And I was simply the slab of fair skin that’d sizzle, scorch, and blister in its rays.
“There ya are! Someone said they saw ya come this w—”He stopped. Dead. As if his body locked up in postmortem. “Carwynn, what’s?—”
“Don’t,” I growled. The word wasn’t just sound, it was alivingbeast on my tongue.
My eyes searched that sweet, handsome face. But it transformed, contorting into something I no longer knew. Unrecognizable and grotesque.
“You played me,” I whispered, breathless. “Had mefallingfor you.” My voice broke. “Lies. All filthy, pathetic lies! And I fell for every single one.”
Every ounce of brightness snuffed out. Finley’s eyes glistened with tears but remained unshed. He swallowed hard.
“Carwynn,please. . .” Finley rasped, voice near-cracking. “Let me explain. It wasn’t all—” His voice hitched. Desperate. He raised his hands as if in prayer and rested them against his chin as his eyes pleaded. “Of everything, I need ya to know this one truth . . . that Ilove?—”
“Don’t!” The scream ripped through me. Guttural. Laced with such raw, unleashed might it rattled my bones.
Footsteps echoed behind me. I didn’t turn, I knew who it was. Pogue and Lochlainn had come to watch the show. Or prepare for clean-up duty.
Finley’s fractured gaze darted past me, then shifted as they vaulted to Pogue’s, sheer fury taking hold.
“I will bury your corpse in thefecking ground!” he roared, stepping forward when—he stopped.
My hand was raised. He saw it and knew I was readying to strike. He didn’t move, didn’t flinch. Stood there, eyes wide, waiting. Willing to accept it.
My arm trembled, shaking with restraint.
Finley. The man who’d walk me home. Who ignited my laugh, my smile. Who’d helped me gently heal when the worldmade me feel I didn’t belong. Who made me believe I could be safe again with someone. And the whole time, he was waiting—waiting to push me off the ledge I’d been balancing on for so long.
My hand shook harder, wrath urging it forward. But the shattered girl inside me still sawhim.
I couldn’t do it.
My arm dropped. And with it, every last piece of hope I had broke. A thousand tiny shards, shattered across the path I now had to walk barefoot on.
You’re safe with me, Carwynn. Always,the gentle words echoed through my mind.Hiswords.
A sob tore out of me as I collapsed to my knees, dress bunching around my legs. My arms clutched my middle as I rocked slightly.
“Finley,” Lochlainn whispered. Maybe a warning. Maybe an apology.
Warm, painfully familiar hands reached for me.
“Don’t touch me!” I slapped Finley’s hands away with all the strength I had left and stood. My voice became ice. “Don’t youeverfucking touch me again!”
A single tear slipped from those once-beloved green eyes.
I didn’t wait to see where it landed. I pushed past him, leaving my heart back in that hallway to decay. It was no use to me anymore.
My vision tunneled, homing in on the nearest exit.
Glass doors . . . Gardens . . . Air . . .
I shoved my way through the crowd, bumping into bodies, a phantom slicing through the living.
My power hadn’t stirred. Maybe I’d been sliced so deep, even my magic had bled out. Going silent.
Cool air brushed my cheeks, like ice packs pressed to swelling skin. My footstep quickened, crunching over thepebbled path lined with towering decorative bushes and ivy-clad walls.
I didn’t know where I was going, I just needed to go. To create distance. To breathe. My lungs worked overtime, hyperventilating, stinging with shallow breaths.
