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“Ky—Ky—” My fingers stick together like glue, the blood setting between the joints. Kyrin is beside Eli on the other side, pulling his head onto his lap while screaming at someone behind me. I don’t care right now. I don’t care if anyone else is hurt or even where it came from, because right now, I’m losing a whole part of my soul that I didn’t know was there until he walked into my life.
Eli leans up, his hand on my cheek. “Stop. I need to say something—It’s—I need—” His face turns pale, the blood coming faster. “I—she needs to go to Riverside. Take my place as a King. Promise me.”
I can’t see him anymore, blurred from my tears and leaving a strange concoction of mixed colors, I nod my head frantically. “Yes, I promise, but we’re going to get you out of here.”
He gets a sudden surge of power, gripping me from around my collar and yanking me back down to him. His lips brush mine and I sob into his embrace, the tears falling into his mouth. “I love you, too, Lilith. His eyes are barely open, but he manages to swing them up to Kyrin. “I love you. Look after her and our child.”
“No.” A pain so violent tears through all of the facades I’ve hidden behind all my life, digging their venomous claws into my soul to insert a toxin so poisonous it’s the only thing that could possibly kill me.
I grip Eli around the back of his neck to shake him back awake. “Eli!” His eyes roll to the back of his head just as a feral hiss leaves Kyrin. I watch as his palms graze over Eli’s eyelids to close them.
My heart snaps in my chest. I feel it. The snap. I haven’t just lost a thorn, I’ve wilted. Rotting from the inside out, the world around me no longer exists. I crawl backward while slowly lowering Eli down onto the ground as the tears continue to silently roll down my cheeks. “I was walking. Everything was fine. He was right there, and—”
“A trap.” The coarse whisper escapes my throat. “This was her trap all along.” My eyes fly up to where she sits, now perched over her desk with blood splatters and brain matter painted over the back walls. She planned this. “It should have been me. She wanted me!” I keep my eyes locked on a corner in the room, waiting. Needing my signature emotionless ice to swipe over my scorned soul.
Keaton lowers himself down in front of me, his hand on my thigh. “She had a paid assassin waiting a block over. She never planned to walk out of here alive and wanted to take you with her.”
I ignore him, because right now, that’s insignificant. I don’t care for what the bitch wanted.
Turning slightly, my eyes come to Kyrin, who still hasn’t moved from Eli. My heart snaps even further, the last bit that needed to crack before it was finally gone, resting in Eli’s chest forever. He can keep it. It belonged to him, not to anyone else.
I catch movement from the corner of my eye from people moving closer to Eli. I snarl, my fists tensing, ready to pounce but stop when I see it’s The Kings. My face falls again, my shoulders hunching over. This was their brother. They had known him all of their life. Fresh tears come as Bishop kneels beside Eli, with Nate, who has his face buried in his hands. It’s Brantley who has my breath caught, the way he’s staring down at Eli with a harrowing expression that will be burned into the back of my mind forever.
“So much death,” Brantley whispers, squeezing his eyes closed. “So much fucking death.”
Bishop pushes up from the ground, his hand resting on Kyrin’s shoulder before he looks toward me. “I’ll call our mortuary to come and collect him. There’s a process that needs to happen since he was a King. There are—rituals—” Bishop chokes on his words. “Fuck!” he roars, spinning around and breathing heavily, his shoulders rising and falling.
“This isn’t your fault, B,” Brantley says. “The little shit is always quick to save the people he loves. He never thinks before he does anything, much less that.” I crawl backward until the wall connects with my back. I don’t want to talk. I don’t want to be here.
Eli was the reason why I became who I did. My security, my best friend, the person I’d always trust.
Now I have no one. Not one. I have her.
I close my eyes just as someone is picking me up from the ground.
I watch as the hand on the old grandfather clock moves. I hate being in here, but it’s the only place I can hear my own thoughts. There’s a fire burning in the pit of my gut, and as every hour, day has passed, I feel it getting hotter and hotter. Almost as hot as the furnace that’s burning what’s left of Kennedy’s body. I can’t say any of us were surprised by how much Lilith lost it right after. We all sat and watched like fascinated lab rats sitting in an open cage. The pain of losing Eli is still too raw to touch. Too much. When I close my eyes at night, it’s him who meets me on the other side. Close enough to see, too far to touch. I’m stuck with the memories of him that are embedded into my brain forever. Never again seen. Touched. His voice a painful melody that refuses to lull me to sleep at night.
