Whydid I bring her here?
Whydo I so desperately want to see her live?
She’s right to question me, to distrust me.
Hell,she should.
And yet, the thought of harm befalling her…
My steps falter for half a heartbeat before I force myself forward.
Was bringing her here really the best option? The only option?
“What else were you to do?”Ajja’s voice threads through my mind, soothing as always, a balm to my ever-fraying sanity.“If you left her there, she would have died. Those men would have killed her.”
“But is she really any safer here?”I ask aloud, knowing he can still hear me even as he hunts with other wraithwolves across the continent.
I continue my path to the courtyard where Theo waits.
“You’ll make sure she is.”
I swallow hard.
But what if I don’t?
What if Ican’t?
The shadows ripple along the walls, matching the erratic beat of my pulse.
I force them to still.
If only I could do the same with my mind because time and time again, it refuses to focus on what truly matters, and now, I’m constantly plagued by one incomprehensible question:Why do I care?
“Because she fought,”Ajja murmurs, his voice a faint echo.
He’s right. She did fight. In a world that turned its back on her, when every odd was stacked against her, shefought.
At least for a while.
I shiver at the memory of that fight leaving her.
And I still don’t know why.
I shake my head sharply, as though I can dislodge the image of the woman sleeping inmybed, wearingmyclothes, bathing inmyshower, and haunting every twisted corner of my mind.
“She’s a responsibility,” I tell myself. “A duty. Nothing more.”
But even as I think it, I can see her eyes blazing with defiance, chin raised ready to combat my every word, and I can’t help but smile, something I try my hardest never to do.
But for a moment—thismoment—I allow it.
Because nothing about her has been a disappointment.
Chapter 12
Serafina
“This isn’t working!” I scream out, bending over to place my hands on my knees because how was this so easy a few days ago when Theo was in my room?
