Page 155 of I Was Always Yours (RCA: Royal Crown Academy)

“Get the fuck out of my way,” I roar, shoving, elbowing, and shouldering people violently aside as I finally make my way to her.

“What happened?” I ask a frantic and crying Bellamy.

“I don’t know! She was fine and then she just passed out! I caught her as best I could.” Tears fall down her face as she looks down at her friend with a stricken look on her features.

I grab Six’s face between my hands, brushing the hair away from her forehead. She’s pale beneath her freckles, her lips are blue and her pulse is so threadbare that she’s barely breathing.

This isn’t a joke or just her passing out, there’s something really wrong. I’m frantic as I try to bring her back to consciousness, ignoring the gnawing feeling attacking my stomach and focusing on her.

“Wake up, Six. Wake up!” I grunt, bringing my mouth down to hers and blowing strong breaths into her airway. “If you think I’m going to let you leave me like this, you don’t know me at all, wild girl.” I growl angrily against her lips.

The velocity of my heart thumping in my chest makes me lightheaded and dizzy, but I push the dread to the side before it can overwhelm me. If I didn’t, I think it would take me under.

I can’t lose her.

Not her. Not again.

Fighting her about Astor seems so trivial now that I’m facing losing her like I lost him.

I bend to give her mouth to mouth again and notice that her lips are swollen.

I look around the room at the shocked faces until I find our housekeeper slash chef, Claire. “Did you use peanuts in any of the food?”

“No, it’s–,” she pauses before her eyes widen. She brings a shaking hand to her mouth. “The fries. I used peanut oil.”

“Fuck!” I pick Six up and hoist her against my chest. “Move.” I scream at an idiot who gets in my way as I run for the door.

Holding her head against my chest, I clear the front steps in two jumps and run for her car. My chest thrashes madly as I work to get oxygen into my lungs, but all the air feels like it gets stuck in my throat.

“I have her keys!” I hear Nera call after me and then the car beeps, its lights flashing twice and signaling that it’s unlocked.

I throw open the passenger door and place her on the seat. Her head lolls to the side and I hold her body up with one hand as I blindly dig into the glove compartment with the other, my fingers finally closing around the storage case I knew she kept in there.

I pull it out and rip it open, pulling out her epipen. I take the cap off with my mouth and spit it out, then jab the needle directly into her thigh.

I keep it pressed into her skin for five seconds, my eyes wild as they roam over her face for any sign of life.

There’s nothing. Not for long moments, possibly the longest in my life.

And then finally her lips part and she breathes in a tiny, ragged breath.

My forehead falls to hers in relief and it’s only then that I feel like I’m able to restart my heart.

“Don’t fucking scare me like that.” I breathe against her skin, desperately kissing her forehead.

She still needs a doctor, so I don’t waste time. I slam the door shut and walk around the front of the car to the driver’s side.

“Have Rhys call the hospital and tell them we’re coming.” I call to Nera as I get in the car.

I fly down the roads like I stole the car, breaking at least ten different traffic laws in the process, and park it in front of the hospital entrance, disregarding the staff that yells at me to move the vehicle.

They’re waiting for us when I carry her in. They wheel her to a private room and start setting up her IV and administering care. I fall back against the wall as I watch multiple doctors busy themselves with helping her, my legs giving way in relief.

“You need to wait outside,” a nurse says, placing a soft hand on my shoulder to guide me towards the door.

“No.”

“Sir–,”

---