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We’ll be together soon.
42
THE EMPTY MAN
I thinkthis pain might extinguish me.
And no, I don’t mean the pain radiating from Chase’s stomach. That’s a physical type of ache that can be healed over time, with bandages and stitches and antibiotics.
But this? This agony searing my very soul?
It’s a wound that will never heal.
I never even got the chance to tell Aliana I loved her.
Loveher.
Because even though she’s pale and still, even though her cheeks are white as snow, I still love her fiercely. It’s the type of love that’s pumped directly into my bloodstream, changing me irrevocably. There’s no going back.
This can’t be real. This can’t be. Em, do something!Chase’s voice is a desperate rasp in my head.
He gave up control almost as soon as Aliana fell, his thoughts running over themselves. His despair joins my own, compounding this foreign feeling inside of me.
I think…
I think I want to die.
It’s an odd feeling for a being who has been around for hundreds of years.
My knees feel weak, or maybe I’m just queasy from blood loss. Does it even matter? Aliana’s dead.
Em, please! You were able to come back as a ghost, weren’t you? Maybe you can help Aliana?—
It doesn’t work like that. I thought it would, but I was being too optimistic.I don’t recognize my own internal voice. It’s dry and monotone. Curt.
Numb.
You need to save her!Chase begins to sob, and a part of me wants to drown him out, erect a wall between us.
Another part of me wants to take comfort in him and our bond.
Who would’ve thought I’d come to care about the pesky human whose body I inhabit?
She can’t be gone. She can’t be. It’s impossible. She can’t be.Chase is nearly incoherent.
I suddenly wish I had a body of my own so I could…hug him. Comfort him.
Or maybe I want him to comfort and hug me.
My legs finally give out, and I collapse on the ground. The sudden movement pulls at my wound, but it’s a pain I welcome.
Something crashes into the wall just behind me, and I turn my head to see Dev pinning Aliana’s biological father by the throat.
“Do you even care that your daughter is dead?!” Dev roars, and the force of it stirs the white-blond locks of the monster’s hair.
Tennious simply blinks, nonplussed. “She’s not dead, you overgrown, hairy imbecile.”
Tesq slowly lifts his head from where he pressed it against Aliana’s.
