We are the most powerful, feared, and even loved people in our world.
But I’m still a shell. My mind is so dark, I don’t think anyone can see me. It’s best they don’t.
Hector snorts; his smirk is distant. “No. I think we’re on our own.”
“What do you want?” I rasp.
He reaches down and grabs a piece of grass. “I don’t know. I… I… I just. I loved her.”
“Love kills,” I bite.
He closes his eyes and hangs his head. “I need you to care,” he whispers. “I need people not to think Sable was a monster.”
“She was.”
His neck turns sharply towards the mountains where he killed Sable. “I was never going to allow it to get to a point where she killed you or Selene.”
“Shut up.” My fire sizzles the grass under me. Hector shifts an inch.
“Everett never told me Selene would die. He told me if I picked the right path, Sable would.”
My fire erupts, covering Hector. I lose control. In a panic, I pull my fire back, lunging to help him, but… he holds up his forearm. “Protection runes. This one repels vampire magic.”
I shove him back.
“I’m not telling you this to piss you off. I just need you to know if I knew this was how the new world began, I’d?—”
“It doesn’t matter.” I stand and dig my fingernails into my palms. “What’s done is done.” I look down my nose at him.“Where is your sister?” I bark. It’s time to tell the past to fuck off. I have made my decision.
“Why?”
“I need her to open a portal for me.”
His throat rolls. “You’re leaving us.”
I look at Blackthorn, a castle I vowed to burn. “No. I can’t outrun my mistakes. I have to bear the burden of them disfiguring my memory. I want to say goodbye.”
“To Selene,” he clarifies.
“No. To my old life.”
Salt fills my nose, and it stings my face as I approach the crashing waves that invade the shore. Sofia did as I asked; she portaled me to a beach, one near her kingdom.
It’s barren, hot, and arid except for a small grove of date palms. The heat is so intense it stirs the air, forcing me to kick off my boots and enter the water. I asked to come alone. But I’m learning that being a ruler is more like being a baby; no one leaves you be.
Tristen lurks down the shore, ready to swim in after me in case I decide to never come back up for air.
“I’m the ocean,” I curl my toes into the cool sand. A wave splashes against my knees. “And you…” I tip my chin up. The sun burns my forehead. The ocean mist invades my nose. “You, my mate, were a storm. You battered me, wrecked me… cleansed me. I’m new. I’m different. You wanted to save me. You did, but I’m dead inside.”
My knees shake as I give in and sit in the shallow waters. My armor grows heavier as sand digs in between it. I thrust my hands into the water, pulling up shells.
A bitter smile tugs at my lips. I hold a calico shell between my fingers. “Not all shells can be filled.” I turn it around; it’s no bigger than a spoon. Not meant to be a home. That was never my fate. I was never meant to love a single person. A ruler has to sacrifice themselves, because everyone wants a piece of them.
I palm the shell, close my fist, and squeeze. Eventually, it cracks. I shake it free, then realize all this sand is broken shells. Vessels shattered by storms that have ravaged them. Slowly chipped them down into grains small enough, smooth enough for others to walk on.
That’s what I’m meant to be—a surface, a bridge that’s smooth, secure, and safe for those who can’t defend themselves.
“I can’t forgive you.” A wave crashes into me.
