Page 64 of On the Mountain

Crow.

Home.

So close. You’re almost there. Keep going.

I didn’t know how it happened—if somehow I blocked it out, if it was a fucking miracle or what—but one moment I was forcing myself to walk, and the next the porch stairs were in front of me.

Tears froze against my face as I fell onto the wood.

The pain in my shoulder was gone, but I knew that was only temporary, that it would be back. For now, as I crawled toward the door, I felt nothing.

CHAPTER THIRTY

Crow

“Crow…take this…I need you to take this for me.” Cyrus’s voice was soft, broken-sounding as he put something to my lips.

I shook my head.

“Please, Crow…do it for me. I need you to do this for me.”

My eyes fluttered open. Cyrus’s face was flushed, hair a mess, eyes ringed red. He…didn’t look good.

What’s wrong? What happened?

When he didn’t answer, I realized I hadn’t spoken the words.

“Don’t die. I’m scared you’re going to die on me. I don’t know what I would do if I lost you.”

I wouldn’t do that to him, couldn’t. I would do anything in my power to stay here for him, to be here with him. I’d always thought I would live my life alone, but now I had him, and the thought of ever being without him made me feel emptier and lonelier than I’d ever thought possible.

I opened my mouth, and he put two pills on my tongue.

Don’t do it! Don’t take them! You can’t trust him—no!

This is Cyrus. He’s not Chosen. He’s not the children who picked on me. I can trust him.

“That’s it. Here, drink this, baby. Swallow them with this for me.” Cyrus put a straw to my lips, and I swallowed the water. I had done that before, hadn’t I? Taken something he had given me, drinks he’d made me, when I hadn’t done that since I left foster care.

He’s not them.

He is…everything.

The pills went down.

I coughed, chest hurting, lungs trying to squeeze the breath out of me.

“Here. Take this too. I need you to take one more.”

He gave me that one, and I took it as well.

“I got you something to help clear your lungs too.”

Got me? How could he have gotten me anything?

“I’m going to put more ice packs on you, okay?”

I didn’t know if I answered before my world went black again.

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