Page 82 of Cheater Slicks

Warmth encircled my wrist. Anunit. She had taken my arm in her mouth and was holding me back.

“Let me go.” I thrashed in her grip, shredding my skin on her teeth. “I won’t just stand here and?—”

“I’ll speed this along then.” Ankou took a femur, commanded it sharpen into a point, and thrust it through Kierce’s heart. “There.” He dusted his hands. “All done.”

Kierce fell back, the skeletons writhing around him like giant maggots on a corpse. I broke free of Anunit, leaving a chunk of meat in her teeth, and ran to him. I hit my knees at his side and fluttered my hands over his myriad wounds, unsure what to do or how to help him.

“Hold on.” I cupped his face, the only undamaged part of him. “I’ll get Jean-Claude. He’ll know what to do. He can fix this.”

“Let me go,” he breathed. “I’m not worth…your tears.”

That would explain why I couldn’t fucking see anything. I was sobbing, unable to catch my breath. Tears curtained my vision. I couldn’t stop his bleeding. I couldn’t heal him. Not without graveyard soil.

But…wait…

Skeletons had been buried here. That counted, right? He could use this earth.

Tearing my nails to the quick, I dug a hole and stuck his hand in it. “Heal yourself.”

“No.”

“Kierce.” I clutched at him despite his wounds. “You have to try.”

“I’ll never forgive…myself…” a single tear cut through the blood smearing his cheek, “…for hurting you.”

“I’ll never forgive you for giving up,” I yelled, yanking on the bones, trying to free him. “Fight for me.”

“I…am.” His smile gentled as he grew too weak to move, allowing him to relax into the knowledge he was no longer a threat. His graveyard-mist eyes shone up at me, soft and tender. “You were…worth it. Worth everything. Always.”

“No.” I gave up and pounded his chest. “You don’t get to say that and then shut your eyes. You told me you wouldn’t leave me. That I would have to send you away. Well, I’m not stamping your passport, pal.”

Strong hands gripped my shoulders, but I shrugged them off, not caring who had crept up on me.

“Kierce.” I shook him until his head lolled on the ground.“Kierce.”

His skin burst into black motes, whirling away on the stale breeze, blowing him where I couldn’t follow.

“I’ve got you.” Harrow hauled me onto my feet. “It’s okay.” He scooped my legs out from under me, cradling me in his arms. “You’re okay.”

“No,” I whispered, tucking my face into his chest as the tears soaked his shirt. “I’m not.”

And I wasn’t sure I ever would be again.

“Leave her alone.”

“No.Youleave her alone. I was here first.AndI brought food.”

“No.Iwas here first. I only left to use the bathroom.”

“Sucks to suck.”

“Be thankful I didn’t blow up her en suite. What have the Suarezes been feeding me?”

“Both of you get out,” a stern voice rumbled to my left. “Leave the food. I’ll make sure she eats.”

The shock of my siblings obeying an order from Harrow convinced me I was still dreaming.

“They’re gone,” he said softly after the door shut behind them. “You can quit pretending.”

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