Chapter Forty-one
He tried.
He came for me.
Pain tears through my limbs as he slowly lowers me onto the floor, words stuck behind the howls of pain that rip out of my throat.
“I know, baby,” he whispers, his voice shaking, eyes glazed. “I know it hurts. I’ve got you.”
“I love you,” I wheeze.
I feel like I am dying. Maybe I am. Maybe this is it.
“This isn’t goodbye,” Silas presses a cloth that Roman passes him to my shoulder, and the pain flares to an inferno that steals the breath from my lungs. “The ambulance is coming.” He assures me, “Stay awake for me, Honeybee. Don’t leave me.”
“Thank you,” I grind out through the pain, “for showing me what it’s like to be loved properly.”
There’s a thumping inside my ears that’s growing softer, slower.
“Juni, please,” Silas begs, pushing back my hair with his free hand. I feel something wet smear against my skin as he does, but I’m going numb, getting tired.
“If we can’t have forever,” I hiccup, “give me right now.”
His hand cups my face, and he presses his mouth to mine. He kisses me the way I want him to. Kisses me like I am his. Like I am the stars that fall from the sky and the moon that lights up the dark.
All I ever wanted was to be loved. To feel wanted.
He’s given that to me. He gave me a soft place to land.
“Stay with me,” he begs.
Doesn’t he know I’d follow him to the ends of the earth?
“Stay with me, Juni.” he whispers. “Don’t leave me. We have forever, I promise. Just stay with me.”
“I’m sorry,” I can’t get my voice to sound anymore above a whisper. My breaths are labored, wheezing from my chest, and I’m cold. So fucking cold.
“She’s losing too much blood,” I recognize Roman’s voice, but it sounds far away, muffled, and I can’t see him.
“Juni,” Silas shakes me when my eyes try to close, the heaviness too hard to fight.
“It’s okay.” I whisper, but then the world goes black, the sound of his voice screaming my name following me all the way into the void.