Kicking off my boots, I lay down beside her, breathing in her vanilla sweet scent. Wrapping her hand in mine, I laid my head down on the pillow beside her and stroked her short hair.
“I love you, baby. We’re gonna get you through this, ‘cause, fuck, you deserve more to life than you’ve been getting. You deserve to be happy with me.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Lilah
Hearing the steady rhythmic dripping of water, I slowly opened my eyes and was instantly faced with a white-tiled ceiling. Disorientated, I took in a deep breath and filled my lungs with air. My entire body felt stiff, my back itchy and raw, so I gently rolled to my right side and instantly stilled.
There, before me, was a mirror on a wall, a mirror reflecting a woman on a bed. A woman on a bed covered in bandages, messy short blond hair, and a large white bandage on her cheek.
Blue wide and shocked eyes stared back at me, and for a moment, I forgot how to breathe.
This was me?
This is me…
Flashbacks crowded into the forefront of my consciousness—the knife, the daze, the cuts, the extinguishing of the devil’s curse… the freedom from my beauty.
Inhaling a careful breath, I immediately frowned. There was no twisting of my stomach as I realized what I had done. There was no demon in my mind, tormenting me, telling me I was a sinner, that I was bound to hell. All I felt was a calmness, a divine peace that I had never experienced before.
I was no longer beautiful. This girl staring back at me was… less. Less than attractive, less than sinful. This girl would be nonexistent in men’s eyes. To me, this girl was my kind of perfection.
As I stared at this girl, I realized there was real beauty in the ugly.
I tried to smile, smile in sheer relief, but the injured side of my face did not lift, the scar too deep, affecting the muscles, the sensation of the movement strange and unknown.
Lifting my hand to feel along my new face, I caught the wire poking from my skin, and more memories came to my mind. The gun I had grabbed, pulling the trigger, Maddie running forward, Flame pushing her out of harm’s way… And Ky, Lord, Ky holding me in his arms, his eyes tortured and afraid.
“Baby… what the fuck have you done?”
I had lifted my fingers to run down Ky’s flawless face. His head pulled back and his stunning beauty almost knocked the breath from my lungs. He was a good man, deserving of a real true love. I smiled for the freedom he would now have. “No more temptation. You are free from temptation… and my soul can now be saved.”
The blade, my cheek, losing my evil appeal…
Then the pain did come, for I knew I had lost him. The spell Ky was under was no more; his attraction to me would be broken. I had lost my love, but although it hurt, I knew it was the right thing to do. I felt the tightness on my cheek, the sting of cuts on my body, but I also felt the weight of the world lifted from my shoulders.
I was no longer beautiful. I had fought the devil inside and won. I would no longer tempt men. I could finally reach salvation.
Suddenly, a low sigh sounded beside me, and I froze. In the reflection, I did not see anyone else in the room, but when another low noise filled the quiet, I knew I was not alone.
Turning my heavy body and head to my left, the smell of tobacco and engine oil immediately crashed over me, and my heart began to pound. Bright-blond hair tied back in a messy ponytail lay on the pillow beside me.
Ky.
My Ky, fast asleep beside me.
What was he doing here with me? He was now free, his bonds to me broken…
Darting my eyes around an unfamiliar room, I panicked when I noted strange machines gathered around me. I did not know where I was. My groggy mind, though, was beginning to clear. My hands started shaking and when I went to move my left hand, something was wrapped around it.
Glancing down, I found Ky’s firm hand was intertwined with mine. And he was gripping it so tightly, like he could not bring himself to let it go, even in slumber. Then for the moment I forgot I was in an unfamiliar place, I just focused on the fact that Ky was here.
I was no longer beautiful, yet he was here.
My skin ruined, my hair gone, and my cheek marred… yet here he was, protecting me, lying by my side.
Why?
My thumb ran over the rough skin on the back of his hand, and hearing a stirring, I fluttered my eyes up to meet his. I held my breath as his newly awoken blue eyes roved over me, staring at my face.
This was it. This was the moment I would lose him. My lungs shut down as I awaited what he would say, but then I almost cried.
“Baby,” Ky breathed out in loving relief, and he slowly leaned forward, releasing his hand from mine and carefully brushing back my hair. I closed my eyes, relishing his touch, but my mind could not stop asking the same question.