Page 86 of We Will Rise

Kovu’s body covers hers as a rough sob escapes his chest, and I can’t stop my own tears from falling. I always knew the world was a cruel place, it’s why we do the things we do. But I never realized just how cruel it can truly be.

“Please, Little Lamb. Please let us take care of you. Please let us save you,” he pleads.

“You can’t, Kovu. And that’s okay,” she whispers as she nuzzles into his throat. “You saved me in so many ways the day Bishop found me in that alley. You gave me everything. Even if it wasn’t for long enough.”

Kovu shakes his head, his body shaking with the power of his sobs.

“I love you all so much,” she murmurs. “Thank you for showing me that loving someone isn’t a weakness, but a strength. Thank you for giving me more love in just a few months than I thought I’d get in my whole life. Thank you for believing in me, even when my own faith wavered.”

“Always, love,” I choke.

“I love you, Princess.”

“You gave me love for the first time in my life, Little Lamb. You gave me everything.”

I’ve never felt more hopeless than I do in this moment, and all I can do is hold her too-cold hand and cry with the family we forged for ourselves.

“Move,” Elias barks.

I open my mouth to argue, but I quickly find myself tugged backward by Storm, making way for Elias and Wyatt.

Elijah pulls Kovu off Camilla, his entire body clinging to hers like he needs it to keep breathing, which truthfully I think we all do.

“We need to get her to the hospital,” Elias grinds out.

“She doesn’t want to die in the hospital,” Crew argues.

“She’s not going to die. You didn’t let Leighton die, and I’m not going to let you lose Camilla.”

Crew watches him for a moment before he finally relents. He drops a kiss to her forehead as his tears fall among hers over her cheeks. “I’m sorry, Little Menace. But if there’s even a chance we can save you, we have to take it.”

Elias lifts her from Crew’s arms and takes off back toward the vans with Bryant and Gabriel on his heels, while Elijah holds Kovu as he fights like hell.

“We’ll follow them,” he promises.

“I need to be with her,” he growls. “I can’t let her die alone.”

I press my eyes closed, my heart aching in a way it never has before as emotions war inside me. Anger and sadness. Grief and rage. Hope and despair. It’s too much and yet not enough at the same time.

Storm tugs me to my feet. “Let’s get out of here.”

“Caleb?” Crew croaks as he looks over his shoulder at Charles’s dead body. Shame all he got was a bullet between the eyes when he deserved to die the most painful of deaths.

“In the wind,” Storm tells him, and his body hunches over.

I’ve never seen my father look so dejected, so hopeless, and I wonder if this is how he was when my mother died. Or if this is worse.

I fear it’s the latter, and that if we lose Camilla, he won’t come back from the loss. That none of us will.

CHAPTER SIXTY-FIVE

KOVU

We rush into the hospital through the side entrance and come face to face with Camilla on a gurney surrounded by Elias and a group of doctors and nurses.

The drive felt like an eternity, and my blade is more intimately familiar with the flesh of my arms than it ever has been before, to the point Elijah confiscated all my weapons before he’d let me out of the van with the others.

And for once, I don’t care. I’ve always needed them to make me feel safe, to remind me that I’m not the weak little boy my parents and their friends hurt. But right now, all that matters is making sure Camilla survives.

---