Page 105 of King of the Cage

I cradled Bran’s head and felt for a pulse. My own heartbeat felt very distant right now.

“It’s too late,” Elio said.

“Call an ambulance now!” I snapped at him.

Elio was still moving too slow. The frustration of the past boiled over and spilled out.

“You feel bad about what happened to me when you fucked off to the Army and left me alone? Then fucking fix this now. I don’tneed another apology, I don’t need overprotecting, I need you to help me right now. Put aside your own feelings and help me. That’s what I need from you. Can you do that?”

My blunt demand hit my brother hard. A million emotions chased across his face. Guilt that he’d always felt for leaving me like he had, even though he’d hardly had a choice. Followed by disbelief that this was the reason I’d finally bring it up. The emotions cleared after a second and were replaced by resolve.

He shrugged off his thermal jacket and spread it over Bran, then made the call.

I stroked Bran’s cold skin. His lips were nearly blue. His pulse was there, only just present in his thick neck. A sign of life, but a weak one.

I loosened his hair from the knot at his neck and spread the length around his shoulders and neck. Then I leaned in and tucked my face into the crook of his shoulder and breathed my warm breath against his frozen skin.

“Stay with me, O’Connor,” I murmured in his ear, resting my face on his cheek, trying to impart any kind of warmth I could.

Bran’s breath hitched, and I pressed closer.

“Come on, Lost Boy, it’s not time to go to neverland yet, and you can’t go without me.”

Bran twitched. His face turned toward me an inch or two, but it was enough to give me hope that he could hear me. I pressed my cheek to his, my hands moving anywhere I could reach, desperately trying to warm him.

Before I could question it, I hummed.

“You know this one, right? ‘The Selkie and the Spring Tide.’And in the magic of the Spring Tide, the moon brought my selkie to me…”I sang and held on.

30

BRAN

4 DAYS LATER

Iwas dead. It had finally happened. This had to be death, because it was warm and comfortable, and I never wanted it to end.

Then my nose itched. I wiggled it, hoping that would stop it, but it went on. With a grunt, I lifted my arm to scratch it.

“Shit! Don’t move,” a young female voice worried.

A beeping sound cut through the silence, and I cracked open my eyes, blinking in the harsh daylight flooding the room.

“I’m not dead?” I croaked roughly. My voice was dry as hell.

A figure sat next to my bed.Selkie?But as my eyes cleared, I made out the long red hair of my visitor. Quinnie, my little sister, with a goddamn feather in her hand.

“Nope, not yet. Better luck next time.” She grinned at me. Gallows humor tended to run in O’Connor blood.

“I felt like I died. I was at peace.”

“That’s the morphine,” Keiran called. He came into the room and picked up my chart from the end of the bed. “It’s good shit, but don’t get too used to it.”

“Finally, we can get out of here.” Quinn stood and stretched this way and that.

Declan looked over at her and then cleared his throat.

“I’ll go tell your da that you’re awake,” he said. “Finally, we can get rid of all these De Sanctis fuckers all over here,” he muttered and headed out of the door before I could ask what he meant.

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