Page 8 of Burning Your Lies

And the day you’re free, I am going to marry you. I don’t need a diamond on your finger, because I know you’re carrying my heart. It’s yours, sweetheart. There’s never been anyone before you, and I don’t believe there will be anyone after. I am going to marry you Savannah Hayes. Do you understand? I am going to marry you and spend the rest of my life making up for my failure to do better by you. I should have done better. I know that. I just need to know if you understand, too.

Please hold on to this letter and reread it until you understand. Understand how much I love you. Understand how sorry I am. Understand how much I need you to get better. Because the dragons can’t be slayed until you tackle the one in your mind and get out. Read this letter until you understand the path to freedom cannot come until you wake up.

Always and only ever,

your Hux.

I read the pages again and again until his words float behind my lids. Nothing in that letter sounds like the Huxley I know, yet it was he who wrote it. These are the words of a desperate man. My eyes scan the last sentence, trying to understand what he means. As he asked, I read the letter once again. But thistime I stare at the worddiamond.Everything else in the letter references me and him. But diamond…

I shake my head, and this time when I read it again, my fingers are trembling.

He believes me.

I mentally break each paragraph into the hidden meaning. The first one references to us being watched in my bedroom. Huxley knows I know that, so what is he talking about? He wrote he is afraid to speak his truth, so he wrote it. My heart plummets. He means there are cameras in this room. As much as I want to search the room for them, I force myself to keep my head down.

The second one refers to all those who disappeared from Xavier’s life. He’s tried to find them, but has had no luck.

The third is his way of telling me Dr Cooper’s office is the only room we can speak in freely.That’s why he wants me to invite him to a session.

The fourth is my key to freedom from Xavier. The only way to override his power is to have a new next of kin, and marriage is the easiest way to do that.

And the last is his plea for me to snap out of it because he can’t do this without me.Fierce. Determined. A fighter.I close my eyes and take a deep breath. Despite the new wave of hope that rises in me, I still feel deflated.How are we supposed to beat him at his own game?

I brush my tears away.

I have to try.

Tucking the letter under my pillow, I leave the room I have spent the last six months withering in. The nurse looks surprised to see me out in the corridor. I may no mind to her, walking the path I have done once a week since being here. I knock at the door.

Dr Cooper looks pleasantly surprised to see me. “Savannah. Are you okay?” He welcomes me into his office and shuts the door.

When I open my mouth, my pleas don’t come out.Being mute for a long time has consequences.I clear my throat. “Call Huxley,” I croak.

He smiles. “I’m glad to see you have found your voice.”

It wasn’t just my voice I’ve found. I’ve found the fight to win game two.

6

Huxley

The balding man staresbetween Savannah and me as we sit in silence. The relief I felt when I got the call was unparalleled. I worried she wouldn’t read between the lines, but I forgot how spectacular she is. There’s only one problem. We may be free from Xavier’s ears in here, but the shrink is another story.

“How did it feel when you read Huxley’s letter, Savannah?”

She doesn’t look at me. “Relieved.”

I retract my earlier thought. The sound of her voice, after all this time, brings an unrivalled sense of relief. I find myself unable to avert my eyes from her, completely mesmerised by her.

“Why relieved?” he probes.

“It felt like someone could finally see me.” She turns and her eyes meet mine. Overwhelmed by the pain in them, I’m filled with a devastating desperation. If falling to my knees and begging for forgiveness could change everything, I would do it. But Savannah needs more than words from me.

“I’ve always seen you,” I counter. “Even when I shouldn’t have.”

She blinks away her tears. “You’re a liar. You only saw the illusion.”

“What illusion is that?” he asks.

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