“Good girl,” he murmured before he could stop himself.
My breath stuttered.
He froze for a heartbeat.
Then the elevator jerked downward again, and I didn’t care what he’d called me, I just clung to him, shaking, terrified, believing the world was going to split open beneath us.
He pressed his cheek to my hair, holding me tighter.
“I promise you, this is the part where wesurvive.”
“How will they even identify us?” I blurted into his chest. “Our bodies are going to besplattered. I never wanted to splatter. That’s such an undignified death.”
His arms tightened around me. “Madeline?—”
“I’m going to be a pancake,” I gasped. “Apancake. With abow.”
His chest shook once—once—like he might have laughed if the situation weren’t actively destroying me.
“You’re not?—”
“Iam!” I insisted, the elevator jolted again. “A pancake with a bow! A bow-cake! They’ll have to scrape me off the floor. What if someone steps on my?—”
Another hard drop cut me off.
This time I didn’t just lean into him, I practically climbed into his lap, curling up against him. My knees ended up bracketing his thighs. My arms locked around his neck. My cheek pressed against his collarbone.
I didn’t care.
If we were dying, I was doing it attached to him.
The elevator shuddered, deeper descent.
His hand came up instantly, cupping the back of my head, his thumb rubbing small circles.
“Easy,” he murmured. “You’re okay. This is the lowering sequence, they’re bringing us down manually.”
“We’re goingsofast,”
“It’s too much panic,” he corrected softly. “Not too much speed.”
The sensation of falling went through me. My stomach dropped. I clung harder, gripping the tank top stretched across his chest.
“Breathe for me.”
“I can’t,” I cried. “I can’t breathe—I’m—I’m going to pass out?—”
“No,” he whispered.
The elevator dipped again, farther this time, and I half-sobbed, half-squeaked—a noise, I’d normally be humiliated for making.
“You’re okay. Listen to me.”
“I hate this,” I breathed into his throat. “I hate this—I hate storms—I hate elevators—I hate dying?—”
“You’re not dying.”
“Itfeelslike dying!”
