Page 143 of Veil of Death and Shadow

My thoughts spiraled, and I found myself counting to three, tapping my fingers silently, wincing as my nails pressed into the fleshy pads of my thumbs over and over again in search of some ever-illusive valve to dissipate the fear—my brain conjuring images and possibilities of his death, what might happen to him, how it was all, somehow, my fault.

Diet friendship or not, it had been a futile pursuit. He’d found a way in. Obliterating my defenses, while giving me the illusion that I had control, that my armor could withstand him.

And now he would die, just like everyone else, and all I could do was sit here and watch, breathing in the same air until, inevitably, his body chose to stop. I’d wake up to find that I’d slept next to a corpse.

So, I fought off that reality, fought off sleep.

Obsessively, my eyes tracked his wounds.

At first, when I noticed some of them shrinking, healing, I thought it was a trick of the shadow, a product of my exhaustion. But when the hours passed and some cuts disappeared entirely—and even the worst of them, the one in his stomach, looking more like a week’s old wound than something fresh and weepingas it had been just before he’d closed his eyes—I could no longer logic away the truth.

For so many months, I’d been focused on trying to understand what Levi did for work, where he went when he wasn’t here, how he spent his time.

Who was this strange boy that had chiseled his way into my life?

Now, the ever-present alarm blaring sharp and loud in my head shifted the question from who, to what.

Only when the early rays of light illuminated him next to me, when I saw some of the color return to his skin, his breathing even and steady, did I fully let myself believe that he was alive, that whatever he’d experienced last night wouldn’t kill him.

I set my hand on the warm skin of his uninjured shoulder, soaking in the feel of his aliveness, and let sleep finally take me under.

I’d intended to only doze for a few minutes, but when I woke up, I found myself alone, my room empty of all signs that Levi had been here at all. The only tell was the soft scent of him on my sheets and a small box on the pillow where his head had been.

It was black, the cardboard crumpled in the corners and flattened on one side—a casualty of whatever brought Levi, bloody and broken, to my doorstep.

I opened it to find a thin, silver ring with small shifting beads—simple and elegant.

Underneath was a folded note:

Sorry about last night,I shouldn’t have put you through that.

This is no family heirloom of course, but I saw it and thought of you.

The guy I bought it from called it a fidget ring—supposedly they help with restlessness and anxiety. Probably should havegiven it to you right when I showed up, now that I think about it. Sounds like a gimmick, but also maybe worth a shot?

Either way, I liked the look of it and thought you might, too.

Happy Birthday, Mars.

—Hot,Mysterious Savior (though I guess technically you’re the savior now)

P.S. Lost my phone,but I’ll be in touch when I can. Take care in the meantime.

I slidthe ring on and ran my finger over the beads as my door burst open.

My head shot up, expecting to find Levi in the doorway, but it was Sora instead.

“Happy Anniversary Extraordinaire,” she yelled, her giant smile melting into concern as she stepped into my room. “Mars, you okay?”

The first tears slipped down my cheek without my notice.

My chest was tight, and I choked back a sob, a useless attempt to even out my breathing, to swallow back whatever wave was threatening to drown me.

But then Sora wrapped her arms around me, holding me close to her, so tight I almost couldn’t pull in a full breath of air—until I had no choice but to let the weight of the night pour out of me.

25

MAREENA

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