Page 109 of Bound By Blood and Lies

Her lips twitch faintly, like some part of her is still here with us, and then her eyes drift back to me.

“My boys…” she breathes, the words are fragile as they slip between us like quicksand. “Give my grandchild and Robyn a kiss from me.”

It happens in the smallest way. Her hand, still resting weakly against mine, loosens completely. The tension leaves her face, her chest stills, and there’s something final in it that my body recognises before my mind catches up.

And I break.

“No,” I gasp.

“No, no, no?—”

I shake her. My hands come up to her face, trying to bring her back, trying to force something, anything, back into her.

“Mum, wake up,” I rasp, my voice tearing apart as I press my forehead to hers. “Don’t do this. Don’t?—”

“She’s gone, Roman.”

Felix’s voice comes from just behind me, quieter than I’ve ever heard it, and I feel his hand settle on my shoulder. I rip away from it instantly as my head snaps back toward him.

“No, she’s not,” I snap. “She’s not gone, she’s… she’s right here, she’s?—”

My voice collapses as Riggs lets out a broken wail beside me, his hand is still on her face and his thumb brushes over her cheek like he’s trying to wake her up gently, like he doesn’t understand why she isn’t responding.

“Mumzy…?” he whispers, “Oi… don’t do that. Don’t?—”

He swallows hard, his shoulders shaking once before he bows his head, pressing it briefly against her temple as Felix crouches quietly near her side. He reaches out to adjust her slightly, so she’s not twisted against the marble.

“I’ll take care of them,” he says finally. “All of them. I promise.”

Atlas hovers for a second before lowering himself near her head, his usual composure is fractured just enough that I catch it. He reaches out, smoothing a strand of her hair back into place with a quiet kind of reverence.

“Thank you,” he whispers. “For everything.”

Fae howls beside me as her hands grip onto Mum whilst she refuses to let go. Her whole body shakes as she curls in closer and presses her face against her shoulder. She whispers something into her ear, but I don’t hear it.

I can’t hear anything over the sound of my own breathing falling apart.

I’m still staring at her face.

Waiting.

Waiting for something to move. For her chest to rise. For her eyes to open. For her to tell me I’m being dramatic, that I need to get a grip, that she’s still here.

But she doesn’t.

And the silence that settles over us is worse than anything I’ve ever known.

CHAPTER 30

FAE

Everything feels wrong.

It’s not loud or sharp. It doesn’t even feel real. I just feel like I’ve been dropped somewhere deep and dark where sound can’t travel properly, where everything moves slower than it should, where the world above me exists but I can’t quite reach it. The church stretches out around me in warped shapes and broken light. The colours are dulled and the edges are blurred, like I’m seeing through water that keeps shifting.

Still, I don’t dare move.

I can’t.