It guts me to watch her suffer through whatever it is. “Talk to us, baby,” Creed begs, the desperation in his voice matching what I feel twisting in my chest.

We all watch helplessly for another minute, and when I can’t take her pain any longer, I reach over and gently turn her face to look at me. “Prudence,” I rasp, my voice raw and broken from so long without use. I don’t know what else to say, even if I had the strength to mutter another syllable out loud. Either way, it gets her attention.

Her mouth drops open a bit, her gorgeous hazel eyes scanning every inch of my face. Whatever she sees there has her face scrunching up in misery. I freeze when she places her hand over mine against her cheek, leaning into my touch like it’s helping to keep her alive.

I can’t take the distance anymore. Without thinking, I release her cheek and scoop her right out of Creed’s arms. She’s tiny against me, and now that she’s awake and relatively okay, I can take the time to truly appreciate that fact. Especially when she slowly loops her arms around my neck until she’s crushing herself as tightly to me as she can manage.

It’s easier to work up the courage to speak to her when I can feel her in my arms. I lean in close to her ear and whisper, “What happened, little flame?” My words crack over the vowels, and I slam my eyes shut with embarrassment. I never thought I’d speak again, not after what my father and Asher’s did to me, but now I’m wishing I had a smooth, calming voice to offer her rather than the under-used one I have.

Prudence doesn’t seem to mind, though. In fact, she grips onto me even tighter, burying her face in my neck. “My mom’s dead,” she whispers back, her own voice breaking as her breath hitches. “They killed her.”

My heart shatters for her, all the air in my lungs whooshing out of me. I open my eyes and look at Creed and Asher, hoping my grim expression conveys how badly things have gone for our girl.

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