Page 85 of Stolen Seconds

If I had fought harder, she wouldn’t have been stripped of her sanity.

The start of a panic attack burst to life, my vision darkening as claws sank deep into my bones, pulling me beneath the lethal surface. The feeling had been foreign for a long time, the last one happening when my mother passed away.

Please, let them be okay.

I had never known longing and desperation until Irina slipped from between my fingers. The mere thought of never molding my body against hers again, never breathing in her intoxicating scent again, and never getting lost in her presence again made me want to sacrifice my soul if it meant hers would be okay.

My back hit the wall as I gasped for air, losing this internal battle with myself. I needed more time.Weneeded more time.

Hands pressed into me, suffocating me further into oblivion.No. No. No.

“Luca. . . ”

I squeezed my eyes shut as I covered my ears to rid of the distant voices entering my twisted thoughts.

My head throbbed viciously, senses overwhelming me with every tremor racking through my body.

“Luca!” The hands grabbed ahold of me, slowly anchoring me back to a place I could breathe in again.

“It’s me,” the voice said. “Roman.”

Roman?

Breathing heavily through my nose, I urged my brain to stop tumbling into the abyss.

“You’re okay, brother.”

The sound of his rough voice came out clearer, his hands squeezing my shoulders in comfort.

With a shaky exhale, I blinked away the black spots dancing in my vision until his face appeared before me, concern slashing across his features.

The underlying panic was still present, but my best friend kept me rooted.

“I can’t lose her,” I choked out, shaking my head. “What I feel for her terrifies me and I haven’t even come close to understanding it.”

He stared at me, his obsidian eyes softening slightly as he sighed in resignation. “Trust me, I know that feeling all too well.”

Chapter 23

Irina

You know the feeling of falling in a dream while you’re asleep?

Coming to my senses was sort of like that, more excruciating than I expected. For a moment, I’d been disoriented, the sound of beeping machines and the smell of antiseptic jarring me.

I knew I wasn’t fully conscious, the dark memories of the last few hours rushing in, making it hard to come back from.

It felt like a fever dream, but the nauseating pain in my body proved that it was very much real.

The back of my head pulsed as my chest caved in until I was drowning in my thoughts. The sharp slashes of the knife, the humiliating feeling of being seen by my brother, watching him get beat nearly to death while I was numb to the bone and helpless.

“Ni-Nico. . . ” I didn’t know if I was callingfor him in real time or in my head. My tongue was stuck to the roof of my dry mouth, the words barely a whisper.

Panic set in as blackness drew in on me, threatening to keep me in that horrific place.

Chills ran up my body, trembling uncontrollably as my throat became tight, lodged with hurt and despair.

Before I faded completely into the void, rough hands warmed my skin, wandering everywhere in light touches.

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