Page 162 of Taming the Beasts

“I love you,” I whispered, even though I knew he couldn’t hear me.

I was too late. I ran my hand beneath one of the huge gashes in his side. “I love you,” I whispered again. “So much, Otto.”

“Zoey.” Emma put her hand on my shoulder.

I just kept crying as I looked up at her. She was wearing Callum’s tuxedo jacket around her shoulders. She had a very alive, cured husband. And my boyfriends were all dead.

She sat down next to me and hugged me tight.

And I felt...nothing. I kept crying but I was completely numb.

I’d been hiding behind a screen for the past decade. I hadn’t let myself fall for anyone because I was worried about getting hurt again. The real world was scary and raw and I hated it. I hated this feeling in my chest. I just wanted to go back in time and stop Kebe before she unleashed the curse of that coin.

But I didn’t think there was a relic for that.

“Zoey, you’re shivering,” Emma said. “How about we get you home?”

I shook my head. I wasn’t leaving them. I knew that the cool autumn night was descending on us, but I didn’t care. And I didn’t care that I was getting covered in blood. I didn’t care about any of it. And where the hell was home without Otto? Without Bennet, Huxley, Ace, and Titan? They were home to me. “I’m not leaving him. I’m not leaving any of them.”

Emma held me tighter. “They’re gone, Zoey.”

I didn’t need to hear her say it out loud. I shook my head. I knew her words were true, but I couldn’t talk about this. It finally felt like I’d gotten everything I’dever wanted. But I’d only gotten it so briefly. I knew life wasn’t fair. But to cut all their lives so short? It was cruel.

We all should have been dancing at Emma and Callum’s reception right now. Having the time of our lives.

Not this.

And I realized that I’d never get to dance with any of them. Or laugh. Or snuggle. Or anything ever again. I started sobbing harder.

“Let’s get Callum to drive us to the hospital then,” Emma said. “We can check on Titan...”

I shook my head. I pictured the way Titan had been holding his stomach and coughing up blood. There was no chance in hell he was okay. I was pretty sure a vampire had ripped out his innards. And if he did somehow make it, he was going to be in surgery for hours. I didn’t want to go to the hospital waiting around for him to die too.

“I don’t understand why the cure didn’t work on them,” I said through my tears.

“I think they were already too hurt.” Emma reached out and touched the blood coming out of one of Otto’s ears. It was dry and matted on his fur. Like the blood had stopped spilling a while ago.

Wait.I looked at the gash on Otto’s side that I’d inspected earlier. “Does this look smaller to you?”

Emma shrugged. “I don’t know. It looks huge to me.”

“But it’s smaller than it was before. I swear it was bigger a few minutes ago. And blood had still been coming out of it. The blood has stopped now.” It was all dry around the gash, just like it was dry around Otto’s ears.

“His ears!” I stood up and stared back at Huxley and Ace. One of them had bloody ears. The other’s head was smushed into the ground and his ears were caked with mud. And Bennett was covering his exposed ear with his paw.

“What?” Emma asked.

“They can’t hear the sistrum!” And thank God they couldn’t. “Stop the music!” I yelled over at Kebe.

Kebe played one last strange clanging noise and stopped.

I crouched back down to Otto. “Otto, can you hear me?”

He made no reaction.

“I think something in his ears is damaged,” I said.

“I think maybe a lot of him is damaged,” Emma said.