Page 155 of Catch the Sun

Lips parted and quivering, he hitches out a breath, and those eyes dim before me as a tear slips loose and trails down his temple.

A light flickers out.

His life is draining, expiring, and I’m helpless to stop it.

“No,” I croak. “No…” I shake him hard, growling with horror. “Stay!”

McKay goes motionless on a final frayed breath, his eyes wide open and locked on mine.

He’s still.

Completely still.

I don’t remember what comes next. I’m hardly alive myself as noise trickles into my psyche, voices tangle, and strong arms haul me off my brother while I cling to him, sobbing, cursing, and shouting my grief and disbelief to his lifeless body.

Beeping noises. Defibrillator paddles. Men in uniform.

Ella.

Ella is in my arms weeping, and I hold her back because I don’t know what else to hold on to. Her cracked words bleed into my ears as she apologizes, tries to explain.

“The bluffs…the fall… McKay…attacked me… I’m sorry… Jonah…”

I can’t process it.

All I register are the external sounds. More beeping, a blur of uniforms, a slew of useless words, and a beat of harrowing silence.

And then…

A time of death.

For all of us.

Chapter 37

Ella

All I see is red.

“What have youdone?” our mother screams at the top of her lungs, collapsed on my bedroom floor as sirens screech in the distance.

I’m numb.

I’m split in half.

I’m crippled with shock.

Jonah stares at me, pleads with me, his eyes wild and his shirt sprayed with red mist.

McKay’s blood.

No, no, no.

“I love you both so much,” he tells me. “Believe that.”

He kisses the top of my head as he holds me tighter than ever. Like it’s the last time he’ll ever hold me.

It is.

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