“Serena.”
“It’s personal, okay? What shesaid is…personal.”
“Personal?” He scoffs. “You used to pee with the door open when we were in college. I think we’re past personal.”
“Yeah, you could have warned me about that, by the way,” I spit.
“Don’t do this.” The wind rustles his hair as he shakes his head. “Don’t shut me out.”
I sigh, swallowing the tightness in my throat. “I’m allowed to keep things to myself. I’m allowed to have secrets. You don’t need to know what I’m thinking one hundred percent of the time.”
He laughs, exasperated. “Serena, I never know what you’re thinking. And it drives me insane.”
My eyes find his, and he holds my gaze for a moment. Thunder crackles overhead, drawing our faces skyward. Then it starts to rain.
With one last pat, I send Furi off to her mountain and march toward the thicket of dense forest.
“What iswrong?” He races to catch up with me.
“Maybe I’m just in a pissy mood. It happens.”
“Where are you going?”
“I don’t know! For a walk.”
“It’s pouring. Just come inside.”
But I can’t. ?*
Another roar of thunder rattles the ground, and I break into a sprint.
The trees are nothing but tall, black masses, blurring together as I race through the forest. Freezing rain soaks through my clothes, my hair. But I keep going. I run until I’m breathless and panting. Until my lungs are screaming, begging for a break. I run until I’m lost, until finally the tears I have been holding back since this afternoon—since Vod—burst to the surface, mixing with the fat raindrops stinging my face.
I stumble to a stop, bracing myself against the trunk of a giant oak. My knees sink into softened soil.
Everything I have been holding back, holding in, slams into me with unrelentingforce.
It’s staggering.
Like those dreams where you’re speeding down a highway and you’ve lost control of the wheel. And suddenly a truck comes out of nowhere, coming at you head-on. Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide as the headlights grow closer and closer. All you can do is wait to wake up.
Except I can’t. Because the nightmare is real.
It’s everything, all at once.
It’s Derek dying. Having to lose my father twice. It’s the rift between me and Jace. It’s Kai’s abuse. It’s Kylian’s hands on my body. It’s my mother…mymother.
It’s who and what I need to become.
It’s the weight of the world resting on my shoulders.
I open my mouth to scream, but nothing comes out.
“Serena!” Zadyn shouts as he jogs toward me. I can’t answer. I’m paralyzed.
“Hey.” He reaches me, gripping my shoulders as the rain streamlines down his face.
He tries to get me to breathe, but I can’t. The pain is not done with me. Not yet. It sinks its talons in and pulls and pulls and pulls until I am fully unraveled.
