Chapter 2

Jason Delgado's hand froze mid-motion, still hovering where it had been wiping Hester Delgado's tears.

Like slow motion in a film, he turned toward me, one frame at a time.

Five years and seventy-eight days.

Looking into those dark, bright eyes again, my tears still slid down on their own, refusing to stop, no matter how I tried ……

‘Fiona ……’

Hearing him say my name again.

Once I'd thought that only after I died and reached the underworld would we ever meet again.

Only then would I hear him call me Fiona one more time.

Two ghosts would hold each other tight,

and I would tell him,

‘Jason, your sister, I took good care of her. You gave me the chance to live, and I gave her my life ……’

But now ……

It was still the same man, the voice not changed in the slightest,

yet the moment those two syllables left his mouth,

my stomach began to cramp beyond my control,

and with a heave

I braced myself against the wall and retched, hard ……

‘Fiona!’

‘Fiona, are you all right ……’

Jason shoved Hester out of his way

and lunged forward to hold me up, his movements frantic.

A pair of large hands settled on my back, the warmth of his palm spreading behind me, the familiar touch waking something in me,

This wasn't the underworld. I was still alive, and so was he ……

A worse wave of retching rose up,

and I forced myself upright, using nearly everything I had left,

and shoved Jason away from behind me.

Staring at those black eyes I couldn't read, I bit down hard on my lip and said in a cold voice,

‘Get out!’

Maybe I'd used too much force, because the words were barely out

when my legs gave way, and I slid down the cold wall behind me to the floor.

‘Fiona ……’

Jason's voice caught in his throat.

‘I'm sorry ……’

‘It isn't Jason's fault!’

Hester, who had stayed silent behind him this whole time, suddenly rushed forward and cut Jason off.

She dropped to her knees in front of me with a thud, tears and snot streaming, her voice trembling,

‘It was me, I wanted to live too much, it was all my idea, don't blame Jason ……’

Looking at that rosy, healthy face in front of me,

five years of it came back, all those times I'd raced to the hospital without a second thought.

One word from Hester, one Fiona,

and within half an hour that needle as long as my forearm would sink into it.

At the worst of it, I made seven trips to the hospital in a single day,

nearly all the blood in my body drawn out.

The doctor warned me again and again,

‘Miss, if this keeps up, you're going to die before she does.’

But I would only smile and tell him,

‘It's fine. Draw it.’

In the mirror on the fire hydrant cabinet down the hall,

I saw myself, red blotches all over my face, my features gaunt and worn.

Then I looked at Hester in front of me, rosy and well.

Five years of pain, helplessness, and despair suffered in that hospital

turned, in that one moment, into hatred, boiling up from deep in me and flooding into my chest.

I dragged myself up off the floor with what strength I had,

lifted the hand I'd just shoved into my mouth, already marked all over with blood,

and swung it hard at Hester's face.

‘Smack!’

The slap landed square on Jason's face.

‘Fiona, if you want to hit someone, hit me.’

The Delgado heir, once a man thousands looked up to, bowed his head in front of me for the first time.

But it was for another woman.

‘Fiona, it's my fault ……’

His gaze stayed on me, tears spilling over.

‘Don't be angry, or if you have to be, at least wait until you've gotten your health back ……’

He slowly raised his hand, his fingertips touching the red blotches on my face, his eyes full of pain for me,

‘Fiona, I'll explain everything to you, I ……’

‘Jason ……’

Before Jason could finish,

Hester cut him off.

Her whole body went limp against his chest.

‘Jason, I'm so dizzy, I feel like I'm dying ……’

Jason's eyes pulled off me at once,

and he swept Hester up into his arms.

‘Hester, what's wrong?!’

‘Maybe ……’

‘Maybe it's the blood loss again ……’