Page 99 of Diamond Kisses

“Peter—!”

He went stiff with agony.

His legs gave out.

Together, we fell.

Him on top of me, slamming us to the ground.

Sweet scents of grass enveloped us, erasing the hot ashy flavour of fire.

Caishen screamed and charged out of the smoke, letting a volley of bullets fly at whoever had shot us.

I couldn’t see who’d fired.

Couldn’t see apart from the stars above and Peter’s face as he panted and gasped.

“Ily…” He coughed and choked, blood frothing at the corner of his lips as he failed to catch his breath.

“No. No, no,no!” I pressed my palms against his shoulders.

I tried to push him off me.

To see what’d happened.

Tohelphim.

Only…that coldness within me spread from a different wound.

Pain radiated in my chest.

A tiny circle of discomfort, throbbing with newness before going numb like everything else.

Nothing.

It’s nothing.

All I cared about was Peter as he choked and spewed up another trickle of blood. It landed on my cheek, rolling toward my ear.

“Paavak. Please. Don’t. Don’t do this.”

He squirmed above me.

He tried to roll off me.

He coughed and gagged and made a heart-wrenching noise of surprise. “I…I can’t move.”

The blizzard inside me built into a snow drift, burying me in thick white nothingness.

“Peter…”

“I—” He coughed again, blood pink and bubbly on his lips.

Tears seeped from my eyes as I touched his cheek. Just that tiny motion cost everything I had left. My vision grew hazy, grey…

I brought his rich brown gaze to mine. “You’re okay. We’re okay. Just—”

Caishen landed beside us. “Oh fuck. Oh fuck.” Planting his hands on Peter’s back, he pressed down hard enough to squish me into the dirt beneath Peter. “Someonehelp me!” He looked back at the jewels and guards, Masters and war. “He’s bleeding bad!”

---