His eyes soften as the dust settles around us.
“Last…months were the best of my life. I’m sorry, baby… sorry our plans aren’t…”
“Shut up!” Tears stream down my face, mixing with blood. “We’re going home, remember? You promised me, baby. You promised you’d come home with me.”
Paul’s gaze holds mine, even as the light in his eyes fades.
“Promise you’ll keep going.”
I shake my head violently, sobbing. “Paul, please. Please, baby. Don’t do this. Please—”
He kisses me with his last strength, his lips still warm and soft. I hold onto it, trying to burn every touch, every feeling into my soul.
“I’ll be with you,” he breathes against my lips. “Always. Forever.”
His body grows heavy, sinking against mine. His eyes close, one last breath brushing my cheek.
“No!” I hold him tighter, rocking back and forth.
“Please, Onyx. Please. Don’t leave me. Don’t leave me.”
He’s gone. I scream into the desert until my throat tears and the world ends with him.
Suddenly, everything changes. His weight. His scent. The angle of his shoulders. The shape of the face I’m holding.
The image in my mind rearranges itself.
It’s not Paul.
It’s Tom.
He’s on top of me now, blue eyes locked on mine as the guards rip him away.
That impossible grin before they’d cuffed him. The smirk, even through the pain. That last wink.
I blink hard. I’m not in the desert anymore. I’m here, in Arcadia. And the man who protected me, who distracted the guards, who gave himself up so I wouldn’t be caught, is Tom.
I press my palms into the floor, glass biting into my skin, and for a moment I can’t tell whose blood is on me. Paul’s? Tom’s? Mine?
“Tom.” I whisper his name into the void, the wound in my heart ripping open.
Where is he?
Please, not again.
Please, don’t take him away from me.
There’s a knock on the door.
“Yosh, can you please open? I know you’re here…”
Erin’s voice feels far away, pushing through fog.
I stay quiet. The words are stuck somewhere between my chest and my throat.
It’s only when I feel her hand on my shoulder that the fog lifts. The images in my head fade, the room coming back into focus.
I see the mess around me. What have I done?
