Friday Feature, Excerpt & Giveaway: Legacy: The Awakening by Liza Malloy

Aiden wrapped another blanket around me then settled behind me. I was still shivering, my teeth chattering so hard that the clanking sound reverberated in my head. Aiden pressed his body harder against mine, his arms tightly enveloping me. I tried to focus on the physical closeness between us, to appreciate the proximity of his perfect body like I would have in any other scenario, but I couldn’t relax.

We were close to the fire, so close that the heat stung my eyes. I gazed down at Aiden’s hands to ensure he wasn’t getting burned, since our position left his hands closest to the flames.

He seemed fine, and I squeezed my eyes shut again, trying to will away all visions of the evening. But I couldn’t forget. I remembered all of it, too clearly. I saw a definite female figure in the road, with the longest, reddest hair I’d ever seen. It was so long that it wrapped around her body, whipping in the wind. I felt the air bag punching me as the car hit the water. I flinched as I recalled Aiden’s fist bashing into the window, breaking the glass. I could still see the blood welling up along his knuckles, pouring down his wrist, his fingers swollen and misshapen.

I opened my eyes rapidly, and wriggled loose enough from his comforting arms to free my hand. I reached for his hand, sliding my fingers across the smooth, unbroken, clear skin of his left hand. Then I checked his right hand, finding no sign of swelling, no trace of blood, no broken fingers. Aiden’s hands were in pristine condition.

Aiden pulled his hands away quickly, then he slid them under the blanket as though he just wanted to warm me better.

“Aiden, your hand,” I croaked, my voice clearly not recovered although my teeth had thankfully stopped chattering.

“I’m fine,” he said.

I shook his arms off me. “You weren’t earlier. You broke the window with your fist. I saw your hand. It was bleeding.”

“I’m okay now,” he repeated. “I washed it off.”

“Aiden it was swollen and maybe even broken. There was bruising and cuts.”

“Nothing is broken. I’m fine.”

“But you shouldn’t be!”  I shouted, wrenching free of his grasp. “That’s impossible.”

He stood and backed away slowly. “I don’t know what you think you saw, but I wasn’t hurt that badly.”

I didn’t answer, couldn’t formulate any coherent thought, but I knew what I’d seen.

“Jessica, the EMTs looked at my hand. Remember? They were there, they checked it out. I’m okay.”

I licked my lips and inched the blanket off my back. I was sweating now, the fire having finally warmed me. But when I glanced up at Aiden, I was still shivering, just not from the cold.