by Fawn Bailey
"Right," she said. "Let's get back to work."
As we were leaving the room, I heard the sound of a fire alarm blaring through the house.
We exchanged worried looks, our conversation momentarily forgotten with the looming crisis.
"Find her," Pia said simply. "I'll take care of the rest."
I gave her a curt nod and sprinted in the direction of the smoke.
It took me a moment to realize it wasn't coming from inside the house. It was something else...
I checked Rose's room first. Empty. Studio. Empty. My frantic sister ran out with a pale, panicked face.
"Where's Harlow?" she asked, and my heart panged.
I wanted to scold her for not calling her Rose, but I didn't have it in me. A sudden, bone-chilling fear that my girl wasn't safe took over.
"I'll find her," I barked, and ran through the house filled with confused maids, girls and guards and out onto the veranda.
My garden. My fucking rose garden was in flames.
In that moment, I didn't give a shit about the memories, the beautiful memories going up in flames. All that mattered was Harlow, and when I heard a loud, piercing scream coming from inside the garden, I knew all too well she was in trouble.
I tore through the guards trying to stop me from entering the hellish garden. The nearby trees were catching on fire too, and the smoke rose high. Someone was calling the firefighters and an ambulance, but I couldn't fucking wait for them.
I stepped into the flames and called her name.
Rose.
Harlow.
And then a desperate growl when she didn't respond.
Fear of losing her made me lose my mind. I felt like a wild fucking animal, and I tore through the falling branches, the smoke and the fire, instinct telling me my girl was caught in the middle of it all.
I couldn't find her. Could barely see through all the smoke burning my eyes and my lungs. But I knew I had to. There was no other option. No world where Thorn existed without his Rose.
I would turn the whole world on its head looking for her. I would kill and maim and hurt and punish anyone who'd gotten her in trouble.
And as my eyes zeroed in on an unmoving figure amidst the burning embers, my heart lurched, and my mind hoped desperately that she was okay.
If not, I would fucking kill any person responsible for this fire.
I tore through the garden, branches dropping everywhere and making me dizzy from the smoke coming off them. But stopping wasn't an option. Giving up was not a thought that had crossed my mind. I needed to save her. I needed to get her the fuck out.
So many things left unsaid.
I'd never be able to live with myself if she didn't know...
I shouted it all into the wind.
I love you.
I need you.
Don't leave me.
And I made my way through the burning maze until my hands wrapped around my weak little Rose.
Her chest was still rising and falling, but she was disoriented. I thanked my lucky Gods and swore to be a better man as long as we both got the hell out of that goddamn hellhole.
And then I took her in my arms and faced hell on earth.
Sixteen
Rose
The smell of burning greens was heavy in the air.
I could hear Carina's laughter echoing in the garden, the maniacal sound feeling like a nightmare I could never escape. My blood felt freezing cold in my veins, running through my body and freezing my heart into a solid slab of ice.
I wanted Thorn. My body yearned for him, my mind screamed for him to help me. Yet I felt frozen on the spot. I tried to move, one step at a time, and collapsed to the ground. The smoke was heavy in the air as I attempted to pick myself up, my body slow and heavy. It felt impossible to move an inch. The smoke... The fire... The laughter echoing through the place I'd loved so much. All gone now. All gone.
My eyelids felt heavy, desperate to close, desperate to get some rest. But I knew I had to keep moving, keep going. The second I closed my eyes and gave in, it would all be over. I wouldn't be able to move anymore. I'd fall into a dreamless sleep which a part of me knew would be the end of my story. And I couldn't let that happen. Couldn't let Thorn lose me. Couldn't let myself leave him.
I forced my eyes open and opened my mouth to cry for help, but no sound came out. I wanted to scream for him, and my mind was crying out, desperate for him to hear, eager to convey that I was in danger, that I needed him, that he had to help me. But the only sound that left my lips was a small croak, pathetic in its volume, barely audible with the sound of Thorn's memories burning brightly around me.
The words were ringing in my head, the cries for help just a desperate whisper on my lips. The thought of Carina's betrayal seared through me like a knife in my back. I had been so blind, so oblivious to her scheming behind my back. I'd been foolish enough to believe her lies, trust her and convince myself we'd be able to move past everything that had happened and be friends again. Now I knew it was all a lie. A fucking ruse to get rid of me so she could have Thorn for herself. Finally, she'd shown her true colors.
My limbs felt heavy as I began to drag my body through the dirt and grass, feeling the thorns of the rosebushes cutting into my skin, damaging and hurting my flesh as I tried to crawl to safety. But I didn't make it far. The smoke was heavy in my lungs, making my eyes water, and my lungs felt full of it. A small breath of air seemed like an impossible feat, getting out of there alive growing more and more improbable as I slowly came to a stop on the ground. My breaths were ragged, my eyes sore. I felt a deep sense of disquiet, a stubbornness telling me I wouldn't go this way, I had to keep fighting for myself, for Thorn. But I couldn't. I was drowsy, drugged and tired. Sleepy. The tiredness seeped through every pore of my body, and I needed the rest. Needed to close my eyes. Just for a second. Just for a moment.
Slowly, heavily, my eyelids drooped and I closed my eyes firmly against the smoke assaulting my senses. I started to accept it in my drowsy state, slowly admitting that this was the end, that she'd gotten the better of me. That I'd die in Thorn's rose garden, burning down with the rest of his memories. How fucking fitting.
I heard his voice first, calling out to me, desperate to wake me up. But I knew it was too late already. I reached out to him with heavy arms that wouldn't move, my legs feeling like they were leaden, leaving me sprawled out on the ground.
"Thorn," I whispered, yet no sound came out.
His arms around me felt like an embrace sent to console me, but they didn't feel real. My eyes wouldn't open. My lungs wouldn't work. The smoke. The smoke was everywhere, making it impossible to breathe. I coughed weakly. I tried to stay in this world, in our world, in the world of Thorn and Rose. But I was being pulled away. I was being taken from him, torn out of his arms, going higher and higher until I could see my body there, on the ground, on the grass of the rose garden, with his arms around me, his thunderous voice cursing and calling out my name, demanding I returned to him.
His words echoed in my mind.
"No! Fucking no, come back to me. You're fucking mine, Rose. You don't go anywhere if I don't allow it. You're not fucking leaving me; do you hear me?"
I tried to answer, but the words wouldn't leave my lips. From above, my body looked lifeless in his arms. I floated above us, watching him lift me into his arms and press a soaked rag to my lips, protecting me from the smoke. I wanted to scream, to laugh, to cry. To tell him it was already too late, I was already out of my body, I was already ready to go. I was leaving him, but I needed him to know I didn't want this, didn't want to go away. I wanted him. Needed him. It felt unfair to be torn out of his embrace like this, to be forced to leave him behind.
That's when I found a part of me I never knew existed. I found the fighter within me. And she was screaming to be let out, so I let her.
I came back in my own body, sputtering and coughing as Thorn rushed me out of the burning rose garden, carrying me to safety. The smoke was
impenetrable, a thick curtain of ash and the scent of burning roses making me feel sick to the pit of my stomach. I needed to get out, but my body was so fucking weak. But my mind wasn't. My mind screamed to be let free, to be saved, to save myself. And I clung to that thought, to the small, tiny possibility of getting out of there alive.
"Rose," he whispered against my lips as the world burned around us. "I'm going to get us out of here. I fucking swear. I promise, Rose. I fucking promise. I'll never leave you again. You're mine, Rose. You're my destiny. I love you..."
I felt my eyes getting heavier and heavier, slowly closing until the smoke stopped burning them, stopped going in through my mouth and nostrils, and stopped killing me slowly. I felt the world turning around me, felt the wheels churning along and felt my life slowly slipping away, even though I tried to hold on for dear life, clinging to the last remnants with so much desperation I thought it would kill me.
Thorn's arms were strong around mine and he held me closely, fighting, trying to make his way through the smoke and the fire. My eyes felt heavy as hell, the trouble of opening them almost too much to handle. He begged me to stay with him and I tried to obey, but it was so fucking hard. The call of the other world, the one that lay right above the smoke and the fire, was so strong. It would welcome me with open arms, and I would be happy there. Almost as happy as I was on Earth.
I felt something slapping me, hard and brutal, and my eyes flew open to see Thorn's desperate face, streaked with ash as he stared down into my eyes.
"Stay with me," he ordered, his voice so damn angry I wondered what I'd done to upset him this much. "Stay with me, for fuck's sake. Don't you dare close your eyes again, Rose!"
"I'm trying," I whispered, but it came out as a raspy croak, the words barely forming when I spoke up.
We were trapped. This was hell. This was what the end felt like. This was where my life would finally come to its end. Not with Thorn hurting me. Not with Ellis going overboard. Not from my cut tendons... I would die because of a selfish, mean girl who was supposed to be my friend, and because of my own naivete. I should have known it would've happened this way. I should have known from the beginning.
"I'm not letting go," Thorn promised me, and my eyes opened further, taking in everything around us.
The world was burning bright. The rose bushes had caught on fire, burning with billowing smoke raising around us. The fire, smoke and embers were almost too much to bear, the night sky beautiful above us. It was a show of what nature was capable of when the wrong person set fire to the spark. It was my end, mine and Thorn's. At least it had come together. I was fucking grateful for that, because I knew I wouldn't be able to live or breathe a single second without him by my side.
"Talk to me," Thorn begged me, his fingers grabbing me by the cheeks, making me look at him drowsily. "Come on Rose, talk to me. Just stay with me. Just stay here, I need you."
"I'm here," I whispered, and for the first time, the words came out like they should have and the sky's pull on me loosened.
I felt more like myself, more in the horrible burning moment of reality. And I wanted Thorn. Needed him.
"Get us out of here," I begged him desperately. "I don't want to die in here, Thorn, I don't want to die, please, don't let me..."
We stared at one another helplessly as the flames engulfed us. I really thought it was the end.
That is, until I heart the faint sizzle and burn of a fire being put out. Until out of nowhere, there was water spurting all over us, drenching us in cold liquid, soaking my clothes through and through and making me gasp through the stream.
"What's-what's going on?" I managed to get out, but I needn't have asked.
Thorn was already racing through the small bit of extinguished flames, leaving ash rising in our wake. He dragged me out of there until we came to the next obstacle, a burning branch blocking our way next to a cherry tree engulfed in flames. He looked down into my face and set me on my feet.
"Can you walk?" he asked, and I found myself nodding. "I'll put the fire out, and you fucking run. You got that, Rose?"
I nodded again.
He started ripping at his clothes, tearing them off his body. Shirtless, with his body wet from the water and sweat, he looked like a fucking God. I could have watched, entranced, for hours, but instead I stepped aside and waited for my Master to tackle the flames.
He covered the branch with our soaked clothes, and there was more sizzling and smoke as I made my way past the obstacle, holding my hand out so he could join me. But before he could, another branch fell from a burning cherry tree, enclosing him in the burning garden.
I screamed, and he shouted for me, but there was nothing to do. He was cut off from me, and even more so as the cherry tree came tumbling down like something out of a nightmare, a thing of terror and horrible fire engulfing Thorn in the flames.
I had never screamed louder.
And suddenly, he appeared from within the ruined garden, screaming as he ran through the fire, engulfed by the flames for mere seconds before he made his way out of the nightmarish rose garden, collapsing on his knees as I joined him, crying and screaming for him not to leave me. Oh, how quickly the tables had turned...
Seventeen
Carina
I was done.
I'd finally accomplished what I'd been working so hard for. Gotten rid of the obstacles. And now my man would finally realize I was the only woman for him. The only one who deserved Rueben Thorn...
A small smile was stuck to my face as I watched the chaos, watched the world burn. Maids and girls and guards ran outside to help, carrying buckets of water, calling for help. And I was the only one that knew it didn't matter at all, because sweet little Harlow Granger was captured right in the middle of the burning chaos... And she wasn't getting the fuck out. Not under my watch.
I felt triumphant. Victorious. I couldn't help the proud expression on my face as I rounded the corner and snuck back inside the house.
"What are you doing?"
The voice was a surprise, and I turned around with my hands behind my back, my eyes meeting Pia's.
"I heard something outside," I said innocently. "I wanted to see what's going on."
She seemed suspicious as she drew nearer, her eyes trying to find something out of place on me. I stared right back, waiting for her to challenge me on my story. I knew it was fucking coming. But so be it.
Pia was my last obstacle on my path to happiness. The only one left standing between mine and Thorn's happy future. And since I now knew I was capable of removing such obstacles, I was more confident than ever.
"But you just came in," she finally said. "You weren't leaving the house, you were coming inside."
I didn't say a word. Just kept a pretty smile plastered on my face as she circled me like a wild dog.
"I liked you at first," I spoke up. "But I don't think I like you very much now."
"What the fuck?" she asked, her face twisting into a grotesque mask that didn't suit her.
And then I was swinging at her, trying to attack.
Pia screamed when my fist connected with her beautiful face. I'd hit her left eye, and a victorious sense of self-accomplishment filled me as I imagined a bruise blooming there, marring her perfect bone structure. The need to hurt, to destroy and to ruin overtook me, and I took another swing at her, but this time, she was ready. She dodged me and screamed in anger just as I did, and we regarded one another, finally admitting to ourselves what we truly meant to each other, what we'd been all along without wanting to admit it out loud.
Enemies.
There was only one prize at the end of this brawl, and we both wanted it. Now, with Harlow out of the picture, Pia was the only thing remaining before I got what I so desperately wanted.
"He's mine," I snarled, and she laughed at the top of her voice, mocking me.
It made me even angrier, and I lunged at her, claws out, hoping to scratch her face good.
But she was ready for me, dodg
ing my attacks and returning her own. This wasn't a catty fight between two friends, it was a fucking duel, and only one of us would make it out alive, which suited me just fine. I'd already eliminated one of the two problems - taking out the other woman in one day would only mean I'd get to my prize sooner. And I couldn't fucking wait until Thorn realized it - that I belonged with him, that I was the one. Couldn't wait for the punishing kiss of his belt, to feel his lips on mine, his cock sinking into my holes and showing me how much he cared. The thought fueled me and I threw myself at Pia, throwing all of my strength into every punch and kick, determined to finish her off.
She was steady on her feet. Quick, too, and she kept dodging my attacks. Thankfully I was fast too, and I got out of her way before she could do any real damage. The thrill of it sent adrenaline coursing through my veins and I laughed out loud, knowing I would eventually get the better of her. She was at a disadvantage with no one around to help her, no guards or other girls to save her.
"I'll tell him you attacked me," I told her in a sing-song voice. "I'll tell him you set fire to the rose garden... You wanted to get rid of his precious Harlow... And you were so jealous of me you came at me, claws bared... And I took you out, I had no choice, I had to protect myself, didn't I?"
"You're fucking crazy," she bellowed at me, but I merely laughed in response. "He'll never believe you, you stupid bitch. He knows me better than anyone else..."
"Does he?" I asked in a patronizing voice, hitting her in the stomach, making her double over while I laughed. "And he still doesn't give a shit. He still didn't pick you. Poor little Pia..."
While she was doubled over, I approached her with measured steps, kicking her in the stomach over and over again while she cried on the ground.
"You're not getting out of this alive," I told her sweetly. "One down, one to go, and then I'll be the princess in the castle!"
She howled and picked herself up despite her injuries, catching me off guard. She hit my jaw so hard I tasted blood and I screamed before glaring at her, feeling the anger coursing through every vein inside my body.