Instead, I look back at her. Silver and black mist still curls around her feet, protective and possessive in equal measure. The others maintain their careful distance, but I can see the conflict in their faces. They want to comfort her, but they’re afraid of what comfort might cost.
She’s not just theirs anymore. Not just mine. She belongs to something that wants to claim her completely, to drag her into darkness and reshape her into its own image.
And I will not let it.
Whatever price that choice demands, whatever enemies it makes, whatever alliances it destroys—I will not let her be taken.
Not while I still have fangs to bare and blood left to spill.
Chapter 26
Bree
My knees are pressed into cracked stone. I can’t get up. My head splits, hands shake, and my mouth tastes like metal and copper and something else I don’t want to think about.
The crowd’s gone quiet around me. Thane’s voice still echoes off the walls from wherever he went, but all I can hear is the ringing in my ears and my own ragged breathing.
Phil was here. Phil found me. Found us. Found this place that was supposed to be safe and turned it into another nightmare. Just like the apartment. Just like everywhere else I’ve ever tried to exist.
But that’s not even the worst part.
Seth’s gone.
The thought keeps slamming into me like a fist to the chest. Over and over until I can’t breathe around it. I keep seeing his face right before it happened. The way he looked at me when I begged him to let go. Not cruel. Not evil. Just… resigned. Like he was doing a job he didn’t want to do but had to anyway.
It feels like I killed him.
My stomach lurches and I have to swallow hard to keep from throwing up right here on the broken stone. There’s not even a body. Nothing to bury or mourn or apologize to. Just that burn mark a few feet away where a person used to be. Where Seth used to be.
I didn’t even know I could do that. Make someone just… disappear. Like they never existed at all. Like the Ether reached out and decided they didn’t deserve to take up space anymore.
What if it decides that about someone else? What if I lose control again and it’s Gray this time, or Wes, or Rhett? What if I hurt the people I actually care about because I can’t figure out how to stop being a weapon?
My chest tightens and spots dance across my vision. I can’t breathe. Can’t think. Can’t do anything but kneel here and shake and taste metal and know that I’m exactly what Phil said I was.
Their executioner.
A shadow moves in the black glass under my knees.
I blink hard, trying to clear my vision, but it happens again. Like something’s swimming underneath the surface, trying to break through.
A fox separates from the darkness.
It’s small. Made of shadow that moves like smoke, but solid enough that I can see its eyes clearly. They burn like tiny stars in a face made of living darkness.
The crowd sucks in a collective breath. I hear someone whisper “void creature” and the fear spikes so sharp I can taste it.
I don’t know what that means. Don’t know what this thing is or why it’s here. All I know is it came from the cracks my power made, and it’s looking at me like it recognizes something.
But I’m not afraid.
I should be. Everything else about this whole nightmare should terrify me. But this little fox with its starry eyes doesn’t feeldangerous. It feels… familiar. Like recognizing something I’ve been waiting for without knowing it.
The fox tilts its head, watching me. Not afraid. Not angry. Not looking at me like I’m something that needs to be contained or destroyed or fixed.
Just curious.
Everyone’s still staring at me. I can feel it. All those eyes waiting for me to explode again, to hurt someone else, to prove that letting me live was a mistake. Even the guys are keeping their distance. Even Gray, who’s never been afraid of anything, hangs back like I might burn him if he gets too close. Only Stellan seems to have the nerve to step closer.
