I let my hand graze the gritty stone wall, powdered residue sticking to my fingers.
“Blake!”
I stiffened.
It was Melanie.
I focused on the crack in the wall, the faint bit of torchlight slipping through. I saw two figures, but it was hard to make out much else.
That voice was raw and unguarded. It was nothing like Melanie’s. She was usually cold, sharp, mean. Hearing her break like that scraped at the inside of my heart.
“I do not want to do this anymore.”
Blake. He sounded weary, his voice soft and detached.
I held my breath.
“I’m sorry,” Melanie pleaded. “How many times must I say it?”
A silence followed but was interrupted by a shuffle.
“Stop,” Blake said, his voice strained. He sounded exhausted, like he did not want to have this conversation again.
Melanie cried out in a low, anguished sound. “It was a mistake.”
A bang against the wall made me jump. The torchlight vanished, and dust filled the cell from the reverberation of the sudden impact.
“Then say it,” Blake growled.
My nerve endings ignited like a fuse. I stood there, unable to move. The animosity surrounding them was strangling. There was pain in his voice, so sharp and raw I was almost concerned for Melanie. And anger—the same voice that had guided me over fallen trees and uneven earth. His voice had power in it, power that made me as curious as I was alarmed. I couldn’t run if I wanted to—I was paralyzed, and they were right there, on the other side of the wall.
An uncomfortable silence followed.
“You cannot, can you?” he whispered.
His voice was poignant, poetic, but I didn’t understand—what could she not say?
A sudden shift, and the crack of torchlight streamed freely again.
“We are done.”
Footsteps sounded through the wall, and I sank into the shadows. The footsteps trailed around the cell I was in and back into the central rooms, before fading to silence.
I released my breath silently. Nearing the crack, I peered through.
Melanie stood alone, her expression devoid of emotion. I would’ve sold my soul to know what she was thinking.
An intense pressure hit me.
Everything was black, and panic flooded my veins. Someone was holding me down, their weight bearing against me.
My back hit cold stone. I thrashed, but it was useless. I’d never stopped it before; I couldn’t stop it now.
The pressure released me quickly, and I gasped for air as a feeling took hold of me like it might destroy me.
She couldn’t love him—she couldn’t feel love at all.
Melanie’s eyes snapped onto the small crack where the torchlight breached the wall. She shifted quickly, moving out of sight.
