The End of Us novel · Chapter 5 of 24

Chapter 5: Fever

The fever came that night.

Ginny had made me drink water and eat half a slice of toast, and then she fell asleep sitting up in the kitchen chair with her shoes still on.

I lay on the bed in the room with the lock.

By midnight my skin burned, and every muscle in my back had knotted into a rope.

The bond was pulling in two directions at once.

One end was in Quinton, a quarter mile across the river, and the other end was in me.

I turned my face into the pillow and made no noise at all.

The door opened anyway.

I had not locked it.

Keith stood in the doorway in a grey T-shirt and a pair of flannel pants, with his hair wet from the sink.

"I heard your breathing change," he said.

"Go away."

"I will if you tell me you're fine."

I opened my mouth, and nothing came out but a cough.

He crossed the room and sat on the edge of the bed.

"Where is it worst?"

"My back. Along the spine."

"Let me."

"You're supposed to be asking about the rules."

"The rule was you don't touch unless the bond is making you sick," he said. "You're sick."

I rolled onto my stomach.

I heard him take a breath.

He lifted the hem of my shirt a few inches, and he laid his palm flat against the bare skin between my shoulder blades.

I stopped breathing.

His hand was hotter than the fever.

The knot under it gave, one muscle at a time, and the pull behind my ribs eased.

"There," he said, very low.

"That's...better."

"I know."

He moved his palm down slowly, along my spine, and each place he pressed let go.

He reached the small of my back, and his hand stopped.

Keep reading free with an account. Start The End of Us from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.