As I carry her down the hall, each step feels heavier than the last. The shadows along the walls—they're darker now. Deeper. No gold threading through them.
No roses will ever grow here again.
“Eryx,” she whispers.
“Yes?”
I nudge her door open with my foot and carry her inside. The room smells like her—vanilla and something sweet I still can't name. I lay her gently in the bed, careful with her head on the pillow. Pull the covers up. Tuck them around her shoulders. My hand lingers on the blanket near her face.
I sink onto the edge of the bed. Just for a moment.
She looks so small. So fragile.
The woman who devoured nightmares like she was born to it. The woman who grew claws and laughed while our magic destroyed rooms. I took that from her. To save her.
I reach out, my hand hovering over her cheek. I want to touch her. To feel something. Anything. But I don't deserve to.
I pull back and force myself to stand.
I walk to the door. My hand is on the handle when I hear it—so quiet I almost missed it.
“Eryx.”
I turn.
She blinks her eyes open, sees me through a sleepy haze.
For one heartbeat I think, maybe?—
Then she flips over and faces the wall. I think she’s done. I turn to go when I hear it?—
“I’ll never forgive you.”
The words steal my breath. I stand there, hand still on the door, waiting.
Hoping she'll take it back. Say she didn't mean it.
But she doesn't move. Doesn't speak again. Just lies there, facing the wall, with an ocean of empty space between us.
I close the door quietly and walk away from the woman I love.
The woman who will never forgive me.
Chelsea
Ireach for him before I open my eyes.
I’m greeted with silence.
Cold stillness that makes my chest ache.
I slowly blink my eyes open. The moon is high. Its beams wash over the bedroom, casting silver light on the furniture, against the roses sitting on my dresser.
The roses—yesterday they were black and gold. Today they’re shriveled up.
I think about Echo.
When Eryx broke our magic, he broke all the magic we’d created, too—even the magic before we fully bonded.
