Maci | Home

Her voice crack is loud enough to cut through the fog trying to pull me under.

The stream of questions is frantic now, none I can answer, reassurances I can't hold on to. I try to focus on her voice, let it tether me, but the words slip through my grasp like water.

There's a soft hum, a song I don't know, and I realise she's singing, badly, but it helps. It keeps me anchored just enough to stay conscious, though the pull of sleep is an unforgiving current, dragging me deeper into the haze.

How long have I been here? Seconds? Hours? The world feels like it's narrowing, tunnelling into nothingness.

The bathroom door slams open so hard the sound ricochets off the tiles, rattling in my skull like a gunshot. The entire room trembles, and the vibration snaps me back from the brink.

My heart lurches painfully, the adrenaline jarring me into awareness.

Emma yelps, the sound sharp and startled, followed by a splash and a flurry of curses from the stall next to mine. The air shifts suddenly, the atmosphere thickening like a thunderstorm rolling in. I can't see him, but I know someone's here. The energy is too potent, pressing into the room like a weight. My body will not cooperate. My arms hang limp at my sides, too heavy to lift, too weak to unlock the door.

"She's in here!" Emma's voice quivers now, a strained mix of relief and panic. "The door's locked, I can't get it open."

Metal screeches, a deafening, visceral sound, and then my stall door is gone. Torn from its hinges as if it were made of paper, tossed aside with a force that reverberates through the room.

The ground disappears beneath me. My stomach lurches as I'm lifted effortlessly. I'm flying, weightless.

No, I'm cradled, held like a precious thing in arms that are firm and steady.

Cedarwood. Earthy and rich floods my senses, drowning out the sticky sweat of the bar. It wraps around me, and my sluggish thoughts stutter, caught between recognising it and dismissing it as a hallucination.

My body squirms weakly, the feeble attempt to resist a laughable joke.

"Please," I mumble, barely able to force the words out. "Too heavy."

It's not a real protest. It's the echo of Mike's voice, his taunts scrawled in permanent ink across my brain.

'You never need to worry, Maci. No one's kidnapping the fatty. You'd break their back before they got you to the van.'

Even now, drugged and teetering on the edge of consciousness, his voice slithers through the cracks, as cruel and insidious as ever. My throat tightens, shame curling in my gut alongside the nausea. Great. Just, my brain won't tell me what day it is, but it gives me this shitty memory.

The arms around me tighten and there's a low huff, almost a laugh, but it carries none of the cruelty I expect. Instead, it's firm, disbelieving, like the very idea of my words was offensive.

"Too heavy?" The voice is unmistakable now. Thorne.

Rough, and laced with an intensity that's a physical grip on my soul.

"Maci, you've only ever known men too weak to carry someone as extraordinary as you."

The words are a light, scattering the ghosts of Mike's taunts. The warmth in his tone burns, replacing the bitter cold of shame with something safe.

A sob catches in my throat as hot tears spill over my cheeks. His voice digs into a place I've kept locked away, squeezing my heart until the tension in my body finally gives way. My arms, heavy and limp, fall uselessly at my sides as a new realisation punches through the fog clouding my mind.

I know this voice.

The same voice that demanded to know where I was on the phone.

"Thorne?" My voice is a fragile whisper, a breath struggling to hold its place against the storm raging around me.

My head tilts, and I will my eyes to focus, to see him. Slowly, painfully, his ice-blue gaze sharpens into view, locking with mine. The moment our eyes meet, the world tips off its axis, and I forget how to breathe.

It's not just the relief of recognising him, it's how he looks at me, like the sound of his name on my lips has struck something primal. His expression isn't just intense; it's alive, sparking with energy I feel all the way to my core.

His jaw tightens, the muscles flexing as raw fury ripples across his features. It's not directed at me, I know that much, but the fire in his gaze sends a shiver racing through my battered body.

"I've got you," he growls, the words vibrating through his chest and into mine.

Without another word, he moves, carrying me out of the bathroom like I weigh nothing. He strides toward a back exit with the singular determination of a man who won't let anything, or anyone, stand in his way.

The chaos of the bar fades behind us, replaced by the brisk night air that slaps against my overheated skin.

My head lolls against his chest, the steady thrum of his heartbeat grounding me as the haze swallows everything else. His hand comes up, smoothing damp strands of hair from my brow, the tenderness in the motion tugging at a thread slowly unspooling. His fingers tremble slightly, but his hold on me doesn't falter.

"Where are we going?" I manage, my words slurring under the weight of exhaustion.

His hand, the one brushing my hair so delicately, curls into a tight fist.

"Home."

Just that single word. No more, no less. Stripped bare, and it clings to the air between us like a vow.

The edges of reality blur again, pulling me closer to the dark, unsteady waves waiting to drag me under. But before I go, my lips betray me. My thoughts spill out, slow and slurred.

"Wondering…" My voice trails off, weak and hushed, but he leans in instinctively to catch it. "…what that hand would look like wrapped round my throat."

He freezes.

Every inch of him locks up, his breath halting mid-inhale. The energy around us shifts, thick and electric. My head tilts just enough to glimpse his reaction. The subtle shift of his head, his jaw clenching so hard I think it might shatter, his eyes closing like he's fighting a beast clawing to be unleashed.

The air between us is taut, charged with something I don't have the strength to name.

And then the darkness claims me, pulling me under into its suffocating embrace.