But he manages to take advantage of my disorientation and flips me over, ripping the gun out of my pocket and pushes off me.
“No!” Hazels screams. She grasps onto his leg knocking him off balance the moment he aims directly for me.
Hot agony slices through me as a warm sensation coats my abdomen. I look down and see blood spreading along my wet shirt before my legs give out from beneath me.
The last thing I see before everything goes dark, is Hazel’s tear-stained face mouthing something that looks like ‘I love you’.
CHAPTER 44
HAZEL
27 YEARS OLD
For the past ten years,I’ve known nothing but the utter misery and torment of my own mind. Plagued daily by anxiety and PTSD. Going so far as to try and end my own life multiple times. But for one brief moment, I felt the closest to normal I’ve been in years. And that was due to Ace.
He found me in the darkness, crawling past my defenses and became the light I so desperately needed. More than that though, he showed me that I hold the power inside of myself. After all I’ve survived, I’m still here, and worthy to be. The world may have tried to forge me into a broken and beaten down shell, but I can choose to make myself into a version of myself that I can be proud of.
The moment Ace’s body hits the rocky shore, my training kicks in and blind rage fuels my movements. I ignore my burning chest and numb feet, instead kicking Kyle as hard as I can manage right in his nuts. They crunch beneath my foot, and I can tell it did some damage because he drops the gun on the ground as he goes to cradle his injured jewels.
Not even hesitating for a second, I scoop up the discarded firearm and aim just like how Ace taught me, pulling the trigger at the source of my suffering.
“Wait!” He screams, but it’s too late.
Kyle’s head splits open from the bullet, spraying his brains in the lake behind him. Watching him go down should bring me a sense of satisfaction, but all I feel is terror for Ace. I go over to him and find that he’s still breathing, just passed out.
I take his shirt in my hands and rip it from his body, revealing his tattoo. Si vis pacem, para bellum. If you want peace, prepare for war. I finally understand what it means, having ended the person responsible for my own personal war. I hope he’s burning in hell if there is one. He deserves the deepest most foul level of torment.
The bleeding won’t stop, so I take Ace’s shirt and press it against the open wound. I can’t tell if it went out the back or if the bullet is lodged inside him.
“Hold on, please.” My lips shiver and exhaustion claws at me, begging me to close my eyes, just for a moment.
I fight with everything I have against the sensation. Distantly, I’m aware that we need to get help, but I don’t know if I have enough strength to make it back. And if I leave Ace, he’ll certainly bleed out.
Darkness coats the sky and any hope I have of getting out of here diminishes.
I lay my head on Ace’s chest, listening to the shallow beat of his heart. If I have to die, there’s no one else I’d rather be with. My cracked and frozen lips find his chilled skin and I manage enough energy to place a small kiss where his heart resides in a final goodbye.
Peace washes over me, knowing that at least we’ll be together even in death. I just wish we had more time. Closing my eyes, I accept our fate. Tragic as it is. But life is nothing but a series of tragedies mixed in with a few moments worth cherishing.
“They’re over here!” A voice yells as flashlights bounce around us, illuminating the gruesome scene. “Oh my god, callthe ambulance.” A blonde haired police officer reaches down, putting her fingers on my neck. “I’ve got a pulse here.”
She does the same to Ace, and my breath stalls in my chest.
“It’s very weak but it’s there. Carter, get the first aid kit from my pack, now!”
A flurry of activity erupts around us, and I’m being covered in blankets and hauled off. Feet on fire with the cold. I wouldn’t be surprised if I have frostbite and pneumonia as a wet rough cough rattles through my body with an excruciating amount of pain.
“This one’s gone.” The police officer announces, finding Kyle’s corpse.
The ambulance arrives quickly, hauling both myself and Ace off to the closest hospital. If Ace can just hold on for another thirty miles. Please, hold on, I beg him silently in my head. Not wanting to live this life without him. Not now that he’s clawed his way into my heart and soul. I watch intently as the EMS workers flitter around Ace’s still body trying to save him. I don’t know what I’ll do if they can’t.
CHAPTER 45
ACE
27 YEARS OLD
The doctors sayI’m lucky to be alive. Had Hazel not interrupted Kyle’s shot, he would have severed my artery. But as fate would have it, he missed. Though, not without a severe amount of pain. At one point, I coded in the ambulance. Making me feel as if I’d been ripped from my own body.
