“I'm here. I'm right here.” His forehead pressed against mine. “Help is coming. Just hold on. Please, Cal. Stay. Stay with me.”
His face was the only thing still in focus. Everything else had blurred, darkened, pulled away from me like a tide going out.
I tried to tell him I loved him. That he'd reminded me what living actually felt like. That he was worth fighting for and worth staying for, that I was sorry I hadn't said it sooner, that I was sorry for all of it.
The words drowned in blood and failing breath before any of them reached the air.
The last thing I heard was Dom screaming my name, raw and desperate, the sound of a man watching his world come apart.
Then nothing.
Just silence, and the distant, fading echo of everything I'd fought for, slipping away into the dark.
