I didn’t even realize I was screaming his name—
not until my throat felt raw.
“Liam! Liam, don’t you dare—stay with me!”
His weight collapsed into my arms, deadened by the drug, the wound, or whatever poison had begun eating through him from the inside out. His blood stained my skin, warm and horrifying, seeping between my fingers like sand slipping through an hourglass I couldn’t stop.
He coughed again. Wet. Violent.
More red splattered across his lips.
His eyes—those steady, sharp eyes—fluttered open for the briefest second. Just long enough for me to see the fear behind them.
He wasn’t afraid of dying.
He was afraid of leaving me behind.
“Liam…” My voice cracked like glass. “You can’t. You can’t. Not like this. Not now. I need you.”
The red warning lights above us pulsed faste
