Adora’s small laugh was light and broken.
I kissed her temple. “It felt like my lungs were being ripped from my chest.” I tried to stop the chattering of my teeth by clenching my jaw. “I would give you my final breath, Adora Danvers.”
“Sullivan.”
“For now.”
I looked back. The Heathens and Fallon weren’t far behind.
“Stone.” She shivered. “What’s wrong with my back?”
“I’ll fix it,” I told her. “All that matters is that you’re alive.”
“Stone,” she said again, sterner this time. “What’s wrong with my back?”
In the distance, Norse Woods stretched under a fading eclipse.
I fixed my gaze on it, tightening my hold on her bag.
“He carved his name.”
CHAPTER 54
ADORA
January 29, 2021
The day after the Crimson Eclipse
2 days until the Cantini-Sullivan Wedding
In the afternoon,an emergency meeting was held in Town Hall. The room had already been cleaned up from lockdown, no evidence of a harrowing night.
I sat between my sisters, Fable to my right, and Ivy to my left.
Ivy was anxious on the edge of her chair with her knee bouncing and her eyes narrowing at the front of the room. Every time the door opened, I peered back, hoping to see Stone, with only emptiness filling my heart. I sat back, twirling my ring around my finger, anxiety creeping inside me.
Earlier, I’d met my sisters at The Bean and spent the last few hours telling them everything that had happened during the eclipse. Rather than hearing it from the Order or anyone else, I preferred them to hear it directly from me. Finding out that I’d planned to murder Kane disappointed Fable. She hasn’t spoken to me since. As for Ivy, she was blinded by fury after what Kane had done.
He was sitting far behind the podium in a folding chair, his elbows resting on his knees and his head down. Perhaps some may even believe that he should have killed me at that moment. That I’d deserved it. And perhaps they were right. But it still didn’t help that he was alive, and Mom was being tormented at this very moment, and for the rest of her life. Anything I could have done to save her had passed. I had to move to plan C. I had to put her out of her misery. A mercy kill. Like I’d done for Lena.
The thought of it instantly made pain prickle down my arms and behind my eyes. An emotional pain that I didn’t think I’d have to face.
It was the right thing to do for her. It was the only thing left to do for her.
I looked around the room, wondering if anyone else could see the horrifying act unfolding in my head. The townspeople’s worried and nervous voices carried, echoing and multiplying. They were watching my every move, too, with gazes like weighted blankets.
Irene and Augustine were having a dispute at the front near the podium.
Jasper Abbott was holding his own meeting in the back corner withAnonCon, a conspiracy group he gathered to discuss time disruption, politics, and all other nonsense Jasper could come up with in that unordinary brain of his.
Cyrus stood against the wall with Viola, the two visibly upset.
The doors groaned again when they opened.
A lump formed in my throat as I turned back.
The five Hollow Heathens of Norse Woods walked in with the rest of their coven following behind. The sight of Stone left me breathless.
