(Kaelith’s POV)
Kaelith ran until the night ran out of breath.
He lurched through a narrow alley, boots scraping stone, the last of Iosefina’s rescinding still burning along his nerves. The hole where her light used to sit inside him felt obscene.
“That b***h,” he hissed, palm to his chest. “That self-righteous, flaming b***h. She broke my heart and took my light.”
A lazy voice drifted from behind. “Still narrating your own tragedy, or is that new?”
Kaelith turned.
Mallum lounged against a cracked streetlamp, grin unholy, velvet pants, and a blood-red shirt like he’d dressed for sin. Rain had fogged his glasses; he looked delighted.
“Mallum,” Kaelith snapped. “You dirty stop-out disaster. I thought you’d ditched me.”
“I did,” Mallum chirped. “Then I heard you got grounded again. Co
