"What?" Dante's hands press harder. "Nico, stay focused. Help's coming."
The warehouse ceiling spirals above me. Industrial lights blur into stars. My body feels heavy and weightless at the same time, like I'm sinking through the concrete floor.
"Tell her—" I can't finish. Tell her what? That I'm sorry? That I'd do it all again because keeping her safe mattered more than keeping her?
"Nico!" Dante's voice cracks. "Open your eyes!"
I didn't realize I'd closed them.
The darkness feels soft. Welcoming. Nothing hurts here. Not my chest, not the hollow space behind my ribs where she used to live.
This must be what dying feels like. This absence of everything.
Peaceful.
I always thought I'd fight it. Go down swinging like Riccardo, protecting something that mattered. Instead I'm bleeding out on a warehouse floor because I couldn't face another night without her.
"Kristen." Her name again. I can't stop saying it.
The word dies in my throat.
"Two minutes," Dante says. "Stay with me two more minutes."
I try to hold on. For Pietro, who doesn't need to bury another brother. For Vittoria, who's already lost too much. For my mother, who'd never recover from this.
But my grip keeps slipping.
The last thing I see before the darkness takes me is Kristen's face. Not angry. Not hurt. Just... looking at me the way she did that night in the living room, when she said she wanted to know me.
Before I ruined everything.
I'm sorry.
I'm not sure if I say it out loud.
Then there's nothing at all.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
Kristen
The phone rings through my sleep.
My legs ache from eight hours on the diner floor, and my brain takes three full rings to remember where I am. Apartment. Bed.
Fourth ring.
I grab the phone, squinting at the too-bright screen. Vittoria's name glows back at me. The time reads 3:47 AM.
Something is wrong.
"Hello?" My voice comes out sandpaper-rough.
Crying. That's what I hear first. Ragged, wet sobs that make my stomach drop through the mattress.
"Kristen." Vittoria's voice breaks on my name. "It's Nico. He's—" Another sob swallows her words.
I sit up so fast the room tilts. "What happened?"
