I clutch my chest, barely able to get words out. “My heart. It was alone.” This feels dangerously close to breaking my promise.
“Your heart willneverbe alone. If it tries to run from me, I’ll chase it down and chain it up as many times as I need to, but it’ll never get away—like you.”
I want to let my heart run free and test his claim.
“It could,” Atom says. I look at him, his face stuck in an apologetic expression.
I turn back to Eli and feel the beat in his chest with my hand, reminding myself of how real he is, of every thrust it took to believe it.
“And I never left.” He sits up and sucks in a breath as if testing his lungs. “I was fully aware, able to hear and feel everything. I couldn’t move until my body healed enough from drowning.”
I wince but can’t stay away from death. “What was it like?”
His forehead creases, and his eyes become vacant. “Like nothing was my choice. I never let the water in—my body did. It gave up. Then I was calm. Even with all the panic from Kelter in my head.”
“Why? He knows you can’t die.”
“He still had to feel everything I felt. But that wasn’t why he was yelling. He was worried about you.”
“Oh.” I suck in my lower lip, pulled too many ways. I never considered Kelter would feel the goodandthe bad, like the pain every time I put my hands on Eli before. “I need to find him.”
“I know,” he says, with no resentment.
“AndIknow where he is.” Atom crosses his arms. “He’s kind of important.”
No snide response from Eli about how much more important he is? Then he really can’t see the kid, and I’ve locked myself into permanent delusion. Wonderful. No child. I smile. “You’re not worried I only want another look at Kelt’s ass?”
“You can look all you want. You would have fuckedhimif you wanted pale, twerp ass.”
I lean in close, my lips brushing his, my voice low and teasing. “You would have felt every bit of the second-hand fuck.”
His cheek twitches once, the rest of his face indifferent. “And I would have felt my knife disemboweling him after too.”
Blood drains from my face. “You wouldn’t? I’d become a Half Link.”
“Maybe.”
“I shouldn’t be surprised. You sent a child-killer to hang out with me for a year.”
“So we’re going to talk about his ass instead of finding it?” Atom asks, kicking his attitude up a notch.
Damn my brain.Disappear, kid!
“Would you rather kick his ass?” Eli asks, leaning past me to look at Atom. “Because that can be arranged.”
“You can see him?”
Eli eyes me curiously. “This is the kid that claimed you could fix my broken immortality and knows exactly what I am.” He gives Atom a second look. “A head taller than he was a year ago, but still a brat.”
I thought I made that conversation up. I thought he was another Cam, a lie, a sign of madness.
“And you’re still a jerk off,” Atom tosses back.
I stand up, still reeling over Eli’s acknowledgement of his existence. “How old are you? And where are your parents?”
He stiffens, arms locking at his sides and chin raised as if to appear taller. “I’m eight and a half.”
“And your parents?” I prod.
