The pain in my chest worsened as the thunder rumbled overhead.
“Gray, you need to stop this,” Sloan pleaded. “You will not solve anything by behaving this way. Listen to Erik.”
But what would be the point in listening to Erik? Why should I care anymore about trying to keep things in check? If I was as bad as they all thought, then why should I not prove them right?
I needed to take my anger out. I didn’t want to be calm. I had no desire to listen to Erik. He was lucky to have a soulbound and settled in with no problems. I wasn’t interested in hearing him preach to me about giving it time.
A burst of my aura hit him, and he picked himself off the ground while Sloan blocked an attack.
“She’ll come around!” Erik bellowed. “I swear it to you, Gray!”
“I couldn’t care less what she does. I want rid of this bond!”
This bond was a blight in my life. It had messed with my head and my heart until I couldn’t think straight. The pain was already immense, so how much worse could it be if I severed the ties that bound us?
“Please, don’t do this, Gray,” Sloan said.
The ground shook as my fury seeped into the earth. I’d tear this world apart until I felt better. Everyone could suffer with me until I found it fit to show them mercy.
“You can’t break it!” Erik screamed. “I refuse to let you!”
“IT’S NOT YOUR DECISION!”
The tremor I’d set in the earth became more pronounced and shook the world around us violently. I’d bring down buildings and uproot plants. Pure chaos and destruction of a magnitude that only I could manage.
“STOP!”
I did stop, but not because Sloan had yelled at me.
There was a crippling pain in my chest, stronger and sharper than it had been before, and it pulled me down to my knees, knocking the breath out of my lungs.
Erik ran over to me as I clenched my teeth together, trying to ride through the blinding pain. It weakened me, until I felt I might pass out.
“Gray?” Erik asked.
Both auras gone, Erik dropped to his knees and put a hand on my shoulder.
I couldn’t describe the pain. It was shattering, splintering, soul tearing. It was white-hot and demanded to be felt. There was no running from it. No reprieve.
“Gray, what is it?”
I heaved as if I was going to be sick. The pain was so undeniably intense.
She was meant to feel everything I felt. Did she feel this now? Did she feel how bad it was?
I searched for Quen, wanting to know if this affected her just as bad as it was affecting me. If my pain was mirrored in my bound.
“No,” I whispered.
What I found made me get up to my feet. I pushed through the pain because if I didn’t…
My aura took me and Erik, who was still holding me, outside to the front of the house.
“NO!” I cried, the word strangled as I crumpled at the sight.
In the middle of the road, body awkward and small, laid Quentin.
No. No. No.
