Page 7 of Beneath the Mountain Sky

Beep.

Beep.

I attempt to swallow, but it’s so dry I can’t make it work right.

All trying does is cause more bad.

Scratchy. Awful. Pain.

Fuck.

Beep.

Beep.

Beep.

Beep.

Groaning, I roll away from that incessant sound, putting my back to it in a vain attempt to block it out. But the movement brings more agony that roils my stomach and makes acid fill my throat.

I choke on it, coughing violently, only making the throbbing in my side worse.

“Willow?” The sound of something metallic shifting across a hard floor comes from directly in front of me. Sharp. High-pitched. No better than that damn beeping. “She’s awake. Go get the doctor.”

That voice…

The familiar, deep, silky sound permeates the darkness that’s still trying to drag me into it, where I would willingly go if it stopped all this hurt. It cuts through the thudding in my head. Washes away the pain for a brief moment. My heartbeat picks up, that horrible beeping sound increasing its pace in time with the thumping against my ribs.

Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.

“Willow?”

Killian…

He’s here.

His eyes. Those crystal-blue orbs, always filled with so much love and affection, flash across my closed lids. I want to see them. Need to. My aching body yearns to feel his arms around me, to have him hold me…

But moving again is completely off the table, given what just happened.

Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.

A warm, rough, calloused palm brushes along my cheek. Gentle. Reverent. “Willow? Can you open your eyes? Can you look at me?”

It seems like such a simple request.

And I want to.

I want to see him so damn badly.

I need to.

It feels like it’s been an eternity since I’ve laid eyes on him…

Yet when I try to lift my lids, to see his strong, handsome face, that smile that he reserves only for me, they refuse to move.

Why are they so damn heavy?