I chuckled against his shoulder, but I didn’t let go. I didn’t want to. I wanted to keep touching him, to keep proving to myself that he was actually here.
“Seriously, man,” I said, finally pulling back to look at him, “I’m sorry.”
“For what?” he asked, his brow twitching.
“For all of it. You wouldn’t have been in that fucking accident if it wasn’t for me.”
Norlan scoffed. “Wow. This guy.”
He slowly reached for a glass of water on the table but failed. Then he looked at me with mock frustration. “Help me, servant.”
I handed him the glass.
He took a sip, swallowed with effort, and then gave me a slow, deadpan look. “So let me get this and here you are, turning it into your personal guilt monologue? So uncharacteristically you. W. dude? When did you become so dramatic?” ight. I almost died, happened to you,
“I know. I am dramatle,” I sal, not even denying It.
No argument here,” he said with a half-smile, setting the glass back down. “But hey… if you want to keep blaming yourself, I won’t stop you. You can grovel a little more. Maybe cry. Might make the nurses give me extra pudding.”
I huffed. “You’re an ass.”
“Alive and kickin’.”
I ran a hand through my hair and let out a deep breath. “God, Norlan… I thought I lost you. I’ve been sleeping in that damn hallway, waiting for a doctor to say something that made sense. Freya’s been praying nonstop. And me?” I let out a small, dry laugh. “I’ve been imagining your funeral. Can you believe that? Your funeral. I even picked out your coffin color.”
“Oh, yeah?” he said. “Lemme guess. Black, brooding, mysterious? Just like your soul?”
“Obviously,” I snorted. “I even added matte gold handles.”
“Ooh. Classy. If I had died, I’d haunt your ass for that.”
“You already did haunt me, jackass,” I murmured, “Every time I blinked, I saw you on that stretcher. All that blood.”
His smirk faded, just for a beat. “Kester… I’m okay.”
“Yeah,” I said, brushing my knuckles gently against his arm. “Now you are.”
He studied me. “How’s Kasmine?”
I blinked, letting out a long breath. “Trying to keep her head up. You know but…” I paused. “She cried. A lot. And she’s not speaking to me much lately.”
Always acting like nothing breaks her,
“Ah,” he muttered, leaning back with a sigh. “She’ll come around. She loves s your dramatic ass.”
I smirked. “She called me a glorified monster.”
“She’s not wrong.”
We shared a small laugh.
Then Norlan’s voice dropped a little. “My mom told me about Claire.” I nodded slowly. “How’s her family holding up?”
“Barely,” I said, my voice roughening again. “Her mum collapsed when they told him. Her little brother… he just stares at her door all day. They’ve gone real quiet. It’s like they’re breathing, but not really living.”
Norlan looked up at the ceiling, his jaw tightly clenched. “She didn’t deserve that. None of them did.”
“No,” I agreed. “They didn’t.”
We went silent for a moment before he spoke again.
Did they get the bastard?”
I didn’t respond. Instead, I dropped my gaze to the floor.
*Kester,” he said again, watching me with suspicion, “Did they catch the bastard who shot Claire?”
I sighed and shook my head. “No. Not the shooter.”
His gaze hardened. “But…?”
I met his eyes. “We got the one who sent ocked up in my basement already.”
His eyes flared and a smile of relief broke across his face. “Good Fucking good.”
He pushed himself a little higher on the pillows, hear. You better not go easy on them, Kester. Inoring the wince in his ribs. “That’s it, man. That’s what I needed to… I didn’t say anything.
He was already on a roll. care who it is.”
“Don’t go killing them off too quickly like you always do. This time, burn them slowly. Make them feel what they’ve done. Because, anyone who tried to kill your Luna and ended up taking that poor girl’s life in the process, deserves a slow and painful death.”
I nodded faintly.
Norlan paused, before adding, “And, let’s not pretend…” he gestured vaguely to the wires and IV line in his arm, “this was their fault, too. You and I wouldn’t have been driving like lunatics if Kasmine hadn’t been targeted. I wouldn’t have had metal in my lungs and glass in my spine if – “
“Norlan,” I murmured.
He stopped, and it was at that point he realized how quiet I had been.
His voice dropped as if realization was slowly beginning to seep into the cracks of his anger. “Kester…”
I didn’t respond. I just stared at him.
“Who was it?” he asked, a little quieter, almost as if the truth was already forming in his mind but he needed me to be the one to say it.
I took a long breath, long enough to consider not saying it at all.
“Tell me, Kes. Who was it?”
I hesitated for a second longer before giving it to him clean. “It was June.”
KASMINE.
I’d been living a sad, dejected life for the past week, wandering through the wreckage of my life.
Maybe I was irrational for shutting Kester out. Maybe I was ever stupid for not believing him when he said he had nothing to do with Blaine’s death.
A part of me really wanted to believe him, but, knowing Kester, that was one of his signature solutions to problems. He doesn’t reason with threats. He just… Erases them.
I asked for space, and he respected it. I hadn’t seen him for the past three days now, especially after hearing that Norlan regained consciousness yesterday. He’d spent the whole of yesterday at the hospital, only dashing back to the house to get a change of clothes before running off again.
Lucky him… His bestfriend survived. Mine didn’t.
Claire’s funeral was set to take place in two days and I’d been praying to the Moon Goddess to give me the strength to be in attendance. I was too heartbroken and guilty to feel like I had any right to stand beside her casket, let alone say goodbye.
I missed her. God, I missed her so much it felt like breathing glass.
Knock. Knock.
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