He Asked Me to Die Again, So I Named My Price novel · Chapter 23 of 24

Chapter 23: Say It

The ballroom came back all at once, with noise and light and Calla's hands on her arms.

"Yvette! You went gray. You went completely gray."

"I am fine."

"You are not fine, you are..."

"Calla." Yvette kissed her forehead. "I am going to take your brother home. Do not follow us. Check your heart every hour, and if it so much as skips, call me."

Calla stared at her.

Then she looked at Alaric, and something passed across her face, and she let go.

"Go," she said.

The boathouse lamp was already on, because Alaric had left it burning every night since the rain.

It was ten minutes to midnight.

He stood inside the door with his coat still on and watched her walk across the boards.

"Tell me," he said.

She told him.

She said it in four plain sentences, and he did not interrupt once.

At the part where she would grow old and die in an ordinary hospital bed, he gave a quiet sound that was almost a laugh.

Then he said nothing for a long time.

"If you are wrong," he said, "you vanish."

"If I say it first, I do not."

"If the system lies."

"It does not lie. It leaves things out." She went close. "Alaric, it has hidden clause nine for seven lives. It would not have read it aloud if it could have refused."

"And if it is a trap?"

"Then I would rather be a trap than a door." She took his hands. "I am done being sent away. By you, or by it."

His fingers tightened on hers.

"I cannot stand in a room and watch you disappear."

"You will not."

"I did that once. I read about it in a letter." His voice cracked. "I would not live."

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