Still maddeningly calm, Kelter lifts his head and sets his hazel eyes on Eli. “Linking didn’t work, butthisdid. My cravings are gone. And you too. You’re finally out of my head.”
Rage claws through my veins, but my voice is low, lethal. “You were wrong to do this.”
“I would have killed everyone in here,” he counters.
“Look!” I shout. “Someoneisdying, you selfish bastard. We could have saved him.”
Eli shakes violently. “I’m going to fucking kill—”
“Eli…” Milo rasps, grabbing his sleeve before he launches at Kelter. “Stay with me.”
His neck twists. He slowly turns back to Milo, wiping the emotion from his face, but the shallowness of his eyes reveals the truth, the pain that echoes deep inside him.
Milo grips Eli’s forearm, his body weak and trembling, slouching lower and lower. “That light-dark curse is bullshit.”
Eli humors him, his tremors waning. “Yeah.”
“I only ever saw a friend,” Milo says, cracking a feeble smile. “And an asshole.”
Eli lets out a clipped chuckle, stopping himself partway through as if he swallowed a thousand feelings at once.
Milo’s eyelids grow heavy. His head tips sideways, the effort of holding it up far too much. “I’m going to die, aren’t I?”
After the longest time, Eli’s chest expands with a sudden sharp breath, and I wait—wait for the release of his breath, the sign that it’s all okay, that the amount of blood is an illusion, a misunderstanding, anything but reality. But he holds it in like everything else, and I realize he could hold his breath endlessly, suffocating in his own feelings, and never die.
Kaleida sobs and quickly covers her face.
But he’s Milo—it’s the thought I can’t shake. He can’t die. He can’t. I repeat it over and over, my gaze fixed so hard on him that I start to believe I could stitch together his skin with only a piercing look.
Milo gropes the air until he finds Atom’s face, unable to turn his head. He brushes the messy brown hair from his eyes, soft words leaving his lips. “I didn’t get to choose how to live, but I chose how to die so you can have a chance to change that. Sonnet needs you.” Blood gurgles from his mouth. He collapses with a low grunt, loud enough to hear over Kaleida’s whimpering. Eli catches him and rests his head on his leg. One hand remains in the air, awkwardly searching for how to comfort the grown man in his lap, how to show his friend how much he cares.
Atom startles, retreating from Milo’s reach. His breath is stunted, his tiny, blood-spattered face tight with worry, tears welling in his eyes, overflowing with his next words. “No. You don’t understand. I can’t stay here.”
Kaleida wraps her arms around him and holds tight. “We’ll get you out of here.”
“That’s not what I mean!” Atom yells. He hops to his feet and runs… straight to Kelter. Then loops his arms around his waist.
Kelter lifts his arms up. “What are you doing, kid?” Atom squeezes tighter.
This kid will hug anyone. They’ve never even met. I peel my eyes away, back to Eli, trembling from the pain I can’t escape.
“Milo,” he gasps out, finally setting his hand on Milo’s chest. “Your sisters…”
Milo shakes his head, barely a movement at all. “I know, Eli. I know you will.”
Blood pools beneath Eli, spilling from the hole through Milo’s back and chest. It soaks into his pants.Then he sings, drumming a beat on Milo’s chest and giving him the distraction he deserves.
Only broken hearts can sing
I’m more than a soul, more than a mind
More than memories combined
One heart is all it takes
One death
One breath
