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Well, that’s too bad. I already made the mistake of keeping him alive once.
I won’t make it again.
Cold resolve snakes around my muscles. I go to the driver’s side and take the revolver in my hand. I stick it through the broken window and press the gun to his head.
“Please,” Raphael whimpers. “Please, help me.”
They always beg.
I slip my finger over the trigger.
“Archer!”
The sound of Finley’s voice freezes me in place.
She’s standing on the road. I see her at the edge of my vision, like a mirage in the desert. A small woman in a black dress in the middle of the road. Flickering.
“Turn away, Finley,” I tell her.
“Stop. You don’t have to do this.”
You’re nothing but a killer, I think. My trigger finger trembles.
You’re nothing.
“Archer.”
Except when she says my name. A single word and she speaks me into life.
On her lips, I mean something.
I remove my finger from the trigger. Slowly, I lower the gun, then let the cold metal fall from my hand.
It’s over. It’s done.
I turn away from Raphael and the wreck and go to Finley.
She’s streaked with dirt, her dress torn, blood on her bare shoulder where she must have hit the ground. But as I walk toward her, she quickly moves toward me to close the distance. We collide, and I envelop her gently in my arms.
“Are you okay?” I ask.
“I’m fine.” Her eyes flicker across mine frantically. “Archer, those things I said, I didn’t mean—”
“I know.”
I close my mouth overs hers. She tastes like paradise. Like sweat-salt. Like mine.
“I’m not going to stop!” Raphael snarls. He’s shouting from the car. I can hear the blood in his throat, the vicious rage in his veins. “You hear me? You’ll never be safe. I’m going to rip the wings off your precious little finch—”
And then the gas tank catches.
The force of the explosion knocks Finley and me off our feet. I feel the blast of hot air, and I close my arms tighter around her, protecting her. I throw us off the road, and we tumble down a gully into the damp earth, rolling against grass. My back hits the thick base of a tree and knocks the wind from me, stopping us.
Finley is in my arms still. Finley whimpers. But Finley is safe. That’s all that matters.
Nearby, police sirens begin to wail.
34
