Page 125 of A Thousand Cuts

Liam was nearly lifeless in his arms now. Head lolling to his chest. Cheeks sunken in and dark shadows around his eyes.

“I’ll text the group chat,” Ash said, pulling out his phone and typing as they stepped outside the house.

Fix rushed to his truck, stumbling when a wayward root wrapped around his ankle and tugged at his leg.

He broke the curse.

Black added it to the tally. The number was too high for comfort.

“You won’t be able to drive, hold him, and break at the same time,” Ash said. “Hop into mine.”

Fix nodded and headed for Ash’s car, panic making his throat close up. He couldn’t believe he’d missed this. How had he let it get this far?

“I can bring King once he wakes up from the pain meds,” Wren said, emerging from the shadows and walking toward themslowly. His eyes were wide and scared but his lips were set in a determined line. “I’ll take my car.”

“Wren,” Fix said, voice breaking. “You don’t have to…”

“I won’t go in unless I’m needed,” he said. “King and I will wait for you out front. I just…I want to be close. If you need me.”

“Move it, guys!” Ash called, swatting at a swarm of bugs that descended upon them.

“Be careful,” Wren said, watching to make sure the bugs were safe as Fix broke the curse that was drawing them in.

He carried Liam to Ash’s car and settled him in the back seat on his lap, marker in hand. Black hopped into the passenger seat and Wren carried King carefully into his own car.

They peeled out of their property and toward Nexus.

Liam was whining softly in Fix’s arms, breaking his heart. He was shivering almost violently now. His hair was damp and matted to his face and forehead.

Fix tried pushing it back. He tried cooling him down, he tried warming him up. Nothing was working. The curses kept coming, and Fix now felt every break like needles on his skin.

Ash’s taillights flickering on and off.

Car horn blaring without anyone touching it.

Seats flying back and forth and up and down.

Fix broke them all.

Liam grew quieter with each one. Despite his job, Fix didn’t have a lot of experience with death. Tangentially only, through Black. So it was no wonder he expected something violent and messy. Something scarring and traumatic. He expected a star as bright as Liam to go out in a blinding supernova that would burn Fix’s world forever.

Instead, Liam kept fading slowly, minute by minute, until he cried out softly and then went completely still, eyes open and staring into nothing.

The curses stopped.

The blood froze in Fix’s veins, the marker falling from his fingers as he clutched Liam’s limp body.

“LIAM!” Fix screamed his name, seeing the last of the blueish shine shimmer into nothingness. He lifted Liam’s head and cradled it against his chest. “Liam, honey, please don’t leave me. Don’t make me be without you, please. ASH!”

“Flooring it!” Ash said, pushing the gas pedal as far as he could, the engine screaming as the car hurtled toward Nexus.

They picked up a tail halfway there.

“Hart’s here,” Black said as the rumble of Midas’s car cut through the night. “Midas too. We’re all here, Fix. We’ll… We’re here.”

Fix didn’t hear a thing. He held Liam’s lifeless body close, rocking him back and forth, begging and pleading with him to just come back to him. He counted his shallow breaths.

One.