n Mccr

bandages, a dull, throbbing ache radiating up my arm. Jackson was sitting by the bed, his expression unread

rough fevers and minor injuries, that my heart clenched with a ghost of old affection. B

ling?" he asked,

. I just stared

ou were lucky. The heel just missed the major tendons. But you have a concussion from when y

'd managed to deploy the reserve just in time, but the landing had been rough, leaving me bruised and shaken. At the tim

achute," I said, my voice

lyson. I told you, Kaila would never do something like that. She wa

good actress," I said, m

he snapped. "You're just jealous an

throat. There was no point. He was deaf and

aid, my voice weary. "Check the cameras in the

ssed. "I'm not going to indulge your paranoid fantasies," he said harshly, standing up. "You'

ng thin. You need to accept the situation." He stopped and looked down at me, his eyes cold.

out of the room witho

y eye and traced a path down my temple into my hair. But there was no storm of grief. My heart, already shattered and

wing, with absolute certainty

the hospital, a silent chauffeur driving me back to the gilded cage. On the day I was

ps. She was wearing a new designer dress, and my grand

th fake sympathy. "But I guess that's to be expected. It must

t. I simply picked up my

onspiratorial whisper. "The parachute, the fall from the balcony... that was just a taste. I'm going

Jackson's cruelty, of this entire nightmare. I p

ils digging into my skin.

llway. Shouts, screams, the sound of running feet. A wav

s screaming incoherently about doctors killing his wife. A deranged patient from the psych ward, a

charged, the knife held high,

way. He had come back for me after all. The thought had barely fo

ching and compressing. I saw his face, contorted

he

hed us. But he didn't tackle the man

shoved me, hard, directly

y body as

la, pulling her safely into his emb

escaped my lips as the blade sank deep. Jackson didn't even l

son's back as he shielded another woman from harm. The back of the man I had onc