Page 92 of Unveil

He staggers toward me. My breath hitches with every step, each one smaller and slower than the last, until his legs buckle. I lunge in time to catch him, the role reversal a sickeningly familiar dance that sends my stomach lurching up my throat.

“No! Come on, Benny, don’t fall. Stand up with me?—”

But his weight,soheavy, folds into me. We collapse to the ground together, slamming my knees hard onto the wood floor.

“Okay, it’s okay, we’ll try again later.” I fight for the words he’s said to me a million times. “You… you just need to rest for a minute, that’s all. Then we’ll get back up. J-just hold on until then, okay? Someone will come. I-I-I’ll call for help. Your phone—” I look around frantically for where I dropped it. “Your phone is somewhere. I’ll call my dad. He’s close, right? He can get help. And when Orion gets here, he’ll know what to do?—”

“Luna?” His plea stops me cold. I watch in horror as his hand comes away slick with blood. His lips tremble. “I think… I think I’m dying.”

“No.” Pain like I’ve never known punches into my chest. I shake my head frantically, muttering the word over and over again.

He can’t die. Not him. Not my Benny who’s danced me through thousands of rehearsals since we were four. Who started as much trouble with me as we escaped. Who swore to protect me with his life since that fateful day in the auditorium ten years ago.

“Don’t worry,cher. Nox and I will protect you with our lives, I promise.”

It’d seemed so ridiculous then.

Benny’s been my shadow for years. My friend my whole life. Family. He took a vow right beside Nox to protect me, to be my shield against the worst of the world. But he wasn’t supposed to make good on it.

He was almost out.

Being one of my father’s men isn’t a life sentence anymore. Shadows protect. They don’t bleed. They don’t fall. They don’t…

They don’t die.

Tears glaze his eyes, and he gasps softly. His signature lopsided smile breaks through as he sees something beyond me. Something I can’t see.

“They’re here, Luna… my parents. I finally… I finally found them.”

Peace softens his brow, and he’s just my Benny again, more carefree and hopeful than I’ve ever seen him.

A heartbroken wail strangles my throat, and hot tears streak down, landing in a fresh puddle of blood. He blinks and looks at me again. One hand still pressed to his heart, he seems to use all his strength as he lifts the other to cradle my jaw. I capture his wrist to keep him there, and his thumb brushes gently over my cheek, but I can’t tell which he’s wiping away. My tears or his blood.

“Don’t cry for me,cher. I… I died protecting my family. I did what I never could,” he murmurs softly, voice fading with every word. “And now… I’m going home.”

“Benny, wait!” Pressure builds in my chest, cracking open my sternum and freeing a panicked shout. “Please, stay with me. Don’t?—”

His hand goes limp in mine and I tighten my grip. Life leaves his eyes in a blink, and his final breath slips out on a sigh.

“No!” The scream rips my throat raw, ending in a sob that racks through me. “Please, no.”

The words echo uselessly, choking out of my lungs only to get lost in the woods?—

Wild blond hair flashes between the trees. A man steps out, gun raised, stalking toward me with a cruel, triumphant grin slashed across his lips. Like he’s already won the battle my friend never got to fight in.

Instant, white-hot fury sears through my grief. My shadow, myfriend, died to keep me alive. I won’t let his death go in vain.

I close Benoit’s eyes with shaking fingers, then lift my chin at the man who took my friend from me, every muscle coiled tight as the coward points the barrel at my head.

Two things survived my car being scorched. Crossbow bolts I’d stuck underneath the driver’s seat, and the blush rose, wildflower, and feather bouquet I gave Luna. The rest? Melted tires, frame twisted like ribs of an animal picked clean, and windshield a spiderweb of fractures.

I should’ve known what I’d find as soon as I saw smoke mixing with clouds over the treetops. The acrid stench of burning rubber was my second clue. And yet, here I am, a pathetic fool standing by a metal husk, like if I stare long enough, I’ll figure out how to bend everything back into the shape it once was.

I keep fucking things up. Reaching the car too late, being unable to find a way out for days, the way I spoke to Luna… The way Ithreatenedmy future wife into submission. My momma would be ashamed. I know I am. I have half a mind to bring this bouquet back to Luna as the start of my apology tour, not that I deserve forgiveness.

The flowers do remind me of her, though. When I found them half-buried under one of my old, burnt-to-a-crisp leatherjackets, I was entranced by its singed petals, ash-dusted feathers, and brittle stems held together by a black-streaked white ribbon.

How could something so delicate survive such chaos?