"So I hid him in a snowdrift. I put on his clothes and ran in the opposite direction. They thought I was him and chased after me."
My heart clenched. Even knowing the outcome, hearing this terrified me. "How did you escape?"
"I fell off a cliff." She gave a bitter laugh. "Maybe I was running too fast. But that fall actually saved me. Pack members found me. The vampires saw things going south and fled. I was rescued."
"Thank goodness." I let out a breath, then asked the question that had puzzled me for years. "Why didn't you go back to find him?"
"Because I was locked up."
"What?" I was stunned. I hadn't expected that answer. But Serenity acted as if it were obvious. "I was the one who led the vampires there, so I had to be punished. They locked me in a room to 'reflect on my actions.' It was so small. No windows. I couldn't see anything. They kept me there for so long that I thought they'd forgotten me."
She hugged her own arms. "Ever since then, I've been terrified of places like that."
My fingers clawed into the dirt. I never imagined that her claustrophobia came from this—because she saved me, she was punished!
I remembered the day of the Moon Ceremony, when I found her collapsed in that storage room, barely conscious. How much terror had she endured before she passed out?
Guilt crashed over me. But Serenity didn't notice. She kept talking.
"By the time they let me out, almost two weeks had passed. I didn't know what happened to the boy. I was afraid he might have frozen to death because I couldn't tell anyone where he was. Eventually, I stopped thinking about it. I was scared of bad news. Scared of learning that everything I'd done was for nothing."
Her voice caught slightly. "So it's better not to think about it. It's all in the past anyway."
In the past?
No. It wasn't in the past. It was never in the past.
Emotions churned in my chest, making my wound burn worse than the silver bullets. Anger, regret, and other dark feelings twisted together until I could barely breathe.
"Serenity." I called her name.
"Hmm?" She turned to look at me.
"That boy survived. You don't need to blame yourself. You did nothing wrong," I told her, word by word. "You were his savior."
"You don't have to comfort me," she said quietly. "I don't need it."
"It's not comfort!" I told her loudly. "Because that boy was me! The one you saved was me!"
She froze.
I struggled to sit up, ignoring the pain in my legs and chest. Serenity quickly tried to stop me. "Wait, you're hurt! Don't move! What are you doing?"
"Help me up, Serenity, please." I looked straight at her. "I have to tell you this. I'm so grateful for what you did for me back then! I've been trying to find you all these years so I could repay you! But the person I found was Liv! She deceived me. She claimed she was the girl who saved me… and I believed her."
I couldn’t continue. Pain and frustration stole my breath.
Because of my insistence, Serenity gave up trying to make me lie back down. She pressed her lips together and helped me shakily rise. But the moment I was steady, I dropped to one knee. When my knee hit the cold stone floor, sharp pain shot through both gunshot wounds. Cold sweat poured down my face, and I nearly collapsed. But I held on.
"Elias, have you lost your mind?" she cried out. "Your legs?—"
"It doesn't matter!" I cut her off, grabbing her hand and refusing to let her pull me up.
"I'm an idiot," I gasped. "I searched for you for years. The Moon Goddess herself delivered you to my side, hoping I'd treasure you. But I was blind. I did nothing. Instead, I chased after a liar for years. Because of her, you suffered endless pain. You faced everything alone. You…"
I couldn't go on.
I couldn't imagine how much she had endured because of me. I owed her far more than just one life.
