His footfalls reverberated on the ground beneath me, and before I knew it, he was by my side. Frantically, his hands pressed against my body, hunting for the wound my life force spilled from. His chest rose and fell with shuddered breaths as he shook his head, tears beginning to fall down his cheeks.
“No… No, no, no. What the hell were you thinking?!”
“Great. A bulletwasted.” General Valens lifted the gun, cocking it toward Thorne. “That fucker was meant for you.”
Plumes of wrath tumbled from Thorne, his hand trembling as he lifted his chin to look at my father. Guilt consumed his features, but the loathing overrode it, his eyes darkening as he reacted in kind.
One second, both of his hands were on me. The next, only one, and another gunshot filled the space alongside the smell of ceasing corruption.
My father stumbled back, reaching up toward his throat. Our shared lineage coated his hands, his eyes widening as he brought them into his line of sight—painted with the mark of his finality. Tripping over his own feet, his back greeted the wall, and he slid down it, attempting to speak but only able to offer up gargled and broken words.
Holstering his gun beside me, Thorne spoke with a coldness I’d never heard before. “Choke on your own blood,bitch.”
General Valens gaped like a fish, his eyes refusing to dampen. He was refusing his death, but there was nothing left for him to cling to in this life. As his irises began to fade, a smile tore across my face because the result had ended the same.
The plan… The plan hadn’t been wasted, and Thorne was safe. My friends were safe, and they would never live under his tyranny again. He wouldn’t be painted as a hero, because he’d died in the crossfire of a deal gone wrong. A deal they could pin back to him, tainting his name forever.
Coughing, red splattered across my chest, my breathing heightening as it became increasingly more difficult to gather air.
“Oren…” Thorne practically whispered, denial detectable in his timbre. “Hey… Look at me. You can’t die, okay? I’m going to get you back home.”
Even the smallest shake of my head was too much, the corners of my lips twitching as I tried to remain happy for him. “Ah… At least I have… have three holes now,” I joked, the laugh that followed only ushering in another wave of pain.
“Leave it to you to continue cracking jokes…” Thorne chuckled softly, but it was broken. “And for that joke, what I’m about to do to you is going to hurt like a bitch, but we need to slow your blood flow. Okay?”
Before even giving me a chance to respond, he unzipped his vest, freeing the shirt he wore underneath. With one quick tear, he pulled a lengthy strand of fabric away, rolling it around his middle and forefinger with a pace that spoke of familiarity. Then he drove his fingers into the gaping wound.
I screamed, my back arching from the ground as the tears I’d tried to hold back flowed freely. “F-Fuck!” A desperate whimper clawed its way from my throat, the agony of what he’d done lingering.
“I know, baby. I know.” Sliding his arm under my head, his other one shifted to my knees. “Oren, look at me. I need you to look at me. Keep talking. Make as many stupid fucking jokes as you want, but don’t close your fucking eyes.”
Raw and unfiltered desperation. That’s all I could hear. His fear of being left… His fear of being abandoned.
A bitter sob left me, one from the lingering ache from the wound, and two because I knew this was it. There was no way I was surviving, and the look on Thorne’s face confirmed it. A miracle. It would take a miracle to save me.
“N-No more jokes… I-I need… need to say s-sorry.” Another wail, longer this time, as the metallic taste of my life force coated my tongue. “I’m sorry,” I cried. “I-I’m sorry.”
“Stop…” Thorne pleaded, lifting me into his arms. “You do not need to apologize to me, Oren. If anything, I should be the one apologizing. God, I’m so fucking sorry. I brushed you off. I-I ignored you. I fucking hurt you. And now…” Swallowing, he shook his head with apparent refusal to finish what we both already knew. “Matt! Call fucking emergency med right now! Tell them we are headed back and need a bay ready and medics on the roof waiting for our arrival!”
Matt gave a grim nod, the unspoken truth lingering in his gaze. “Got it.”
Another cough expelled from my chest, my eyes fluttering shut from the waves of increasing pain. “N-No… My fault. I-I listened… listened to them. N-Not you and… and I’m sorry.”
We were moving, my body bouncing against his. His throat bobbed as he struggled to let my words settle, and as he looked down at me, the utter devastation coating his features became far more deadly than a bullet ever could be.
“P-Please… D-Don’t leave me,” he whimpered, his bottom lip quivering. “I can’t… Fuck, Oren… I can’t do this without you. I’ll have no light. N-No fucking purpose if you leave me… I’ve barely been granted time with you in this life. I’ve barely been able toloveyou. God, Ilove you.Oren, I fucking love you, and without you I am nothing…”
“I-I… love—” A bitter whimper. “F-Fuck, I-I’m scared.”
“There’s no need to be scared, dove…” he sobbed, ushering me onto the helicopter, the drum of the propellers threatening to lull me further. “I’m right here, and I’m not leaving. I’m never fucking leaving you again. N-Never again… Not when we still have so much to do. I need you to draw for me, to paint for me… I need to dance with you in a field of daisies… I want to buy a home with you, to start our lives together outside of this place… We can get a dog, or a cat, fuck whatever you want… Please… Oren… Just d-don’t—d-dont fucking leave me…”
“I-I don’t—never leave you,” I said through clenched teeth. The pain was subsiding, but the ache in my chest didn’t leave. “I don’t… don’t want to die.”
“You’re not going to…” Lifting a hand, he brushed my hair from my forehead. With a simple shift, he leaned down, planting a kiss to my crown, his shoulders shaking. “I-I can’t lose you… Because if you die, my soul… M-My fucking soul will go with you…”
“T-Then we can meet… meet again on t-the other side… because… because you’re m-my darling. M-My everything,” I whispered, a deep-rooted fatigue settling into my bones.
A gut-wrenching sob wracked his body, his face burying into my neck as he cradled me against him. “P-Please… God… Please… I can’t O-Oren. I c-can’t live without you. I c-can’t… I can’t… I can’t…”
