Chapter 0206

Frankly, most of the time I can’t feel anything, because I start to pass out as Jackson moves, somehow miraculously balancing me the whole time. The only times I come to are when Jackson passes more magic, his palm pressed against my back or my side. These come more and more frequently as he feels me fade, as he feels me start to drift away from him.

When my eyes do open, the world is increasingly black, and at first I think it’s because…because I’m dying. But then I realize that it’s just nighttime.

Jackson starts to talk to me then, keeping up a steady string of words, most of them curses and narration of what he’s doing, every step he’s taking, how close we are to the end. But some of them, blissfully, are the sweetest things I’ve ever heard.

I just catch snatches of Jackson’s words, really – of him telling me of how long he thought about me, about what I’d look like. His surprise that I’m a blonde. How much he wants to tell me, and parts of the world he wants to show me.

If I had tears, they’d drip down my face, but I don’t. So instead I just hang limply over my mate’s shoulder, mourning the loss of this incredible bond when I just got hold of it, even as I determine to stay as long as I can – even as I will myself to live, even for his sake, if not my own.

Because Jackson – he deserves a break in life, doesn’t he?