Page 75 of The Dead Don't Talk
I place the hilt of my knife to his palm.
Press my lips to the side of his head.
“Until the end, Amo.”
Chapter 38
Let me have what’s left
Moros
My pulse thunders asAmo steps closer, his lashes wet, and his hand shaking.
Is this what it’ll be like?
The thought rattles me in a way that I’ve never let myself feel before. As if I’m the one that’s turned and he’s coming for me with his heartbreak on his face.
Cassia’s groans and fighting increases the closer he gets, her teeth snapping together so hard that I’m pretty sure she spits a tooth out.
Her skin is cold against me as I walk us behind a group of trees, the wound in her head pouring dark crimson all down oursides. There are fresh bruises and bites all down her thrashing arms that I have to pin down.
None of it stops Amo from following us, coming toe to toe with her, his bottom lip trembling as Wilson knifes anything that gets close to us.
“You don’t have to do this,” I murmur for just Amo. “Say the word and I’ll take care of it.”
“You know—” a bitter, sad smile tips his lips, “—she was supposed to carry for me.”
My brows pinch and her chest rattles against my hold.
“What?”
Amo flips the blade in his hand, gently pressing the tip to her eerily still chin.
“The elders didn’t want us to be just best friends. We were supposed to … have children … together. That’s why—” his sniffle breaks up his thick words. “—that’s why they let us live together.”
Slowly, he presses the blade into her neck, puncturing skin.
But I’m stuck on thischildrenthing.
Together.
“If it was going to be anyone, it would have been her.” He pushes the blade in farther, cutting tendon and muscle. I hold her as still as I can, her body fighting against the inevitable end. “It would have been you.”
He plunges the knife into her neck, severing the spinal column.
For a moment, she gurgles, her body spasming from the sudden disconnect to the rotting brain.
But then she goes still.
Lifeless.
Amo buries his face in his hands.
Wilson rushes forward and wraps him up, turning him away as he cries into his chest.
Cassia grows heavier in my arms as her final functions give out and the raw desire to drop her dead weight to the ground is hard to fight back but I do. For Amo, I do.
Even though my stomach is turning, I hike her up for a better grip, and I follow as Wilson slowly guides Amo away from the shifting horde.
