Infinity Reaper (Infinity Cycle #2) - Adam Silvera Page 0,20

came before his feelings, like once when he wouldn’t turn off this podcast when I was trying to study so I told him that I was actually trying to succeed in life and not get rejected everywhere like he was with his pathetic grades. I knew Emil tried really hard with his schoolwork, but I didn’t care in that moment. It took weeks before things felt right between us. This time I would need true immortality to live long enough to make it up to him.

Dr. Oshiro and Dr. Bowes leave together, and Iris returns before the door can close.

“Your mom’s on,” Iris says, handing me the phone.

I don’t think I am ready to tell Ma everything. This reminds me of when I was studying for finals and, even with days and days of prepping, I still didn’t feel prepared. But it didn’t matter whether or not I was ready once the exam was in front of me—I just had to go for it.

A lot of people in my situation might ask for privacy, but I’ve lived so much of my life online that I don’t care. Especially not when everyone here knows my condition.

I take a deep breath and try to sound as strong as possible. “Hello?”

“My shining star,” Ma says with a crack in her voice. “I’m so happy you came back, but you can’t run away again. I told your brother the same thing, remember? We are each other’s responsibility.”

Tears are trying to break through as every moment feels like I’m inching toward my end. I feel guilty enough that she got hurt because I was pissed at Emil and the Spell Walkers when they told me I couldn’t go on any more missions, but now putting her through this? I would rather speak about anything else. Ask her about her favorite memory with Abuelita. The first meal she taught herself to cook. If watching me and Emil grow up together makes her wish she had her own sibling. What she misses the most about Dad.

I can’t die without being honest.

“I’m sorry. I won’t run away again. I promise.”

“Good. I’m excited to see you and your brother in a couple hours. Are you well?”

“I’ve been better. Ma, I came back because I wanted to help beat the Blood Casters. I survived and I held my own, but you should know I’m getting medical attention right now.”

The parallels between me and Emil both being treated in Gleam Care when we had to break big specter-related news to Ma isn’t lost on me. Except this is all my fault.

“What happened?” Ma asks. “Were you burnt? Is anything broken?”

“No one hurt me out there. It’s just . . . it’s been hard living in Emil’s shadow, and I decided to take action. My dreams got the best of me.”

She’s quiet for so long that I have to check that the call hasn’t dropped. “Got the best of you how?”

“I drank the Reaper’s Blood, and now I’m really sick. I wanted those ultimate powers and—”

“Brighton Miguel Rey! How . . . ? You . . . You’re smarter than this! The hydra blood ruined your father. What made you think you were the exception to the rule?”

“So many reasons, Ma! For one, your mother was a celestial, so I hoped it would better brace me to welcome other powers into my system.” Everyone’s eyes are on me, and Emil is approaching. He reaches for the phone, and I smack his hand away. “I could’ve saved lives if this had worked. I could’ve been safe from death forever.”

Ma is sobbing, and it immediately transports me back to when I called her to give her the news about Dad. I never thought words could hurt someone so much.

“I can’t lose you too,” she says. “I can’t believe I’m losing you because you were so selfish—”

“Selfish?!”

“Yes, selfish! You are always putting yourself before others, Brighton, and your father and I didn’t raise you to be so high and mighty! You—”

I’m burning hot, like I swallowed a star and I’m milliseconds away from exploding. “This is why Dad was always the better parent! If I told him I was dying, he wouldn’t have been shouting about how little he thinks of me!”

I throw the phone across the room, and the screen shatters against the wall.

Emil is staring at me like I’m a hydra that chewed up a phoenix and spit out its bones. Wesley’s jaw has dropped and frozen in place. Iris is staring at