Chapter Twenty: Final Breaths

As Carter writhed beside me, his body bowing with every wave of agony, a different kind of pain ignited in my chest—hot, crushing, suffocating. I fought to keep the shield of light above us intact as the sky cracked open, raining fire and shards of the world we once knew. The air was thick with smoke and heat, carrying the scent of scorched earth and the sharp tang of metal from shattered structures. My fingers trembled, gripping the shield so tightly I could feel the pulse of energy through my bones.

“Just hold on, Carter,” I choked out, teeth grit so tight they nearly cracked. “Don’t leave me. Not now.”

But he moved.

Carter staggered to his feet, shoving me aside with more force than he should’ve had in his broken state. The shield flickered violently, almost collapsing, and I stumbled after him, heart hammering. My lungs screamed for air, my legs shaking as if the earth itself had turned to liquid beneath me.

“Carter—what are you doing?” I gasped, but he didn’t answer. Not at first.

He lifted his face toward the sky bleeding red and black, toward the destruction swallowing everything. His chest rose and fell, and for a moment… he looked peaceful. Heartbreakingly peaceful.

“I can’t undo what I’ve done,” he said quietly, voice carved from regret. “But I can save you.”

My body froze. “What are you talking about?” I demanded, my voice breaking under the weight of fear.

Carter turned to me then—fully, clearly. That smallest, saddest smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. A smile that held every memory we’d ever shared… and every goodbye he didn’t know how to say.

“It’s been a pleasure being your friend, Romeo.”

My heart dropped straight out of my chest.

“Carter—no. No, don’t you dare—”

I sprinted toward him, but something invisible slammed into my chest, hurling me backward until I hit the ground hard. Pain exploded across my shoulders, and the impact sent a shockwave up my spine. “CARTER!” I screamed, throwing myself at the barrier, clawing, punching, slamming my hands until they burned. “LET ME THROUGH!”

He didn’t hear me. Or worse—he did, and kept going anyway.

A flame bloomed in his palm, small at first. Then bigger. Then impossibly, terrifyingly bright. It pulsed with his heartbeat. With his life. My stomach dropped into my knees.

“CARTER, STOP!” I screamed, voice breaking into shards.

I conjured animals—wolves, lions, creatures of pure light—hurling them at the field. Every single one dissolved like dust against glass. Not even a flicker of hesitation from the barrier. Not even a tremor.

“CARTER!” My voice cracked so violently it hurt.

He looked at me one last time, eyes soft—not with darkness, not with corruption—but with the boy I grew up with. The boy who stayed up late watching movies with me, who stole my fries when he thought I wasn’t looking, who always had my back.

“Tell Sarah Henderson I say she’s hot,” he murmured with a tiny, crooked grin.

A wet laugh punched out of me, broken and hysterical. “Carter—please—PLEASE!”

But he had already made his choice. He exhaled. Just once. A long, quiet breath. Then he pressed the flame to his chest.

“NO!” My scream tore the sky apart.

The barrier vanished instantly—I lunged forward, catching him just as his legs buckled. We fell together to the scorched ground. His body convulsed, dark veins crawling up his throat and arms, his skin paling by the second. And still… that damned smirk lingered on his lips.

“Don’t forget me, okay?” he whispered, voice barely a breath.

My vision blurred through tears. “Carter… Carter, please…”

His eyes fluttered. Dimmed. Closed.

A sob tore out of me, raw and violent. I pulled him into my arms and held him tighter than I ever had before—tighter than when he scored his first touchdown, tighter than when he showed me his college acceptance letter, tighter than every stupid, precious moment we’d shared.

“Don’t leave me,” I sobbed, burying my face in his shoulder as his breaths grew faint and thin. “Please, Carter… don’t leave me. I can’t lose you…”

But the sky kept falling. And he kept fading. And all I could do was hold him as the world around us shattered.

For a moment, there was nothing.

No fire raining from the sky. No distant explosions. No cracking earth. No screaming wind.

Just Carter. Still. Growing colder. Lying in my arms like a piece of the world had finally fallen silent. My fingertips trembled where they pressed against his cheek. His skin had always been warm—always. Even in winter. Even when he pretended he wasn’t freezing. But now… I felt nothing. Nothing but the cold.

Something inside me snapped. Not cracked. Not splintered. Snapped—like a bone breaking so cleanly it doesn’t even hurt at first. Then the pain hit.

A howl ripped from my chest—wordless, savage, animal. It tore through my throat until it felt like it was bleeding. I clutched Carter tighter, so tight I didn’t know whether I was trying to keep him together or myself.

“YOU WEREN’T SUPPOSED TO LEAVE ME!” I screamed into his shoulder, my voice raw and shaking. “You—you idiot—you absolute IDIOT—why would you—why would you—”

I couldn’t breathe. My lungs locked up, heat clawing inside my ribs, building pressure until my vision reddened. My heartbeat thundered louder than the collapsing sky.

And then—the ground shook.

A shockwave blasted out from beneath me, rattling the stones, the air, the trees a hundred yards away. Ashes swirling through the sky twisted upward, pulled toward me like gravity had shifted. I didn’t care. I didn’t even notice.

All I could see was Carter’s face. His lifeless chest. His stupid, half-smile like he’d died thinking he was being funny.

A pulse throbbed behind my eyes—hot, electric, agonizing. The world around me blazed bright, white-gold, like lightning trapped under my skin. My fingertips started to glow where they gripped the dirt.

Another shockwave erupted—bigger, louder—cracking the earth in a jagged ring around us. Snow and Phineas, far off in the haze, stumbled. I barely registered their silhouettes, their shouts carried away by the chaos spiraling around me.

“Come back,” I whispered. It was barely a breath, barely a sound. “Carter… please… come back…”

But the light inside me surged again—violent, untamed, uncontainable. Something else broke.

A scream clawed out of me—this one not grief, but power. Raw power. Blinding light exploded from my body, shooting into the sky like a pillar, ripping through the falling ash and turning the red clouds white for a heartbeat.

The forest flattened outward from the blast. Trees bent. Dust spiraled into storms. The air around me warped with heat. Snow shouted my name. Phineas yelled something I couldn’t hear. The world blurred around the edges.

I clutched Carter’s body tighter, shaking uncontrollably as tears streamed down my face.

“DON’T MAKE ME LIVE WITHOUT YOU,” I begged, voice breaking. “I—I CAN’T… I—”

The power kept rising. Spiraling. Cracking the air.

My hands burned hotter than ever, the golden light roaring between my fingers like a living thing desperate to escape. But it didn’t matter. Nothing mattered.

Carter was gone.

I could feel the emptiness in my arms, the weight of his body pressing against me, cold and unyielding. His chest didn’t rise. His stupid half-smile—the one he always wore even when he was being ridiculous—was frozen on his face forever.

“NO!” I screamed, a sound that tore through the forest and beyond, raw and jagged and animal. The ground beneath us cracked under the force of my grief. Trees bent and shattered. Ash and dust swirled into spirals, drawn upward by the explosion of light erupting from me.

I didn’t care about the forest. I didn’t care about Snow or Phineas or anything else. All I could see was Carter—dead. Cold. Silent.

The power inside me spiked, responding to every ounce of pain, every heartbeat that had ever belonged to him. Shockwaves blasted outward in golden arcs, ripping the air, flattening the ground, shattering rocks into dust. The sky flickered white, gold, then back to the ashen red, bending under the raw force of my emotions.

“CARTER, YOU CAN’T LEAVE ME!” I howled. “I WON’T LET YOU—I DON’T CARE—I—”

Another pulse of light exploded from me, larger this time, spiraling into the sky like a pillar of molten gold. Trees cracked, the ground buckled, and I could see Snow and Phineas bracing themselves against the edges of the shockwave, shouting, warning—but their words didn’t reach me.

I pressed my hands against the earth, against his chest, and I poured everything I had into it. Rage, despair, love, regret, fear—all of it became one thing, one living, consuming force of light. The forest screamed with it. The world shook. The ashes and the fire and the red sky bent and twisted around me. And still, Carter didn’t move.

Then a part of me… broke.

The howl that left my chest was no longer human. It was everything I had ever felt in one unbearable scream. It tore the air apart, shattered the remaining trees, carved cracks into the earth, and lit the sky like lightning trapped inside molten gold.

I let it consume me, let the light rage outward until the world itself seemed to bend under it.

And finally, exhausted, trembling, burning, I collapsed to my knees. The shockwaves died down, leaving silence behind. Golden sparks drifted from my hands. Smoke curled from the scorched earth.

But Carter… Carter was still cold. Still gone.

I gripped the hem of his robes like it could pull him back to me. My face pressed against him. “I can’t… I can’t…” I whispered, voice breaking into sobs I didn’t know I had left. “I’m so sorry… I’m so sorry I couldn’t—”

Snow stepped forward slowly, her hand on my shoulder. “Charlie…”

Phineas planted his staff in the ground, eyes shadowed and unreadable, but there was no reprimand in his voice. Only… understanding. “He is gone,” he said quietly. “And yet… look at what you just did. This power… it’s yours now. Unbroken. Unstoppable.”

I didn’t answer. I couldn’t. All I could do was stare at Carter, my golden light fading from my trembling hands, and realize that nothing—not even the power I had just unleashed—could bring him back.

The world was silent now. And I was alone.