They Fed Me to the Dead, So I Woke Up Before the End novel · Chapter 21 of 24

Chapter 21: The Lines

"Keaton," Bridget said. "Your neck."

The crowd was still cheering, and she said it too softly for them to hear.

Keaton clawed at the gray scarf, pulling it loose.

Black lines stood out along his throat in a branching net.

They were climbing.

I watched one reach the hinge of his jaw and keep going.

The cheering broke off in the front rows first, then rippled back, until the whole roof went silent.

"It's the stone," Keaton said. His voice was thin. "It's settling. It's supposed to settle."

He pushed up the other sleeve.

That arm was black from the wrist to the shoulder.

"Fix it," he said, and turned on me. "Reese. Fix it."

"I can't."

"You said you'd give it freely! You gave it!"

"I did." I stood on shaking legs, with Jonas holding my elbow. "Everyone, look at him."

My voice cracked and carried.

"Nobody cut this out of me today. I put it in his chest with my own hands. And look at what it does."

"Shut her up," the captain said.

"Last time he cut it out of me on this roof," I said, louder. "You clapped. You saw his arms. You thought he was angry."

A woman in the third row put her hand to her mouth.

"It's rot. It's what the stone does to anyone it did not choose. He's been carrying a second stone for three weeks, and his own arm was already black, and he wanted mine to fix it."

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