Kenzi?
No. That’s impossible. I would have seen her earlier. Ididsee everyone with Liam.
But I know those eyes.
Sirens wail in the distance, dragging my attention back as paramedics rush in, voices sharp and urgent. They lift Matthias onto the gurney, blood staining the sheets beneath him.
Another sob wracks my body.
“Matthias,” I cry, reaching for him as they wheel him past, but my father holds me back, arms locking around me.
“Shh,” he murmurs into my hair. “Let them do their job.”
“I want to go with him,” I beg, my voice breaking into hysteria. “Please, I have to?—”
“They won’t let you,” he whispers. “He needs immediate attention.”
“But—”
“Shh,” he soothes, and then his voice changes, deep and rhythmic, vibrating through my bones as he sings softly.
“Hó bha ín, Hó bha ín.
Hó bha ín, mo ghrá.
Hó bha ín, mo leana,
Agus codail, go lá.”
My breath catches.
It’s him.
The voice from my fever dreams. The one that anchored me when I’d been shot. The one that kept me alive.
I cling to him as I sob, the blood-smeared book crushed to my chest while the ambulance doors slam shut.
Then a phone is shoved into view.
“It’s for you,” Vas snarls, but not at me.
I stare at it numbly before lifting it to my ear. “Hello?”
“So close, big sister.” Kenzi’s voice slides through the line, bitter and sharp. “I wasn’t aiming for him, but I’ll take what I can get.”
“Kenzi, what are you doing?” My voice cracks.
“Taking revenge,” she hisses. “You all killed her. Now I’ll kill you. One by one.”
“Whatever Christian told you isn’t true,” I plead. “He’s the one?—”
“Don’t lie to me, Avaleigh.”
Cold. Final.
“I wonder what other surprises lie in store,” she laughs softly. “You might want to hurry. I hear the main event is… explosive.”
The line goes dead.
