“Good.”
Sebastian once again closes the distance between us, and I allow myself to entertain the idea of forever with him.
He has my heart.
Completely.
Monday, January 8
With my life.
I wake up to the sound of alarms shrieking. I put my hands over my ears out of instinct, trying to figure out exactly where I am.
What is going on?
I realize it’s the smoke alarms that are going off.
I look at the clock on the nightstand and see that it’s only two in the morning.
The smell of smoke envelops me and it’s then that I really wake up and realize that I need to get up. I have to get out of the house.
Getting out of bed, I run straight towards bathroom door that connects mine and Sebastian’s room. I don’t even get halfway there before Sebastian runs out, meeting me half way.
“Are you okay?” he asks.
I nod. “What’s going on?”
“I think my dad is here,” he says.
“We need to find Pops,” I say.
“No. We need to get out of here,” Sebastian says. “Pops can take care of himself.”
“We can’t leave him.”
“Serenity,” he says, louder this time.
I pause to look at him. “Pops went to Spy School, too. He knows what he’s doing, probably better than I do. I promise you, he can get out on his own. Right now, I have to get you out of here. Do you understand?”
“Yes,” I answer.
He’s right. Of course he’s right. I’m just… scattered. Waking up like this is terrifying. My worst nightmare coming true.
Sebastian grabs my hands and we walk towards my door. When he opens it up, we see flames dancing in the hallway, coming closer. He slams the door shut again and looks around the room. Still holding my hand, he walks over to the window. Once we’re there, he lets go, trying to open the window.
It’s stuck.
It won’t go up.
Sebastian runs towards the bathroom and disappears for only a second. As he’s coming back, he has a towel wrapped around his hand. Before I can even wonder what he’s doing, he punches his towel covered hand through the window, breaking the glass. He looks out the window, then over at me.
“Do you trust me?” he asks.
Which are the exact words he asked me before he grabbed me and jumped from a second story window last time.
My answer is the same this time.
“With my life,” I answer.
He grabs onto me, holding tight. He them jumps, twisting our bodies in the perfect way so that we both land on our feet. My ankle jars from the impact and I know it’s going to hurt later, but I don’t have time to feel the pain right now. There is too much adrenaline. Too much excitement. Too much fear. I shut the fear off, knowing that I don’t have time to be scared right now.
“Stay with me,” he says.
As if I’d leave him right now.
The house is up in flames and my heart feels heavy for Pops. This is his home and now, in an instant, it’s just gone.
I hear the sound of a gun going off.
“No,” Sebastian says. “NO!”
I look up to see what he’s looking at and I see Pops, lying on the grass, a pool of blood surrounding him.
He turns to me. “Serenity, we have to run.”
“We can’t leave him,” I say, shaking my head. “He needs medical help.”
“So help me, if you don’t start running right now, I will throw you over my shoulder and carry you out of here,” he says. “I prefer the first. It’ll slow us down if I have to carry you.”
I nod. “Okay.”
With my hand tight in his hold, we take off running through the woods, towards the swampy waters. We’re about a mile away from the airboat that Pops has.
I hear footsteps behind us. They’re fast and not far behind. We don’t hesitate or pause to see who it is, because we know who it is.
It’s Steven Soto.
We just keep running.
A dark figure steps out in front of Sebastian and me, and the two of us nearly collide with the person.
Nolan.
We’re forced to stop as a group of people surround us.
I look at Sebastian, who has his eyes on the group.
“What do we do?” I ask him.
Beside Nolan, I see somebody else walk up.
It’s actually shocking seeing Steven Soto up close for the first time. He looks so much like his son. Older—a few wrinkles around his eyes and his hair has a bit of gray in it, but they look nearly identical. Even the color of their eyes is the same.
“Don’t hurt her,” Sebastian says, putting himself between his father and me.
I peek around Sebastian’s shoulder.
“It’s actually kind of poetic. The two of you,” Steven says, looking at his son.
I wonder if he feels anything for Sebastian—any love at all.
“When you were babies, I used to think you’d end up together,” he says. “Of course, that was before I learned who the real Michael Sinclair was, before he hid my wife and kid from me. He took what was mine, and now, I am going to take what belongs to him.”
“No,” Sebastian says, his voice sounding too calm. “You’re not taking her.”
“And you think you can stop me?”
“I will kill you before I let you take her,” he says.
But there are too many of them. Sebastian knows that. I know that. And his father knows that.
“Take me instead,” Bass says. “You don’t have to hurt her. Leave her out of this.”
“All I wanted was to take you,” Steven says. “Your whole life, I tried to find you. But Michael Sinclair took you from me and he hid you. Every time I got close, he’d move you. Now, it’s too late. You’re brainwashed by Spy School.”
“You’ll have to kill me before you can take her,” Sebastian says.
“No,” I say, walking up beside Sebastian. “I’ll go. Just don’t hurt Sebastian.”
“You heard her,” Steven says.
Sebastian moves to fight his dad. But before he can fight, I see somebody come up behind him, hitting him over the head. He goes down instantly.
“Sebastian!” I yell, getting on the ground, trying to shake him.
He’s still breathing, but his eyes are closed.
He’s just passed out.
He is going to be okay.
But before I can feel the relief, somebody grabs my arms, holding me tightly. I fight against them.
“Stop fighting,” I hear Nolan say. “If you don’t, they will kill Sebastian.”
His words instantly make me relax.
Steven, who is now standing in front of me, smiles. “This is easier than I thought it’d be.” He looks at Nolan. “Take her.”
Nolan yanks me, and we walk in the opposite direction of the burning house. We walk away from Sebastian. And the only thing that keeps me from fighting against Nolan is the knowledge that they will kill Sebastian if I fight.
Sebastian is okay.
That’s all that matters.
In the end, this is always how it was supposed to be.
I found happiness. I found my father. I found friends. And I found love—a true, all consuming love. This kind of love has me willing to sacrifice my life to save his. And how can I regret any of this? I will die knowing I found what most people spend their lives searching for. And it’s worth it.
Sebastian Soto is worth it.
THE END.
Book 4, Saving Me, is coming soon!
Letter from Scarlett
Hey! Thank you so much for reading Losing Me. This might be my favorite book in the series so far. I feel like there was a lot of progress made in character development and with the story. I’m so excited to write the last book, Saving Me.
If you did enjoy this book, it would mean a lot to me if you left a review wherever you picked this up.
For
more information on this series, be sure to check out my blog https://scarletthaven.net!
—Scarlett Haven
More books by Scarlett
The Zara Chronicles:
Loyal (Book 1—coming July 27, 2018!)
East Raven Academy Series:
Ever After (Book 1)
Never Ever (Book 2)
Never Say Never (Book 3—coming soon!)
The Spy Chronicles:
Finding Me (Book 1)
Keeping Me (Book 2)
Losing Me (Book 3)
Saving Me (Book 4—coming soon!)
Stand alone books:
The Bucket List: Famous Online
The Day My Life Began
Bayside Academy Series:
Gracie (Book 1)
Unraveling Gracie (Book 2)
Hating Gracie (Book 3)
*This series is completed.
New Hope Academy Series:
Luck (Episode 1)
Fate (Episode 2)
Fame (Episode 3)
Wish (Episode 4)
*This series is completed.
Find me online.
Blog: https://scarletthaven.net
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Scarlett_Haven
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorScarlettHaven/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/authorscarletthaven/
Mailing List: http://wordpress.us13.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=2b073ef1d3dd1a8003e58a389&id=8393d2923e
Losing Me Page 11