Page 60 of Sick Bargain

“One minute,” Glitch shouts from the front. “Facts?”

They talk, but I don’t hear them. Because Remiel’s chest is going nuts, his heart beats both too fast and too slow, depending on the second. He jerks, spasming violently, and I break completely.

“Remiel.” I hold him still and try to force him back to my world. “Don’t you fucking leave me here! Wake the fuck up!” I smack him, trying to jar him back to my side of the white light.

My vision blurs. Wet and glassy.

“Epinephrine!” I shout. “Someone give me an EpiPen!”

No. No. No. No.

How fucking dare he test me like this?! How fucking dare he show me that I’m not as strong as his family curse? How fucking dare he try to leave me when our bargain is not yet met and my monsters were just starting to warm to him?

I haven’t freed you, Remiel!

Am I important to you?

I should have said yes. I should have admitted it. I should have told him that he’s everything to me, even though I don’t know what it means. I’ve never regretted anything, but I regret this. I regret my bargain and my obsession. Because it fucking hurts!

Pain lances through me from everywhere. Ten million stabs just in my heart and a trillion more everywhere else. My vision blurs and my head pounds, and I’m begging. I’m begging him to stay, but I’m begging the devil not to take him.

“He’s mine!” I roar, my voice different. Jittery but dead. My fingers dig so hard into his skin, but he doesn’t react. There’s no pain left. He’s not feeling anything because he’s gone…

“No!” I smack him. “Remiel!”

The SUV jolts to a stop, and my heart stops with it. Someone tries to rip him from my arms, but I’m snarling at everything and everyone. And then a needle pricks my neck and Remiel is taken from my clutches.

“Here.”

I’m dizzy, but I see needles and instruments and IV lines being hooked up to my broken, dead hero. I see something go down his throat. I see his body jerk. I see pads and stretchers and wires and bodies.

It’s all a mad blur. A nightmare come to life. I never thought my biggest fear would be the death of a person because I’ve never given a shit about life and death and the people in it. But I do now. I do because Remiel is mine, and I’ve never had anything worth protecting. I failed him, just like he knew I would.

I’m clutching at air, stumbling to get to him, angry at the world for tainting him so wholly. For making me such a failure.I’m dizzy with wishes and overwhelmed with grief that I haven’t given permission to consume me yet. Not yet. Not yet.

Don’t fail him. “Remiel.”

Don’t take him from me.

Don’t. Don’t. Don’t. Please, give him back. “Remiel.”

“Krypt.” Ransom is right in front of my face, gripping my head. “Trust me. Got it? Fucking trust me. I promise you.”

Then everything goes black. I die with Remiel.

When I wake up,I’m more furious than I’ve ever been. More terrified than I’ve ever been. More panicked and more broken.

And chained.

“Remi! Someone get me the fuck outta here! Where’s my brother!”

I blink away the haze and see Ghost chained next to me. We’re in the cells of Vile House, chained to the fucking wall like a pair of possessed men.

I bolt upright, almost passing out again at the suddenness of it. “Remiel?” I ask him, voice distorted. “Where the fuck is he?”

“You fucking bastard!” Ghost snarls, spitting at me. He’s close enough that he turns his rage on me, the chain around his wrists loose enough to be manipulated.

I don’t fight it when he wraps it around my neck and pulls it taut from behind. Because I’m ready to die. I’m done here. Ready to move on to a new world with Remiel. Because there’s no point in being here anymore. Not in Vile House, not in Moros, and not in this world. Without my purpose, I’m a shell, only filled with unkempt guilt and unbearable grief that makes me angrier than I’ve ever been.

---