Mag-log inHe shook his head, or tried. Blood ran down his chin, dripped onto his chest, but his eyes were clear. “Don’t waste it,” he rasped. “I’m done here. I can feel it.”I turned to the woman. “You said she can fix this,” I managed, voice not quite my own. “Ava. You said she can heal him. You’re sure?”Ev
“Let him,” I said. “It’s not an airway issue.”He coughed again, the sound lower, more like a plea. Blood flecked his chin and the hollow of his neck, trailing into the blue veins that now mapped his entire upper body. He looked drowned.I eased a hand behind his shoulders, propping him up so the bl
EvelynThe sound of my daughter’s scream cracked down the hallway, and then the only thing left was the silence. Even the machines seemed to pause for it.I watched the digital pulse rolling steady over Thomas’s shoulder, still green, still regular, still alive. But it felt borrowed—like the numbers
AvaThe house always felt sterile after a storm. The mud tried to cling to the soles of my shoes, but the tile inside was so clean the dirt just smeared thin, a trail that belonged to me long before I reached the main hallway.The garden door hissed shut behind me. There should have been noise, but
AvaHe lifted my chin with two fingers, not rough but clear enough to get my attention. “Yes, it did. But you’re not cursed, Ava. You’re just exactly where you should be given what you’ve been through.”He let my chin go, then steadied me with a hand on my elbow. “Now you have to figure out what’s n
AvaThe garden was always uglier in daylight. Dew clung to the weeds and left muddy splotches on my jeans when I sat, knees yanked to my chest, old sneakers grinding against the stone bench. The air was thick with the rot of last week’s rain and all the things I’d never figured out how to say, so I







