Chapter 46 Eden
Chapter forty-six
Eden
“Where the Light Ends”
I didn’t know what I thought dying would feel like, but it wasn’t this.
It wasn’t this loud, this cold, this slow.
My hands were slick with his blood where I gripped his arm like an anchor.
I kept thinking if I just held tight enough, if I pressed hard enough, I could stop the pieces of him from falling apart in front of me.
But I couldn’t. He was right. I wasn’t made for this world, and he was bleeding out trying to shield me from it.
Matteo's men advanced with a newfound confidence. They had every angle, every shot. They knew they’d won.
But Halo stood tall in front of me, broken and burning.
I could feel the tremor in his muscles, the barely-there sway of a man holding on by threads.
Still, he didn’t waver, or cower, or beg.
He just turned his head slightly, like he wanted to say something to me.
Maybe a last word, a warning, or maybe just a goodbye.
I saw it in his eyes then, that he knew. This was the end, and he’d accepted it before I even got here. His body had already started letting go, but his will hadn’t. He wasn’t afraid of death; he was afraid of losing me.
He was moving like he hadn’t just been on the floor moments ago, fading before my very eyes. I saw the tremble in his fingers and the haunted flicker behind his eyes. He wasn’t unfeeling. He was breaking, piece by piece, and he didn’t care if the cracks swallowed him whole.
“Keep your head down,” he snapped, guiding me through the labyrinth of rusted crates and bullet-pocked corridors.
I could barely breathe. The air reeked of iron and oil and smoke and beneath it something older… like this wasn’t the first time this place had been a graveyard.
His voice came out low and ragged. “You don’t belong here, Eden. This was supposed to be my end. Not yours.”
“I know,” I said, “but I’m making my own decisions now.”
He looked at me, gaze torn and furious and desperate. “How did you even find me? No one knew—”
“I looked at your phone. You left it behind.”
Halo’s jaw clenched. “You fucking brilliant and stupid woman.”
Boots, several pairs, sounded across the pavement in double time. Halo yanked me behind a metal pillar and scanned the shadows. I followed his gaze, and saw Matteo… and at least seven men, fanned out in a half-circle. Guns drawn, faces hard.
No more running.
Matteo stepped forward, lips curling. “There he is. The angel of death himself.”
Halo shifted in front of me, shielding my body with his.
We were trapped. I could see no way out.
Matteo smirked. “Now say goodbye, Halo.”