Page 134 of Until We Burn
The thoughts haunt me as we lean against each other. With ourhands still locked together, we sit in his car watching the moon glow through the dark trees and quietly brace for whatever awaits us when the sun comes up.
PART 3: DOWN IN ASHES
CHAPTER 52
KAI
The soft soundof rain patters down the car window.
I stir, rubbing a hand over my face before my eyes blink open.
Gray skies surround the back road. The sun’s faded glow flickers behind the swarming clouds, leaving behind a gloom that makes the world look darker. The grass and the prickly trees look almost black as they drip with the first November rain.
Something suddenly shifts beside me. I glance down. Diana cuddles into me, her cheek squished into my arm. Her flower crown droops down her loose curls, which slump over her nose.
I smile and softly brush her hair back. My heart aches at how fucking beautiful she is, it aches at the fact that this sleepy girl is the same one who chucked a heel into Simon’s balls just hours ago.
My phone vibrates with a text. My jaw tenses at Rowan’s message in the Griffins group chat.
ROWAN
I don’t care how hungover you are. Practice starts at 7 a.m. sharp on Monday morning.
Reality comes crashing in like the cold breeze rattling the windshield wipers.
I gently kiss Diana’s forehead, closing my eyes as I hug her close.
I don’t want to leave. I just want to stay in this car, under this dreary gray rain where she’s the only thing that glows.
“Hm?” Diana’s brows knit together. She burrows her face into my chest before her eyes slowly pry open. “Kai?”
“I’m here.” My nose brushes against hers as I whisper, “The sun's up.”
She blinks slowly, still dazed with sleep. Then she pushes herself up and quietly takes in the rain, and the low hum of the cars hurtling down the highway nearby.
“I wish we could disappear into a place like this,” Diana murmurs.
I look out at the rain and the silence surrounding us with a longing that’s almost painful. “Me, too.”
Diana frowns. Her hand rubs soothing circles across my heart. “How are you doing?”
I lean into her gentle, grounding touch, before my hand comes down over hers.
“Tired. I feel like everything is rushing ahead so fast and…I can barely keep up.” I turn towards her. “What about you?”
“Same as you.”
Diana looks so tired and worn out; I want to stop time just for her. But all I can do is kiss her hand until she relaxes.
After the shitty night we had, all I want is to have a quiet day with Diana. That’s why the second we get back to the apartment, we get cleaned up and collapse on my bed.
No drama, no Vipers trying to ruin everything. Only me, her…
And Mellonbaum’s study notes.
“Robert Jay Lifton coined the concept of symbolic immortality,” Diana reads out. She balances the textbook on my pillow and asks the question, “Can you define the concept and explain how?—”
“Wallace, get that fifty-cent tinsel out. Of. My. Face!”
