Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 69511 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 348(@200wpm)___ 278(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69511 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 348(@200wpm)___ 278(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
“Did you know,” I coughed, tasting blood on my tongue. “That when you die, your brain lives for another seven minutes, replaying its best memories?”
“Yeah, yeah I’ve heard that before,” she whispered.
I felt a hot tear fall from her eyes and roll down my throat.
“You’ll be in all of those memories.”
A keening sound left her throat, and I reached up with the last of my energy and tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear.
“I’m sorry, baby,” I whispered. “But I’m happy that I got what I got with you, even if it was too short.”
A choking sob left her throat, and she dropped her forehead to mine. “Fight, Gable. Please fight.”
“Fuck it,” Felix snarled. “Everyone out. We’re doing this here.”
That was the last thing I remembered.
Warning, to avoid injury, don’t tell Gable how to do his job.
—Text from Athena to Gable
ATHENA
“What the hell is going on?”
Maven.
What was Maven doing here?
Wasn’t she supposed to be in her hospital room upstairs?
I didn’t know.
Didn’t really care.
Gable was dying.
He was having surgery performed on him in the ER.
Only feet away from where I was standing.
“Baby,” Auden said. “Careful.”
“Tell me, Auden. Tell me what’s going on,” she pleaded.
My eyes were on the door of the room that was now shut, but my ears were open and listening.
I, too, wanted to know what was going on.
What had happened.
How had this day gone so wrong?
“Gable covered a shift for me today,” Quaid started. “We had him in the business district. Something happened, and a shooting occurred. We don’t have the details yet, but when Gable intervened and tried to stop it, they turned their guns on him.”
Turned their guns on him.
“They shot him in the chest twice. Left forearm once. And clipped him on the cheek,” Garrett whispered hoarsely. “And since the ER was full from the mass shooting, and Gable was the last one to be transported, every OR in the city is filled with other people.”
“No,” Maven breathed.
“Baby, come sit down,” Auden ordered.
Maven ignored him and walked up to me.
She didn’t get in the way of my view of the door, but she did cuddle up to my side and say, “Come here, Athena.”
I listened to them chatter.
At one point, I heard one of them ask what had happened to my arm, but since none of them knew but me and Gable, they didn’t get their answers.
That’s how we stayed for what felt like hours.
“What are they doing?” I found myself asking.
“Getting the bullets out of his chest,” Hollis said. “One’s lodged in a way that it’s really close to his heart. Took out both of his lungs.”
I closed my eyes and prayed.
I wasn’t much of a prayer.
It hadn’t worked so well for me when I’d been a kid and my sister was taken. But maybe it would help now.
I’d do just about anything to help.
Even pray to a god that I never felt was there for me when I needed him.
Being a sleepy girl with a busy life is hard.
—Text from Athena to Gable
GABLE
It was weird.
I decided I was dead.
I stared at the open air in front of me.
Everything was white.
Pure.
Bright.
But my eyes didn’t hurt.
My body was at peace.
And there was no more pain.
“What are you doing here, man?”
I looked over and found myself smiling. “Gavrel.”
“You can’t leave her alone,” he murmured. “You leave and she has no one left.”
I frowned. “Who?”
He looked at me like I was dumb.
“Why are you dressed like that?” I asked.
He flicked at his white tee and said, “This is your afterlife, not mine. I don’t choose what people wear in the afterlife; you do.”
“Afterlife?” I asked. “There’s an afterlife?”
He touched his temple. “Why did you leave her? I thought you’d take care of her.”
Her?
Her.
Her.
Her.
Athena’s face slammed into my mind like an anvil.
One second, she was in the periphery, there, but not there.
Then, she was all I could think about.
My mind spun.
The moment I met her, she looked up and her eyes met mine, and I felt something inside my chest shift. Something that clicked into place, as if just seeing her was exactly what I needed to know that she would be there for the rest of my life.
“I love your sister,” I said, looking over at the man still standing there, waiting.
“You love her, but you’ll leave her behind?” he asked.
I closed my eyes as I imagined her face.
The way she looked when I told her I loved her.
The way she parted her hair.
The way she filled out a pair of jeans.
The sundresses that drove me wild.
The way she slept with one leg hiked way up to her chest, partially on her chest, and partially on her side.
“I don’t want to leave her,” I disagreed. “I…” I trailed off. “What’s that?”
“That’s the end, buddy,” he said. “Welcome home.”
My heart panicked inside of my chest.
“Will she be there?” I gasped.