Page 72 of Through the Water

He’d never been a stranger or a means to an end.

He was my beginning and end.

“Hey—” Killian frowned as he brushed the hair back off my face. “You okay?”

Was I?

“I—” I yawned, my eyes falling shut on their own. “I need—”

“You need to get some sleep,” he responded dryly, the corner of his mouth lifting. “Come here.”

My tongue felt heavy in my mouth, weighed down by the magnitude of what Killian had just revealed. And probably the drugs. But mostly, the revelation.

Tears pricked my eyes as he cradled my head against his chest, feeling the steady rise and fall like the waves that day on the lake.

The silence stretched from seconds into minutes. The paranormal team had already moved on to their next haunted place —a long-abandoned amusement park with a sinister history. Meanwhile, I was still reeling from the bombshell, trying to decide what my next step should be.

“Sometimes, I think, what if she was real?” Killian murmured as he stroked my hair. I didn’t answer. I couldn’t. My heart was lodged somewhere in the base of my throat, anxiously waiting for him to connect the dots as I had.

“What if she was my one chance at salvation?” He exhaled a breathless laugh. “Hell, maybe my mama was right. Maybe she was just a guardian angel sent to watch over my dumb ass.”

I was being suffocated under a blanket of drugs, but managed to stay conscious long enough to mumble, “I’m no angel.”

It was the last thing I remembered before drifting off. Later, I’d swear I was already dreaming when I felt Killian’s lips brush against the inside of my wrist.

That was the thing about falling asleep with the medication. It could conjure up any number of hallucinations, including a whispered, “No, Ari. You’re as real as they come.”

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