I gazed into his eyes and tried to focus on the friendship that had bound us tighter than most. Sebastian hadn’t just seen me at my worst; he’d witnessed my pain, my humiliation, the traumawhich stalked my nightmares. He was, as they say, my ride or die. Except if you crossed him, the die part became a reality.
With a sigh, I nodded and led the way out of the kitchen and traipsed up the stairs. “We’re doing this now?” he checked from behind me.
“You have something more important to do?”
“No, but maybe you need to think about this.”
“All I do is think about this and imagine the what-ifs. It’s time to face these demons, and that starts with me stopping avoiding the hard things.”
I threw open the door to my rooms and welcomed him inside. “Drink?”
Sebastian frowned and glanced around as if he were looking for an out. “No, I don’t need refreshments. I might lose them.”
“That’s encouraging,” I muttered as I sat on the sofa. I patted the seat next to me. “Let’s do this.”
He slid his phone from his pocket and dropped down next to me with a sigh. “My phone or yours?”
“Yours. I plan on watching this once, then I want you to delete it forever.”
“Got it.”
He fiddled around on his screen before handing me the phone with a video cued up. The still was shadowy, but I could make out a bed and a small body lying on it.
“If it gets too much,” he whispered.
“It’s already too much, but I can’t move forward without strengthening the past. Shaky ground is not how we lay foundations for the future.”
Sebastian rolled his shoulders and nodded. I pressed play.
A bloodcurdling, heartbreaking scream tore from the speaker, the sound one of complete and utter destruction of a life, a soul, of happiness. That one scream informed me that everything they’d said was true. I’d broken.
The people I loved rushed around the bed, each trying in vain to get to me. Claws swiped through the air, and Rebecca’s beautiful face spun to the side, red welts blooming on her cheek. Hudson launched onto the bed as I growled and fought with Indigo for control.
“Cora, you are safe. It’s over. Look at me,” Hudson pleaded.
My back arched, and my wings tore free, blood splattering into the air.
I’d long since learned how to avoid shredding my back to release them, but I couldn’t deny the phantom ache coursing down my spine.
A growl tore free, and the room rumbled. “She’s losing control again,” Aunt Liz snapped. “We can’t keep doing this.”
“It’s time to decide, Hudson,” Aunt Sophia said.
I squinted at the pale white glowing bands around my wrists. Runes meant to hold me and to keep them safe.
“She won’t forgive us,” he snarled as he wrestled me to the mattress.
The runes weren’t working.
“It burns,” I cried out. “Let me die.”
My hand clamped around my throat, and a sob tore free.
“Cora, we can stop,” Sebastian murmured.
I shook my head. “I’ll watch this once, and only once. Then it needs to burn, like the people who did this to me. To us.”
Dayna, Liz, Anita, and Sophia clasped hands and formed a circle around my bed. The elements united and became a force as they chanted. The runes around the restraints glowed brighter, and I squirmed when their power crawled over my flesh. Indigo pushed forward and snarled at them, but they held strong, never breaking their words as they fought to keep me sane.
