Page 30 of Sonata
18
Viola
“How is he doing?” Melody poked her head through the partly opened door, and my shoulder twitched in a shrug.
“I dunno…”
Since we brought Lucien in his house, I haven’t released his hand -at this point, our skin could be fused for all I knew- and haven’t blinked. Too afraid I might miss a flutter of an eyelash or a twitch of a muscle on his face, I stared. My eyes burned, and my vision was blurry, but that was a while back. They were dry and wide when my friend walked in, closing the door behind her with a soft click.
“Étienne said he has a heartbeat, so that’s good. Right?” the mattress dipped when she sat next to me.
“Right.”
“Come on, Vi.” Her fingers were hot when she took hold of my free hand. I felt frozen solid. “Don’t do this to yourself. Go have a shower and eat something. Étienne cooked for all of us, believe it or not. His royal ass apparently knows how to cook. I’ll stay with him while you do that, I promise.”
“How is it possible that I care this much, Melody?” I knew my lips were moving, but they were numb. A dull pain was throbbing at the center of my chest. “He looks unreal and all. I’ll give him that much, but this soul-crushing pain can’t come from a physical attraction. It’s impossible. Am I crazy?”
“I know what you mean.” Her nervous laugh didn’t make me feel better. “I thought I’ve lost it too when he came for me and brought me here. I honestly thought I was in a loony bin.”
I said nothing.
“It’s this mate thing, you know.”
“Yeah…”
“If it makes it better, I feel the same.” My head snapped in her direction, rage clawing at me to rip her head out. “Whoa, there killer, easy.” Jumping away from me, she lifted both hands at her sides. “I feel the same for Étienne. You can have this grumpy ass, don’t bite my head off.”
“I’m so sorry.” My hand covered my eyes, and they hurt when I finally closed them. The darkness from behind closed eyelids freaked me out. “I have no idea what’s happening to me.”
“Neither do I, girl. But, we will figure it out together.” She shuffled closer, and I managed a weak smile. “Like always, the three of us together against the world.”
“The three stooges you mean.” Blood started circling through my veins, and a tingling sensation was spreading up my legs, but I did smile at that. “Maybe that witch drugged us with something, and all this is a group hallucination or whatever.”
“Right, because that makes more sense.” With a sigh, she plopped back down on the bed, jostling me. “That was pretty cool what we did to her magic just by singing, though. How did you know it’ll work?”
“I didn’t.”
“What?”
“The first time Seraphina barged inside my room and found Lucien, I freaked out and screamed. Don’t you dare say a word about that.” My shaky finger stabbed the air in front of her nose. Melody mimicked zipping her lips and throwing away the key. “Anyway, I screamed, and instead of sounding like some dumb damsel in distress, a sound boomed, knocking both Seraphina and Lucien on their ass. Since I felt like I was burning from the inside out when it happened, I figured we had nothing to lose if we tried.”
“And if it didn’t work?” she didn’t look received by what I was saying.
“That’s a moot point. It did work.”
“But what if it didn’t? We could’ve all died singing, for god's sake.”
“We are alive, Melody. Lucien might be the only one that dies because we stood there and did nothing.” After I snarled at her, guilt stabbed me. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to bite your head off.” Blowing out a sigh through pursed lips, I rolled my neck to release some tension from my shoulders.
“If we knew more about what we are and how to use whatever curse we have, it’ll be easier to know what to do. We don’t know our limits or what we really are apart from god descendants. Do you think we can die and resurrect?”
“We are not Jesus, Melody.”
“That’s what Étienne said.” She giggled, and I realized she was trying to lighten the mood. Though chance, but she did try.
“Did Harmony wake up?” we saw our friend when we returned to the house, but she was still as a corpse with Moël keeping vigil over her. I knew exactly how he felt, and my heart broke for him. He was as miserable as I was.
What a mess.
