Page 128 of A Sweet Destruction

Ella nodded once, a little stiffly. “On his way.”

“Shit, okay.” Bellamy’s voice wavered a bit, like she wasn’t expecting for this to all come to a head so soon. God only knew what her father wanted to talk to her about.

“Probably trying to goad us into a press run,” Soren said, rubbing a hand down Bellamy’s back in a calming motion. The way her body immediately relaxed at his touch would have made me a little nauseous if I hadn’t experienced that same phenomenon in recent days.

“We need to pack.” Bellamy’s voice was still distant and she was out of there a second later, immediately launching into planning mode. Soren was on her heels before she even got moving.

Peter and Freya followed in a train—Peter already talking in a speed only Ella could decipher and Freya hot on his heels, probably desperate to just get outside.

That left me and Ford.

I stood, turning to him with a smile, a comment about us being alone on the tip of my tongue. It never made it past that point, ripped away by the expression on Ford’s face.

His skin had gone ghostly white, his eyes hardened into emeralds. Utterly confused, I followed his line of sight to the floor, only to gasp in horror.

When Bellamy had fled, she’d dropped the file she’d been holding, scattering photographs of my face, bloodied and bruised after Ford’s rescue, all over the floor.

Chapter 27

Ford

I shouldn’t look. There was no use in looking, in torturing myself further.

The Bond, however, was a masochist. Maybe I was a little bit, too. Some latent part of me needing to feel like I paid my dues for what Esme had been through, pain being the preferred currency.

It was why I fell to my knees in the middle of Peter’s office, shaking hands reaching for the photos strewn across the floor.

I could hear Esme’s voice behind me, her hand hovering over my shoulder. The Bond didn’t care, not right now.

I need to see, it chanted over and over and over again.

When my fingers curled around the first photo, lifting it up to inspect, I felt my heart rip apart in my chest.

Esme’s face was covered in a light sheen of blood, dotted with something that looked like freckles. That was wrong, I knew where her freckles were. These weren’t the right color either, a darker red instead of deep brown.

Veins. That had burst from overexertion, I realized. Soren had said that happened, but it was a different thing to see it.

Distantly, I heard a sound come from my throat. Followed by a series of pleas from Esme.

In a sharp change of course, the Bond didn’t care what she had to say right now. It was a hungry, snarling beast needing to rip into the meal in front of it.

The next photo was of her bare back, dark bruises tracing the line of her spine and each rib. Her shoulder blades were marked with streaks of red—more blood. There was a smattering of cuts across her skin, like she’d walked through a thorny bush without noticing the pain.

The next was of her right leg, her shin bone pressing against her skin at an odd, clearly broken angle. The next of her wrist, shattered and bruised.

More photos, cataloging more injuries, each of which made the storm in my chest rage even harder, the blood rush in my ears louder, churning towards some impossible peak of intensity.

It felt like it might have reached that point when underneath the photos rested a crisp sheet of white paper, lined with sloppy handwriting.

Esme’s name was at the top, followed by a date of birth that I knew to be entirely guesswork. Then, paranima to Ford Langley. A single ray of sunlight burst through the storm, only to be eclipsed by what I read next.

It was her medical records.

Esme Prescott, admitted after coding three times in the field. Patient was in the process of rescuing their paranima from capture.

Patient nearly succumbed to her injuries. Live saving support was required for over an hour until her heart rate stabilized. Vitals leveled out after Doctor Jansen finished suturing Ford Langley, their paranima.

Patient suffered fractures of four vertebrae. Spinal cord was inflammed. Patient appears to have torn nearly thirty different muscles and tendons. Broken right tibia, left radius and ulna. Patient appears to have a torn her abdominal muscles in two different places.