Page 129 of Beneath the Mountain Sky
My stomach churns, and I gag like I’m going to throw up as he stalks out of the cabin and disappears into the woods.
“Y-y-yes…”
The arms of the chair creak as my fingers crank on them, my body tensing.
“Remember, you’re safe here, Willow. Keep breathing in and out. Slowly.”
I try to relax my grip and follow his command.
In.
Out.
In.
Out.
A minute passes.
Another.
“What happened after Killian left?”
The memory comes easier this time, with barely a gray haze surrounding it.
“Raven helping me pack.” My body starts to vibrate. “I was panicking. I packed, and I left.”
“Why did you leave?”
I wince as the tears start to burn in my eyes, even with them closed.
None of this is anything Killian and Raven haven’t already told me, but it’s as if I’m experiencing it for the first time. All those agonizing feelings twist my gut and tighten my chest.
“I couldn’t tell him…”
Couldn’t do it.
“Tell him what?”
“He didn’t want?—”
I suck in a sharp breath, trying to stop myself from hyperventilating. It gets harder and harder to process the memories.
“He didn’t want what, Willow?”
“He told me I’d be a bad mother, and I had to leave. I drove away, but…I turned around.”
“Where?”
I squeeze my eyes even tighter, trying to get the picture of the road to clear in my head. “I made it out of town, an hour or so, then turned back, came through town, and was headed up the mountain to Killian’s.”
My fingers tighten on the arms of the chair the same way they did the steering wheel as I navigated the road.
“What happened?”
The sound of tires crunching on gravel.
A clunk.
