Page 163 of Consume Me

“I love you, Blake. And I hope now you know that nothing you could do would ever change that.”

So much awe, wonder, and love reflect in his gaze. Emotions overcome me, and I tear up.

We’re free. We just have to leave this godforsaken place. Wetness seeps into the right side of my dress and skin. There’s so much blood. I must be bleeding faster than I thought—but when I look closer, my world collapses.

I’ve never been happier than at this moment when all my mistakes, regrets, and sins are out in the open, and Mia still chooses to love me.

I need to get her out of here, and soon. As I look at my father, his eyes are open and lifeless, and his body is stiff. He’s fucking dead. She killed for me. I am torn between remorse and amazement. I would have killed him a thousand times before I’d ever let her taint her soul with that.

I move to stand, but my knees buckle under me.What the fuck?Pure terror stretches in her eyes as tears stream down her face.

“No… please, Blake. Please don’t leave me. Please, no. NONONO.” She clutches her head as if dispelling an image from her mind.

“I’d never leave you,” I say, then I see what has her in such a panic. The bullet went straight into my left side. I am sure fromthe quick blood loss, it’s my spleen. Fuck, this is bad.

“Don’t move,” she says, tearing at her dress. I look down once again, blood soaking the material. It’s too much.

Yet, I am at peace. I’ll die in her arms. Cupping her cheek, I urge her to look at me.

“No, don’t you dare,” she says, pressing the cloth into my open wound.

“Silver…”

She shakes her head, sniffling, but I can’t ignore the truth. I am going to die.Isn’t that ironic?Now, when I’d do anything to live, my seconds are numbered.

“Look at me.”

She squeezes her eyes shut, and I add, “You have to leave. There is one more guard and the pilot we know about.”

“I would never abandon you.”

“Please, do it for me.”

“And you’ll stay alive for me? Can you do that?” she asks hopefully, as if I have the power to stop death. Not to be able to console her fucking hurts me more than anything else, because it would be a lie.

It’s my spleen. It’s ruptured. I won’t make it.

“Let me look at those silver eyes where I see my entire life.”

Sobs rip from her, and she looks so dejected it shatters me.

“I told you it’s corny that you call me Silver because of my eye color,” she smiles brokenly.

“Ah, baby, that’s not why I call you that. It’s because you’re my silver lining.”

She cries even harder. “Then hold on. For me. Please. You promised. You said I am yours and no one else’s. Prove it.”

“I need to know you’ll be okay,” I say, ripping my sleeve off. I wrap it around her shoulder and armpit to stop the bleeding. I’d sell my soul to get the chance to kill Caleb again for inflicting pain on her.

“I will never be okay if you die. Do you hear me? Don’t leave me. I refuse to live without you.” She clenches my shirt between her trembling fingers. Her distress butchers my insides. I don’t know what will end up killing me faster, her anguish or the blood loss.

“You’re a fighter. Fight this. For me, for us, for our future together. Because I don’t see that with anyone else but with you.”

“Fuck, I love you so much. I am going to bargain with God or the devil himself to let me come back to give you that. And if it’s possible, I will return.”

My focus wavers while I try to fix my eyes on hers.

She helps me lean back as she caresses my face.

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