Page 50 (1/2)

After talking to Jasreed to keep communication few and far between It was hard not to knohat happened at Hawksridge, but Cut didn’t knoe’dfather knew, Kes’s andshit at the back of the estate

And I want to keep it that way

Jaz had done all she could to hide our reincarnation from everyone The doctors and nurses called me Mr James Ambrose No one knew my true identity She’d even taken us to a hospital we’d never been to before--boycotting our usual ers ould keep us unknown

It didn’t h

I risked anony Nila, but I couldn’t denyher like we did before I claier and blood pus or doctors I was stupid to avoid contacting her for so long when all I wanted to do was drag her intowound, I inched barefoot out ofthe drip on its little wheels behindinvalid

The hospital was quiet

No eht hours when I had to focus entirely on the itching ofovershare of emotions froht neons were di the illusion of peace and sleepiness However, the morbid silence of death interrupted the false serenity, lurking in the darkness, waiting to pick off its latest victi me, my brother, or Nila

Not this ties that Bonnie had shown o Her study had always been a festival of flowers and needlepoint, but when she’d invited es of a Weaver, who looked exactly like Nila and randfather

I’d always known I looked like Owen Hawk Cut had told rew up But that’d been the first time I’d heard how similar Owen and Elisa’s tale was to my own life

It was meant to scare me To keep me in line and shoould happen if I followed that path

It hadn’t stopped me

I snorted under my breath

And it came true

Oas murdered, just like I’d been But that here the similarities ended Owen had died and left Elisa to suffer

I’m still alive and I will save her

My forehead dripped with sweat, and I gulped agonizing breaths by the time I finally shuffled down the corridor toward the front desk of the recovery wing A nurse I’d seen once or twice looked up from her keyboard

Plaited dark hair crowned her head while no makeup painted her face Mid-fifties, matronly, and no-nonsense dress-code, she suited the role of caring for others rather than herself But despite her lack of jewellery and personal adornave me more motherly affection than I’d ever had intihts