I wanted to believe her.
I wasn't sure I could.
I woke up hours later.
The room was dark. Ivy was still beside me, her breathing deep and even. At some point she'd fallen asleep too, her arm still draped protectively over me.
My eyes were swollen. My head pounded. But the tears had stopped.
I lay there in the darkness, staring at nothing, trying to make sense of everything that had happened.
Cole's words kept replaying in my head. Over and over, like a song I couldn't get rid of.
She doesn't know what she is.
What was I?
I'd asked the question so many times. In Tomlinson's study, surrounded by books that had no answers. In Neal's arms, searching for comfort in his touch. In Silas's presence, hoping the visions would show me something useful.
Nothing. Every door I opened led to another wall.
But now I knew the walls weren't accidents. They'd been built deliberately. By people who knew what I was and had decided I couldn't handle the truth.
If it triggers, it'll happen fast.
Something was inside me. Waiting. Some power or curse or classification that had been erased from every record, hidden from every archive. And when it woke up—if it woke up—it would happen fast.
Too fast to stop.
I won't let it happen the way it happened to you.
Someone else had gone through this. Someone Cole knew.
Was that my future? Was I going to end up like whoever he'd been talking to? Another cautionary tale, another name erased from the records so no one would have to remember what happened when someone like me lost control?
The thought made me sick.
I slipped out of bed carefully, trying not to wake Ivy. Padded to the window and looked out at the campus below.
It was late. Past midnight, maybe later. The grounds were empty, the paths lit by scattered lamps that cast pools of yellow light in the darkness. Everything looked peaceful. Normal.
Nothing about my life was normal.
I pressed my forehead against the cold glass.
The bonds hummed in the back of my mind. James—worried, wanting to come to me. Stone—restless, sensing my distress through our connection. Neal—a steady pulse of concern. Cal—quiet, watchful.
And underneath them all, that thread I couldn't name. The one that connected me to Cole.
He'd pulled away from me because he was afraid. Not of the bond between us. Of what I might become.
I understood that now.
It didn't make it hurt less.
Ivy stirred behind me.
"Lumi?" Her voice was thick with sleep. "What time is it?"
