“Don’t look… don’t look… don’t look,”I whispered to myself as I made my way back to the bathroom, once more determined that I wouldn’t look at the bed. But then, clearly, I hadn’t tortured myself enough, as that was precisely what I did. My tears came thick and fast then, blurring my vision even as I could see us both there. The memory of this morning was so perfect, it stole my breath.
But then the sound registered, and my gaze tore from the bed and straight to the door instead. The unmistakable sound of footsteps and voices just outside the hallway made my eyes widen in panic before I ran into the bathroom. I slammed the door shut and hissed in panic,
“He’s back!”
“We don’t have time,” Bo said, his voice sharper now, urgency cutting cleanly through the moment as he stepped back toward the bathroom.
“Now, Eliza.”
That was all it took as the sound of movement beyond the door grew louder. The shower was still running, steam thick in the air, but not enough to veil what Bo was doing now.
“What is that?” I asked, my gaze catching on the paper he pulled from his back pocket. He unfolded it quickly before I could see that its surface was covered in symbols. Ancient markings that seemed to shift when I looked too closely, as though they weren’t entirely fixed in place.
“Coordinates,” he said shortly.
“Think of it like a map, you just need to do your thing.”
“My thing… right,”I echoed under my breath, though there was no time to question it, not when the sound of the door handle shifting echoed through the room.
“Eliza?” The sound of my name coming from Wye again stole the air from my lungs. Especially knowing it was the last time I would ever hear him say my name.
“Now,”Bo urged with a panicked hiss of his own.
My heart slammed hard against my ribs as I focused, forcing everything else out. The fear, the doubt, the ache of what I was about to do.But mainly the pain of losing Wye forever.
I pushed all of it aside as something instinctive rose up in its place. The power came fast this time, easier than before, as though something inside me already knew what to do. Like it was already responding to the symbols, before the air in front of me started to warp and twist. The world now folding in on itself until a tear opened, jagged and unstable but very, very real regardless.
That was when the door behind us burst open, and I turned around to see…Wye.
He stood in the doorway, his presence filling the space instantly. His wide eyes quickly narrowed, his gaze locking onto mine with a sharpness that made something in my chest ache. Because there was no confusion there, no hesitation, only that same consuming certainty that had undone me from the very beginning.
“Eliza, don’t!”he growled the order, but it was one I knew I had to ignore.For both our sakes.
“I’m sorry.”
I didn’t know if he heard it and didn’t know if it mattered. Because the pull of the portal took hold the second I stepped back, the air shifted violently around me as the world distorted. His figure blurred at the edges even as I tried to hold onto the sight of him for just one second longer.
Then I was gone.
And the last sound I heard…
Was a demon’s fury.
18
THE VAULT
The world didn’t change all at once.
There was no violent shift, no jarring tear in reality like before. Just a sudden, disorienting stillness as the pull of the portal released me, and my feet met solid ground once more. For a moment, I didn’t move, couldn’t, because my mind hadn’t followed me through. It was still there. Still caught in that final second, locked onto the look on his face as the door opened.
Wye.
The memory struck with a force that stole the breath straight from my lungs, his expression seared into me in a way I knew wouldn’t fade anytime soon. The way his eyes had found mine instantly, the way everything in him had sharpened in that single moment. And then that shift, that devastating, furious understanding as he realized what was happening. I could still hear it, that roar of anger that had followed me through the portal, echoing in my head like something alive, something that refused to let me go.
My chest tightened painfully, the weight of it pressing down so hard it made it difficult to breathe properly. Because I hadn’tgiven him anything. No explanation. No warning. Nothing that might have softened what I had just done. I had simply left.
And somehow…that felt worse than anything else.
