Page 91 of Dominion

He collapsed on top of me, breathing heavily in my arms.

“It’s okay, Little One. It’s gonna be okay. You’re okay now.”

I wasn’t okay. I would never be fucking okay.

“What have you done?” I asked, dropping to my knees with him in my arms. His weight was too much to bear standing, and only as we fell was I able to see it.

Blood.

A crimson river of blood spreading around us from where he was shot.

He turned to his back, wincing the entire time, while his face paled, his eyelids heavy as he looked up at me. My hands pressed against his cheeks, leaving traces of redness all over his skin, but none of that mattered now.

“What did you do, Dylan?” I screamed, willing the time to go back, and ignoring the shouts and the movements around me. “What did you fucking do?”

“I saved you.” He coughed, smiling at me as if he didn’t just fuck up all my plans. “Just how you saved me.”

“No, Dylan.” I shook my head, my vision blurring from the tears that were freely cascading down my cheeks. “No, you idiot. You fucking idiot!” I yelled out, unable to contain all the emotions inside my body. “This wasn’t supposed to happen. This... No. No, no, no, no...”

“It’s okay, Little One,” he murmured, pressing his hand softly to my cheek. “It’s gonna be okay. You and Ash…” he chuckled. “You were the best things I ever had a chance to call mine, and I will forever be sorry for hurting you for so many years. I am also sorry that we will never get to have our forever?—”

“No, we will. We fucking will.” I refused to believe anything else. My eyes sought Casimir in the crowd that was formed, but he was nowhere to be seen. “We will have everything we ever wanted.”

We fucking had to.

32

DYLAN

I had beenin pain many times in my life, but nothing compared to the pain existing in my heart right now as I watched the emotions fly over Skylar’s face, as if the sheer force of her will could make me stay with her.

But she couldn’t.

I could already feel it—the slowing of my heartbeat, the cold spreading throughout my limbs, but I couldn’t tell her that. I could only hold on to her, giving her all the strength I had left in my body, hoping that one day she would be able to look back at this moment and smile, because I wanted her to have it all. I wanted her to remember me with a smile on my face, without all the pain and sadness.

I didn’t want my last moments with her to be marred with darkness. She was the light of my life, the savior I didn’t know I even needed. If I was lucky enough to meet her again in my next life, I promised I would do better.

I would make sure to cherish her more than I ever did in this one.

Her tears ran down her cheeks, her body shaking from the strength of her sobs, and I loathed the fact that she was crying like this over me.

“I-I had so many plans,” she whimpered. “So many things I wanted us to do. Please, don’t leave me,” she begged. “Please. Stay with me. Just a little bit longer. Just hold on, Dylan. Please, I’m begging you.”

I wanted to stay. I wanted to stay here forever, in her arms, with her and Ash, living our lives together as we wanted to. I wanted to tell her that there was a house waiting for them, as my last gift to them. It wouldn’t have me, but it would have everything I ever wanted to have.

“It’s okay,” I murmured, feeling the metallic taste of blood in my mouth. “I’m not in pain, Little One. I’m not in pain,” I said, for the first time telling the truth. “I’m gonna be okay, you’ll see.”

“Just stay with me,” she wailed, unable to stop her tears, but I couldn’t lie and say that I would. I couldn’t stay and hold her hand through the years that were going to come, but I knew that I would always look over them to make sure that they were happy, that they were okay.

That was the only thing I wanted.

“I love you, Skylar.” I smiled, trying to lift my arm to touch her face one more time, but my limbs were heavy. My body wasn’t cooperating with what my mind wanted, and I knew I didn’t have enough time. “I will always love you. It doesn’t matter how many lives we live, or how many times we meet each other, you will forever have a place in my heart. A place that no one else will ever be able to take.”

Her body wrapped around mine, her tear-stained cheek pressing against mine. I wished I could hold her just one more time, just one more day. But I knew that even a thousand more years wouldn’t be enough to live this life, and today was the end.

“I’m sorry for hurting you,” I pushed out. My lungs strained with every breath I took and for the first time since I felt the first bullet lodging itself in my body, I felt fear.

I was terrified that I wouldn’t be able to tell her everything she needed to hear before it was time for me to go.

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