The next hour was spent locked in the bedroom of Atreus' cabin talking to both Mia and Layla's parents. Through painful apologies, Layla did her best to assure them of her safety. It took even more explaining to Mia; she had to lie to her friend once again about her situation. The only believable lie she could come up with is that she lost her phone and spent a few days without any service or means to contact people because she took a last-minute trip with Atreus to a remote vacation destination. Mia grilled her endlessly about how worried she'd been and terrified something horrible had happened to her. After another half hour of apologies and assurances, Mia finally let Layla off the line. Layla dropped the phone onto the bed and flopped back onto the blankets. Rubbing her eyes with her hands, she let out a loud sigh. At least that was done, but now she needed to have a conversation with a certain blonde-haired dream boat. Hauling herself off the bed, Layla walked into the ma

Layla shot out of bed with a cry. Her heart pounded hard against her chest as she tried to regain her bearings. To her relief, she had woken from the horrible nightmares that had tortured her through the night. No light shone through the window, so she hadn't been asleep all that long. With a loud sigh, Layla scrubbed her face with her hands. The images of her dreams were still raw and fresh in her mind. She pictured poor Alita's prone body in Atreus' arms as he raged over her death and the sounds of Atreus fighting for breath under Ravana's cruel grip. "F*ck," Layla whispered with a shudder. What was all that anyway? Layla wondered. Was it a vision from Alita? Layla didn't think she had the capacity to come up with those images on her own. It had to be Alita's influence. Layla's throat was dry and her heart was still pounding, so she slipped out of bed and walked out of the bedroom and into the main cabin area. She half expected to see Atreus brooding somewhere inside, but as

Layla was alone once again, sitting on the bed inside the cabin as she waited for Ravana's return. Her nerves were shot and she was still unsure of the plan that Niniane had helped her devise. All she wanted to do was run away from it all, but she couldn't leave Atreus to face such a horrible fate. So she sat and waited with the stake tucked into her jeans, praying that their plan would work. Just as Layla wondered once again when Ravana was going to make an appearance the all-familiar sensation of her surroundings warped around her with inky black smoke. Standing, Layla looked around for Ravana's cruel face. He stood mere feet from her and watched her with his fierce amber eyes. Slowly, a smile lifted his lips, revealing his pearly white canines. He watched her silently, his eyes sidling up her figure with a slow purposeful gaze. "Your beauty… it never fails to enthrall me," Ravana said, his voice dripping with honey. Layla glared at him. "Save your bullsh*t." "Such a foul

"Atreus!" Layla screamed. The ruby-inlaid dagger Layla had gotten from Niniane dropped from Atreus' hand before he crumpled to the ground. "Oh, God!"Layla ran to him desperately, a fleeting thought of how he'd managed to get the dagger running through her mind. Had he returned to the cemetery the night she was kidnapped to retrieve it? When Layla reached Atreus, his skin was still burning under the sun's unrelenting power. Ravana watched with a cold expression as Layla used all her strength to pull Atreus from the circle of light. Slowly, one tug at a time, Layla tugged Atreus' slack body until he was safe in the shadows. Turning him on his back, she dropped to her knees beside him and put her hands on his cheeks, trying to ignore the brutal cauterized wound on his throat caused by the dagger. "Atreus?" she sobbed. "Please, please don't go." Yet, the more that she tried to wake him, the more apparent it was that he was gone. His beautiful face, although covered with red blist

A couple of weeks later.Layla sat quietly on her towel, letting the sun kiss her skin. People chatted as they walked past and kids laughed and played, splashing one another with water. She sipped from the cold tropical drink in her hand and watched the waves clash with the shore in soothing rhythmic motions. That and the feeling of her toes in the sand made this moment completely perfect. With a sigh, she shook her hair from her shoulders and closed her eyes against the warm rays of the sun, basking in the peaceful energy of it all. "Girl, you're still nursing that drink?" Mia asked as she plopped down beside Layla with a huff. "Here I am with two drinks in my hand, thinking you might need a refill." "I will happily take that burden off your hands," Layla said with a grin, looking at Mia with a renewed appreciation for her friend. "Gimme." Mia laughed as Layla took the second drink and set it down beside her. "What's got you in such a good mood lately?" Mia asked suspicious