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I bend down until my forehead is pressed against his cheek. I wrap my arms around him, hauling him against my chest, burying my face in the crook of his neck.

“Raspberry,” I whisper.

“Raspberry, Kento.”

He doesn’t move.

“Raspberry,” I say again, my tears soaking into his collar. “You said—you said if I said it, you’d come. You promised me!”

I pull back, grabbing his jaw in both hands, lifting his head.

“Raspberry,” I nearly scream. “Raspberry. Raspberry. Please. Look at me. Open your eyes. Look at your prince.” I beg against his mouth. “Come back. You can keep me. You can lock me in that fucking house, you can put that seal on my neck, I don’t care. I won’t run. I swear to God I won’t run away again. Just open your eyes. Raspberry. Raspberry.”

The beam of a high-powered tactical spotlight cuts through the rain above.

I hear voices. “Kishi o sagase! Hayaku!” (Search the shore! Fast!)

“Mieta! Asoko da!” (I see them! Over there!)

A snarling sound rips out of my throat. I twist around, throwing my back against the rock, dragging Kento’s limp upper body completely onto my lap, shielding his head against my chest, baring my bloody teeth at the men rushing toward us.

“Stay back!” I scream. “Don’t touch him! Stay the fuck back!”

The lead man stops three feet away.

It is the guard from Kento’s estate, the one with the scar across his jaw. His eyes go wide as saucers when he sees the blood pouring from Kento’s ribs.

“He’s not breathing,” I choke, my fingers digging into Kento’s soaked jacket, refusing to loosen my grip even as the men crowd around us. “He’s not breathing! Fix him! You have to fix him right now!”

The man reaches forward, trying to pull Kento’s shoulder flat.

“Let go,” the man says in heavily accented English. “We must stop the bleeding.”

“No!” I sob, clutching Kento tighter, burying my bloody face against his neck, feeling that tiny, dying flutter beneath his ribs slipping further away with every second that passes. “He’s cold. He’s too cold. I have to hold him.…”

Another set of hands grips my shoulders, trying to pull me backward.

I fight them. I kick with everything I have. I am not rational anymore, the wound on my head is making me too dizzy. “Raspberry,” I whisper, my voice breaking into a helpless whimper against the howling wind. “Raspberry… you promised… you promised you’d come…”

The rain keeps falling.

And beneath my hands, Kento Kazuma doesn’t move at all.

***

I stare down at my hands.

They’re resting on my knees, but all I can see is my right index finger, the one that curled around the trigger when Alya locked her hand over mine.

I put a hole in him.

I want to find a bone saw. I want to lay both hands flat and chop them off at the wrist until there’s nothing left to ever touch anything again. How many times have I hurt him? From the moment under the tree, I constantly threw my worst sides at him. He was right. I was scared of what I felt back then, so I redirected all of me to make myself hate him. He didn’t deserve my hate. He shouldn’t be the one hurt right now.

The doctors wrapped a bandage around my head. They didn’t really take care of my wounds. I didn’t let them.

Down the hall, the waiting room is coming apart.

Rei is screaming.