Page 861 of Coal Hearts

My entire body jittered and ached.

The tears I’d bottled up for far, far too long made me sick and horribly sad.

Don’t do this.

They look happy.

They said goodbye three years ago.

I clutched the steering wheel.

I grabbed the keys to wake the engine.

I should go...

What right did I have to hurt them with his death when they already accepted it?

“You’re worried about me because you want to be my friend?” I eyed him warily.

He laughed under his breath. “Well, you did let me perve at you when we first met. You didn’t condemn me for asking for something to get me through the day, so yes...I would like to be friends.”

I folded over the steering wheel, choking on a sob.

The flashback.

The offer of comfort.

I couldn’t.

I couldn’t let him die without sharing just how incredible he was.

He deserved to be mourned and not forgotten.

Before I could stop myself, I ripped out the keys, wrenched open the door, and ran up the garden path.

The bing-bong of the doorbell echoed far too loudly.

The seconds that ticked past scratched up my spine until every tear I hadn’t allowed myself to fall clung to my eyelashes.

And when the door finally opened, and I stared into soft brown eyes, so similar to Paavak’s, and studied the face of the man who’d raised my soulmate, I couldn’t hold them back anymore.

I dropped to my knees on their doorstep.

I broke apart right there at his feet.

Every hardship and hurt, every pain and panic unravelled, and I couldn’t stop.

Paavak’s father cooed under his breath and shouted for his wife. With gentle hands, he helped tug me to my feet, then wrapped his arms around my quaking shoulders and guided me into their house.

I felt no fear as the door closed.

I shuddered in the arms of a stranger.

But he wasn’t a stranger.

I felt my friend in his arms.

I heard Peter as a child in the walls and saw his ghost standing at the bottom of the stairs.