That joke isn’t funny at all. I slap his arm. “River’s finger, I mean. It’s not with me.”
I swing my phone’s light toward the ground. Surely a string of bones would be easy to find.
The ground is a mess of concrete and steel and so much dirt.
I don’t see anything.
My face gets wetter. “No! He gave that to me. I need it!”
I take a step back, but Blaze pulls hard on my arm. “No!” he hisses. “Pandora, I know it means a lot to you, but it’s not worth it. We need to get out of here.”
I shake my head. “I can’t, Blaze. I need it. It’s part of me. It’s River! He wants his finger back. You know he does.”
It’s the one thing that brought him back to me.
Without that finger, he would have left.
Without that finger, I would have lost him.
“He doesn’t care!” Blaze yells. “The only parts of River you need are all attached to him, okay? The finger doesn’t matter!”
“It does!” I pull on my arm. “Let go, Blaze. I have to find it.”
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
What the fuck is that sound? Why is it so loud?
“Pandora!” Blaze pulls so hard that I crash into his chest. “Calm the fuck down. We need to get out of here. River wants you to survive. Asch wants you to survive.Iwant you to survive. And, y’know what, I’d like to survive too. Dad sacrificed himself to save me, so I kind of want to make sure I actually do live!”
I sob, and I hate that sound so fucking much. “I’m not me, Blaze.”
“You are.” He keeps pushing forward, and I don’t have a choice but to follow.
I don’t have a choice but to leave River’sfinger behind.
It isn’t right. After everything he went through, I need to treasure it.
I need to treasure every part of them.
We don’t know where Asch was during the explosion. He could be lying in hundreds of pieces all around us.
I focus on the caved-in walls. The phone flashlight barely illuminates them, but I see how they pulse in time with the horrible thumping in my ears.
Never mind what I said earlier. I want the concrete prison back.
“Shit,” Blaze mutters after another two steps. “This way is blocked too.”
“It’s devouring us,” I whisper, even though I know those words don’t make sense. “Fuck. Blaze. I didn’t want to eatus.”
Blaze turns around and pulls me into an embrace again. “Nobody is eating us. You didn’t want to eat anyone, Pandora.”
“Of course I do,” I mutter. “I’m the devourer of worlds. This world.”
Blaze shakes his head. “Nope. The devourer of worlds was the Ouroboros, and that’s Norse mythology, not Greek. Pandora opened a box, that’s all. Blame the fucking Greek gods for giving her a box with all the evils in it in the first place.”
