I tried to pull free, but her grip was like iron, squeezing my bones until I yelped in pain. My feet splashed into the water, the frigid ocean seeping through my shoes and lapping at my ankles.
“Stay in front of me until we get out of here,” she hissed in my ear. “Oaklyn, get the bio magic.”
“Mom, this isn’t necessary.” Oaklyn stepped closer with her hands curled into fists.
“The witches are going to try to stop us,” Sophia said. “We need a shield.”
Oaklyn hesitated, her gaze darting between my face and her mother’s, and then to Wyatt, who was still crouched over the chimera. So much was going on as witches and chimeras clashed together, but all I could focus on was Oaklyn’s face—blank, pale, conflicted.
“Give me the blade, darling,” Sophia said, opening her hand. Blood trickled onto her palm from the gashes on her arm, dripping into the rising tide at our feet.
“Oaklyn, don’t do it,” I blurted, my heart pounding so hard I could feel it inmy throat.
Oaklyn’s knuckles strained on the dagger’s hilt.
“Hurry up.” Sophia opened and closed her fingers impatiently, the blood and her painted nails making them look like crimson talons.
Slowly, Oaklyn handed it over.
In that single moment, any last thread of what we had snapped. I felt it in my chest, a sharp twang that took my breath away.
My throat tightened until I could barely speak. “A human shield? Really?”
She couldn’t even meet my eye. “That’s not—”
“You said you loved me. You said we’d change the world together.” I couldn’t stop my voice from breaking.
Sophia laughed, which made my face burn with shame. God, I was so naive.
Pain flashed across Oaklyn’s face.
I tried again to pull away from Sophia, anger sparking as her nails dug deeper into my flesh.
“Is this your choice, then?” I asked.
“Yes, darling, is it?” Sophia purred, and then something sharp pressed against my throat, freezing me in place.
Oaklyn looked at us both, breathing fast, torn between the woman who gave her life and the one who’d given her heart. “Mom, this isn’t what we agreed on.”
“Plans change.” Sophia pushed the dagger harder into my throat. “Sometimes sacrifices must be made for the greater good.”
I gritted my teeth as pain burst open in my neck, my eyes watering. Warmth trickled down to my collarbone. I refused to drop my gaze, wanting Oaklyn to look at me and see what she was allowing to happen by just standing there.
“Not her,” Oaklyn said, shaking her head.
Sophia scoffed. “Don’t be like that. This is what we’ve been working toward. Now get that fucking chimera out from under the dog and let’s go.”
Oaklyn clenched and unclenched her fists, her nostrils flaring. After a long moment, she nodded.
My heart dropped. “You’re going to let her do this to me?” I said, my voice strangled.
All my memories of her dissolved like she had dunked them in acid—her fingers in my hair, her lips on my skin, her whispers against my neck.
She turned away. “She’s my mom, Hazel.”
I blinked, tears burning in my eyes. There it was. It’s not that I expected her to choose me over her family, but I did expect her to keep me safe. To protect me like she’d done before. Like Natalie always did for Katie.
Instead, Oaklyn was going to let me become a sacrifice in order to advance their cause…and I was the fool who helped speed along my own demise.
