Spat into the air.
Shock reverberates back.
From the officiant.
From the witnesses.
FromBriar.
“I don’t,” I repeat.
Fingers convulse around mine. “You’re supposed to sayI do,” Briar whispers.
My lungs seize. “No,” I say. “I’m not.”
“Brooks—”
I slip my hands from hers. It’s not easy, not when she’s clinging to me so fiercely. Not when she’s looking at me like…
I can’t allow that thought to form, can’t allow the words to coalesce in my mind.
I might do something that’s worse than this.
I might…stay.
“I don’t,” I say for a third time.
Though this time I pair it with putting distance between us, enough and so quickly that I see it break off a little chunk of that innocence, that sweetness, that essence that is purely Briar.
It falls to the side.
Gone.
Forever.
“You’re supposed to sayI do,” Briar says again, more forcefully.
I shake my head, commit her ravaged face to memory, know I need to hold it tight, know it’s the only memory of her I deserve.
Then I turn away. Turn from the sputtering of the officiant, turn from the shattering beauty.
I move toward Jace and Max. They’ve been with me from the beginning.
Long enough to not question anything.
“Max.” I flick my eyes in the direction of Briar.
He nods…just as footsteps echo across the earth, louder than the rain, which is coming down in sheets now, drenching me, the earth.
Briar.
“Brooks!”
Max has been with me a long time.
Long enough to step behind me, to intercept Briar before she can touch me.
Because if she touches me, I may lose my resolve.
