When Love Turns to Ash Novel – Chapter 5
Then he turned on me, his face a mask of fury.
“What did you do?” he snarled, advancing.
“Me? I didn’t do anything!”
“You tripped her! You’re jealous, you psycho!”
He was actually accusing me. After everything.
And then, he did something I never thought Jax—my Jax, the boy who saved me from falling equipment—would ever do.
He shoved me. Hard.
I was already unsteady, my broken leg making me awkward.
I stumbled backwards, my good leg slipping on the wet tiles near the fountain from Chloe’s splash.
And then I was falling too, into the cold, shallow water of the fountain.
The shock stole my breath. My casted leg hit the bottom with a jarring thud.
Pain, again. Overwhelming.
Jax stood over me, glaring, his chest heaving.
Chloe was clinging to him, looking shocked—but also strangely satisfied.
“You ever, EVER, touch her or try anything with her again,” Jax growled, his voice dangerously low, “and I’ll make you regret the day you were born, Savvy Miller. Stay away from us.”
I couldn’t swim with the heavy cast.
I was floundering, water filling my mouth, my wound near my collarbone stinging fiercely.
I saw red bloom in the water around my white cast.
My blood.
He was going to let me drown.
Days bled into one another in The Gauntlet.
It was a series of damp, stone rooms, cold and barren. They were given no food, no water, no medical aid for Silas’s injuries.
He lay on the stone floor, his body aching, the force of Seraphina’s blow having left him weak and bruised. Willow huddled beside him, small and shivering.
“Daddy, I’m hungry,” she whispered, her voice thin.
He pulled her closer. “I know, sweet pea. I know.”
“Why is Mommy so mean?” Willow asked, her innocent question a fresh stab of pain for Silas.
He had no answer for her that wouldn’t destroy her image of her mother completely. But Seraphina was doing a thorough job of that herself.
The heavy door to their cell creaked open. Julian Thorne entered, Damien smirking at his side.
Julian looked down at Silas with open contempt. “Not so mighty now, are you, spirit-man?”