I barely made it out of the room before I was wrapped up in Derek’s arms.
“He has to be okay, Derek. He has to. What if somebody finds out? They can’t. He has to be okay.” The words fell from my mouth faster than I could catch them. I had to stop myself before I blurted out everything they’d find if they found evidence on Graham.
“I know.” He held me tight to him. “They’re doing everything they can.”
“Well, it’s not enough,” I snapped.
“Maggie, there’s nothing we can do right now.”
I pushed back, offended. “There has to be. I can’t just let him die there.” I stuffed my bloody hand into my pocket and pulled out my phone, quickly dialing the Aunts.
“Ruby, Graham’s been shot. Is there anything we can do to help him survive? You know, magically?”
“We’ll be right there,” she said. Her voice was calm but frantic.
I hung up and felt a hand on my shoulder. I spun fast, eyes wide, shaking.
It was Bishop.
“Maggie, he’s lost a lot of blood.” His voice was steady, practiced, solemn. “We did manage to get him back after that first code…”
I let out the jagged breath that was seconds away from shattering me.
“…but it’s really touch and go right now,” Bishop continued. “Once he’s stable, we will take him into surgery to see about the placement of the bullets if there are any fragments, but from what we can tell there’s at least one lodged in his spine.”
“Oh, my god.” I brought my hand to my mouth, my stomach flipping as I tried to process what that meant.
“It will be hard to know until he wakes…” Bishop cleared his throat. “If he wakes… but there is a good chance he’s going to be paralyzed. But like I said we won’t know for sure. Once he’s back from surgery, we’ll run some tests. Hopefully, we’re all wrong… he’s a big guy, and he’s strong, but right now, you’re going to have to do the heavy lifting. Be strong for him too.”
Was this karma again? Giving me what I deserved? If it was, it wasn’t fair. Taking Graham out for collateral wasn’t part of the deal. He didn’t deserve this. I wished it was me on that table. I was the one who caused this whole mess… the one who brought Hunter into our lives. If the karmic balance was real, it sure as hell didn’t follow the rules. And if that was true, what good were the rules anyway?
My insides twisted. Nausea washed over every cell of my being and before I could stop it, I retched in a nearby trash can. Derek rubbed my back, but it didn’t help. All I could do was wipe the vomit from the corners of my mouth and weep.
I was a mess. Every fiber of my being was fading away at the thought of Graham dying. And I knew it didn’t help the situation, but it was the only thing I knew how to do without him—fall apart. He was the one thing that kept me from falling. The one reason I didn’t end it on those nights where I promised Derek I wouldn’t eat a bullet. It was him. It was always the hope he’d come back for me that held me here.
And when he did… the breath inside my lungs woke up. The blood in my veins started moving again. Because he came back for me on his own, not because of some stupid spell. But of course it couldn’t stay that way forever, because now that we finally had each other—a moment to catch up—let everything fall into place… he slipped away again, and my heart went distant, dark—invisible. Only this time, there wasn’t a hope that he’d come back. Fear was the only thing consuming me, because this time, Graham didn’t get to choose.
Death was different than deciding to stay. Sure, I’d heard of people occasionally making deals with Death, coming back from the brink ofcrossing over. But more often than not… Death won. Death didn’t care if you’d just started a new relationship, just had a baby, or if you were too fucking busy. Death made you stop just so it could take whatever it wanted from you. Sometimes it didn’t take you, even if you were literally fighting to stay alive. Sometimes it took those you loved the most. And it took them in the most inopportune and selfish times. Death was greedy and worked on its own timeline.
I couldn’t tell anyone what happened to Hunter. I couldn’t even let them know to stop looking for girls that looked like me, to stop looking for the man who killed them all. If I did, they’d put me away for life. And worst of all, if there was any evidence leading to Graham, it would strip his reputation. It would make him a bad cop, a dishonorable officer, and the town would probably think he deserved getting shot in the back.
Goddamn it!
I turned back to Bishop, just as the Aunts arrived.
“Isn’t there anything you can do?!” I asked, pulling Bishop to the side. “You have to.”
“Maggie, I’ve done all I can.”
“NO. You haven’t. I know what you are,” I lied, trying to get a confession out of him. His eyes still had that yellow glow, just like the first time I’d seen it.
“I’m sorry?”
“Don’t play that shit with me—not now.”
“Yes, Bishop.” Ruby grabbed mine and Bishop’s hands and pulled us into an empty room nearby. Clover followed close behind. “No games. You can save him.”
“What is he, Ruby?” I asked.
