Page 68 of Ghoul Me, Maybe
He blinks slowly. “I didn’t promise that.”
“Liar.”
Hesmiles.
The bastardsmiles.
“I promised I’d fight,” he murmurs. “And I did.”
My throat closes.
“You’re not allowed to be noble right now,” I say, voice shaking. “I need you to beselfish.Just this once.”
“Sienna—”
“I’m not ready,” I choke out.
“I know.”
He raises a hand—what’s left of it—and brushes it against my cheek.
I feelnothing.
But I remember how it used to feel. Solid. Warm.Real.
Mira’s voice echoes from somewhere behind me, sharp and frantic. “We need to cast again! Maybe a loop tether?—!”
“Don’t,” Elias says, louder now. “You’ll burn yourselves.”
“Idon’t care!” I shout.
“Ido!” he thunders.
That silences everything.
Even the sea.
He gazes at me like I’m the only thing left holding him together.
“You gave me more time than I ever earned,” he says quietly. “Let that be enough.”
“No,” I whisper. “It’s not.”
He closes his eyes.
The mist curls around his shoulders now.
His legs are already gone.
“Sienna,” he murmurs. “I love you.”
And I scream.
Like the sound will stitch him back together.
Like if I yell loud enough, the gods, the sea, thedamn laws of the universewill back the hell off.
But he just keeps fading.
