I crouched down, frozen in disbelief.
"Jason…" The name left me as a whisper, cracked and desperate.
My arms wrapped around his lifeless body, pulling him against me as if I could anchor him back into this world. Please. No.
Something inside me splintered into a million jagged pieces. My chest tightened, breaking and breaking again as I clutched him tighter. His weight felt wrong — heavy, limp, already slipping away.
Then I saw it. The vial in his hand. Etherance. Open. Drained of every last drop.
My gaze darted to his mouth. The purple stain. And lower—
The wound in his chest, dark and unforgiving.
Poison and steel. Two deaths in one.
"What… what could have happened?" My thoughts fractured, unraveling into panic. "Who did this to you? Who?" The words screamed inside my skull, but my voice broke into silence.
Tears fell unchecked, burning tracks down my face, dripping onto his pale skin. Cold. Too cold.
