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“LIAM!”
The scream tore out of Isack’s throat before she could even register it was hers.
She dove, arm snapping forward, web-shooter firing a perfect line aiming straight for the girl plummeting beneath her. The world tunneled into a single point: Liam’s falling body, her hair whipping wildly in the wind, her arms reaching for something she’d never catch.
Isack’s heart stopped.
The web connected.
But it connected a fraction of a second too late.
Liam’s body jerked as the line caught, but her head struck the ground with a brutal, sickening crack that echoed through the empty building. The sound shattering something deep inside Isack.
“NON!”
Silence followed.
A silence so absolute, it swallowed the world whole.
Isack dropped from the sky, landing hard on her knees beside her. Her mask blurred as tears began forming in her eyes, her breath hitching in sharp, uneven gasps. She reached for Liam with trembling hands, hovering over her like she was afraid to touch her, afraid that any contact would confirm what her heart already knew.
“Liam… Liam, look at me. Please.”
Her voice broke.
But Liam didn’t move.
Her eyes were half-open, staring at nothing. Her chest didn’t rise. Her lips — still parted as if mid-breath, were already losing their warmth.
“No… no, no, no, no…” Isack’s hands finally touched her cheek, fingers sliding along skin that was already going still. “Stay with me. Please. Please—please.”
She shook, not violently, just enough that desperation spilled from every part of her. She pressed her forehead to Liam’s, breath hitching as sobs tore out of her, grief so raw it burned through her like fire.
Her web hung limp and useless above them — a perfect shot made just a moment too late.
She’d replay that moment for the rest of her life.
A villain’s laughter faded somewhere in the distance, but Isack didn’t hear it. Couldn’t hear anything except her own heartbeat pounding in her ears, fighting a battle it had already lost.
She pulled Liam into her arms, cradling her gently like she might break even further if she held her too tightly. Tears spilled onto Liam’s forehead, rolling down her temple and disappearing into her hair.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered, shaking.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry
I’m sorry
I’m sorry. I’m sorry I’m sorryI’m sorry.”
Liam wasn’t coming back.
Liam wasn’t coming back.
Liam wasn’t coming back.