Page 45 of Symphony for Lies (Tangled Truths #2)

Zane's

My breath was erratic, my chest rising and falling in a frantic rhythm that mirrored Amelia’s, but hers was shallower. Weaker.

She was slipping.

We crashed into the flowerbed as the burning remains of the labyrinth cast eerie shadows across the night. The air was thick with smoke and the sharp, metallic scent of blood.

“Zane! Amelia!” Spencer yelled for us, but it was nothing more than a distant echo to me. A muted sound drowned beneath the roaring panic in my head.

My skull throbbed, and my vision blurred. The world seemed to twist and turn like everything around me was collapsing.

A sharp gasp. Amelia.

My body moved before my brain could catch up, instincts overriding everything else as I clung to her. I pulled her onto my lap, pressing down on the stomach wound with shaking hands.

“We’re here!” My voice was raw with desperation. “We need a medic! Now! ”

Despite my own injuries, my grip remained steady and firm as if, by sheer force, I could hold her together.

My girl’s eyelids fluttered.

“Amelia, stay with me!”

There was the sound of running, and I lifted my head just as Spencer skidded to a stop beside us, panting.

Rage boiled inside me.“Where the fuck have you been?!”

He staggered slightly, wiping blood from his brow. His forehead was split open, dripping deep red onto his face.“Got blindsided. Someone got me from behind. Knocked me out cold. But I got the son of a bitch.”

His eyes landed on Amelia, and all color drained from his face.

“Shit!” He crouched beside us, reaching for her. But I didn’t let go.“Medics should be here any second.” Gripping his head, his gaze darted toward the flames, watching as they swallowed the labyrinth whole.“What a fucking nightmare.”

The sky was painted red and orange, thick smoke curling into the air like a living, breathing beast. We didn’t even know the full extent of the explosion yet, but one thing was certain, the labyrinth was gone.

I heard a distant sound. Sirens. Gradually, they got louder.

“Can you stand?”

I nodded. It didn’t matter if my body was breaking and my muscles were screaming. Nothing mattered except getting Amelia out.

Her chest barely moved, and her lips were pale, almost blue.

“They’re here!” Spencer waved down the first responders.

Everything blurred.

The voices, the flashing lights, the movement, it was all nothing but noise.

I saw them, but I didn’t see them.

It was just her.

Hands tried to reach for her. “We need to move her now!” A paramedic.

Irrelevant.

I held her tighter.

“We need to save her.”

Yes .

Save her.

Her skin was getting colder.

They tried to take her from me. The world became motionless. Faint. Distorted voices. Urgent hands pulled her from my arms.

The moment she left my grasp, my chest felt empty. Like something had been ripped from me. As if my heart had been stolen.

I followed. Never letting go of her hand.

They laid her onto a stretcher.

“I’ll handle things here!” Spencer called, but I barely heard him.

I was already climbing into the ambulance. The inside was cold. Sterile. Lifeless.

The paramedics worked on her, hands moving in practiced urgency.

I wasn’t listening. I wasn’t watching them. Only her. Her hand was still in mine. So small. So cold. So fragile.

I squeezed as if that alone could tether her to this world.

“You belong to me. No one is taking you from me.”

Nothing else mattered.

The beeping machines. The medical jargon. The sterile scent of antiseptic. They didn’t exist.

Only Amelia.

I held her like I could will her back to full health.

She wouldn’t die. She couldn’t. I wouldn’t allow it.

Hospital. Bright lights. Movement.

And then they took her from me.

“Sir, you have to stay here.”

Hands held me back. I didn’t fight, but my eyes never left her until she disappeared behind a set of doors. Gone.

A numbing void spread through my chest.

At some point, I found myself in a waiting area.

My hands were still covered in her blood. My breathing hitched.

He will pay for this. I will fucking kill him.

Darkness coiled around my thoughts, suffocating and consuming.

If Amelia survived, I would never let her be in danger again. Never.

No risks. No threats. No distance. She would stay with me. Safe. Where she belonged.

“Zane!” My mother’s sharp voice snapped through the silence, followed by the hurried steps of several others.

My head lifted.

Amelia’s friends were with her.Their faces were pale, stricken with fear.

My mother dropped to her knees, her hands gripping my shoulders. “What happened to you?” Her eyes filled with tears. But none of what was going on was about me.

“I’m fine.” My voice was hollow, unrecognizable.

“What are you talking about? You’re bleeding.”

“Not all of it is mine.”

A sharp inhale.

The horror on Stacy’s face was almost unbearable to look at.

Tears spilled down her cheeks. Tiana whispered a curse under her breath, and Layla sank into the seat beside me.

No one spoke, but then my mother broke the silence once more. “Zane, you need to get treated.”

“Not until she’s okay.”

She exhaled softly, letting go.

Stacy grabbed my shoulder.“Do you think Amelia wants to see you like this?” Her voice was heavy with emotion.

With anger and pain.“Do you think she’ll be happy seeing you hurt?

You fool! The moment she sees you, she’ll worry about you instead of herself.

” She wiped her tears away. “Do you want that?”

Fuck.

She was right.

Amelia… the first thing she did was apologize. She’d blame herself.

“Come on.” My mother pulled me to my feet.

I moved mechanically as she led me to a doctor. They cleaned my wounds, stitched me up, and gave me something for the pain.

I let it all happen in silence.

Then, I washed my hands.The red swirled down the drain, but it didn’t wash away anything. Not the memories. Not the fear. Not the rage.

By the time I was done, Amelia was lying in a private room. She was still unconscious.

I sank into the chair beside her, exhaustion clawing at my body. The steady beeping of the monitors filled the silence, a cruel reminder that she was stable but not awake.

I couldn’t breathe.

Not until she opened her eyes. Not until I heard her voice.

She lay there, small, fragile, and drowning in the cold sterility of the hospital room. Amelia looked nothing like the fierce, stubborn woman I loved. Nothing like the girl who had once stood before me, fearlessly challenging me with every glance, every word.

I reached for her hand, wrapping my fingers around hers. She was warmer than before. But still not warm enough.

Despite my weak, tired muscles, I refused to move.

I wouldn’t leave. Not until she came back to me.

Her friends had let me stay, not that I had given them a choice.

I wasn’t going anywhere. Not ever.

Carefully, I leaned forward to rest my upper body against the edge of the bed, never letting go of her once.

My free hand slipped beneath my head, too drained to hold myself up.

“Wake up,” I whispered. “Please.” A single tear slipped from my eye, landing on her skin. “Amelia… I love you.”

My thumb brushed over her fingers, tracing the delicate lines, memorizing every ridge, every curve. My throat burned, and my chest was tight with a pain I didn’t know how to carry.

“It hurts to see you like this.”

Nothing. No movement. No flutter of her lashes.

But there was a slight pressure.Her fingers curled faintly around mine.

A tremor ran through my body as I lifted her hand to my lips, pressing desperate, reverent kisses against her skin. Again and again. Until I simply held it there, against my mouth.

More tears blurred my vision, but I didn’t care. I squeezed my eyes shut as if that could quiet the storm raging inside me.

I had never known fear like this.

Never.

Amelia was my first woman. My first love. The only woman.

From the moment our eyes met, I had known. I wanted her. No one else.

Memories crashed over me like waves, drowning me in their relentless pull.

The way she looked at me. The way she moved. The way my blood boiled with possessive rage every time I saw her with Tristan.

The man my mother had always compared me to. The one she had placed on a pedestal as if he was somehow better than me. He wasn’t just my rival in music. He was my rival in everything.

He had tried to sabotage and humiliate me many times, a side of himself he had never shown Amelia or anyone else.

As a child, I did let it get to me. But when I grew up, I stopped. I ignored him. I refused to let him dictate my life.

I built my own path without my parents’ expectations.

Music had been my only escape. It was forced on me, but it was the only thing I had ever been allowed to love. Until Amelia. But I had been nervous to approach her. She was a mystery I couldn’t solve.

And Tristan. The damn asshole. He noticed.

And the moment he saw the way I looked at her, Ella saw it, too.

My mother wanted her out of my life. And that psychotic bastard had wanted her dead.

Everyone had tried to take Amelia from me as if being together with her was not allowed, not a given. Never again.

No one. Not even a killer would ever stand between us again.

“Could you… let go of my hand? It feels… kinda heavy.”

My entire world halted.