We’re inches apart now.
The wind screams past us.
I drop the cigarette. Let it burn out between our boots, then I cup her face in my hands and kiss her like it’s the last night I’ll ever have a mouth to kiss with.
There’s no heat in it.
It’s not lust.
It’s a brand.
It’s a scar I carve into both of us.
Her hands slide up under my shirt, gripping tight at my back like she’s holding me here, grounding me before I fly too close to something that burns.
“I’m scared,” she says against my mouth.
“I’m not,” I lie.
“You are.”
I nod, forehead against hers.
“I don’t know who I’ll be after tonight,” I whisper.
She holds me tighter. “Be mine. That’s all I care about.”
The storm breaks above us. Thunder cracks like bones snapping. Rain starts to fall, slicing down our faces like tears that don’t belong to either of us.
I kiss her again.
Slower this time.
Softer.
Like I’m memorizing her for after.
We pull apart only when the cold makes her shake. I pull her into me, coat around both of us now.
“We should go back,” she says. “You need to rest.”
She presses her lips to the hollow of my throat, and the words she whispers there aren’t for anyone else.
“I love you.”
I close my eyes.
I don’t say it back.
When I finally let go, she walks down the stairs alone, the words bleed from me in silence.
I love you too, little lamb.
My boots hitthe sand of the ring like coffin nails. Every step echoes like a tolling bell in my head. Each step sounds like a warning.Death.The words echo in my ears.
The iron doors creak shut behind me with the finality of a verdict. Marco and Milo walk by my side, shadows casting long under the low-burning lights. Neither of them says a word. They don’t have to. We’ve walked into fire together more times than I can count, but never like this.
Never when I had something to lose.
