Page 52 of Live Like Legends

Natalia pressed her lips together before sighing. “I’m unsure. Nick, where is she?”

“She? As in Dani?” Elise chimed in, mimicking Natalia as she looked around the room. “Where is she?”

I repeated my earlier answer. “I don’t know.”

Reese placed his hand on my shoulder. “Weren’t you with her? How do you not know where she is?”

I took one breath in and then another. I tried to quiet all the things around me. Every person continuously asking me questions needed be silenced or I would fucking combust.

“You don’t think she would go off by herself again, right?” Garrett asked no one in particular.

“No, she wouldn’t. She made a big fucking deal about me not going alone, so I hardly think she would go and be a hypocrite about it,” Elise explained. I peeked over at her the moment she decided to look over at me. “So what? You went on your silly little date and somewhere between then and now she just vanished? That hardly makes any sense.”

“Ellie, maybe it’s not that…” Beetee started but her voice was drowned out by my own thoughts.

I placed my hand on my chest, feeling like a weight was causing my breathing to become harder and harder. I was supposed to protect her and now I had no idea where she was. I didn’t even know where to fucking start.

“Nick, hey, Nick.” I heard Reese calling out to me, but his voice sounded muffled and far away.

No one was getting it. I didn’t know what happened because I had left her for fivefuckingminutes.

She had been out of my sight and I left her.

Ilefther.

“I left her!” I screamed, placing my hands in my hair and pulling. “Five minutes! Fivefuckingminutes!” I ripped myself away from all their hands. The air was too dry, the temperature too hot. I felt like I was sweating as I started to pace.

Reese ran over to me, but I waved him away, hearing my breathing turn shallow, nearly to the point of wheezing. I groaned from the tense pain in my chest and I stopped walking when nothing seemed to stay in place. The room spun in one direction and then the other.

I couldn’t help her because I left her and now, she was gone. This wasn’t like Lilith’s castle where pinpointing her location was simple. I couldn’t think straight as I coughed, closing my eyes and backing up, hoping that my spine would hit a wall of some kind.

“Zane, go get Xander and some others from the infirmary,” Natalia delegated. “Nick, take a deep breath, okay?”

I shook my head, finally feeling a solid backing so that I could lean my head back against it. “I—I can’t.”

“Hey, hey, yes you can.” Reese gently grabbed my face and forced me to look at him. “One deep breath in, one deep breath out, okay? Do it, Nick.”

My body vibrated as the pain became too much and I could feel tears starting to fill my eyes. My head was heavy as I nodded. Reese sucked in his own breath and let it out at the same time as me.

One big breath in, one big breath out.

“One more time, let’s go.” He placed his hand on my chest to steady me.

One big breath in, one big breath out.

I kept going as I slid my body down the wall, hitting the floor. I brought my knees up to my chest, continuing my breathing.

Reese cleared his throat. “You went to my room to get my lucky charm, didn’t you?”

“Y—you asked m-me to,” I answered, getting the words out as best I could.

“And when you came back, she was gone.” Beetee wasn’t asking a question, just summing up the situation.

“You didn’t hear anything?” Garrett pressed, but his voice was soft when he spoke.

I shook my head slowly, as I waited for the vertigo to pass. I heard multiple footsteps round the corner.

Natalia spoke to the Enchanters she had ushered over. “He seems okay, just be careful with him.”

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