Page 483 of Coal Hearts

And I wasn’t that far gone...yet.

Unfortunately, Henri did not find me the least bit funny.

I couldn’t take my eyes off him.

So tortured.

So beautiful.

So wrong.

“Come closer and kiss me,” I murmured.

Ily, stop it!

I didn’t care.

I wanted his lips on mine.

I needed his body filling, stretching—

“Please, kiss me.”

He shot to his feet and latched his hands behind his neck. “I can’t be around you when you’re like this.”

Poor man.

Poor tortured monster.

“I’ll kiss you and make it all better. How about that?” I drifted around on my cloud made of GHB. “You’re so hopeless, Henri.”

He staggered.

I struggled to focus on his stony face.

I frowned. “No, wait. Am I the hopeless one?” I tried to make sense of the syrupy swirls in my head. “After all, you’re the one who stole all my hope.” I sighed with a relieved, happy chuff. “Buh-bye hope.”

I waited for him to speak.

I’d grown so used to him chattering away with his confessions.

I didn’t know how much I’d miss it when faced with aching quietness.

I drifted again.

Mollie popped into my head. Behind her, Victor’s stronghold went boom, thanks to one of her bombs. Then Rachel was there, grinning and dancing, her pregnant belly almost ready to pop.

I stiffened.

“She can’t have her baby here.”

“What?” Henri dropped his arms, raw panic carving his face as if I’d lost my mind.

“Children weren’t allowed in here.” I couldn’t look at him, remembering Victor asking him to exterminate Rachel. “But now, thanks to you making Victor keep it, he’ll probably decide to breed all of us.”

Tears bloomed.

Fresh laughter bubbled.