I fought too hard to become myself to go back to being someone's pawn.
He drops his head. “Then go. I’ll have Stave drive you home.”
Then he turns away.
I ache to reach out to him, to rewind time, to go back to a few days ago when we loved each other. Before Helena destroyed us. Before she wrecked the best thing that ever happened to me.
But it’s gone and there’s no getting it back.
As I head to my room, my footfalls echo off the walls. Each step feels wrong. Like I'm walking away from home.
I almost stop. Almost turn back. But then I remember: He chose this. He took my power, my claws.
So I keep walking.
When I reach my door and my steps go silent, I hear it—a sob coming from the dining room.
My hand freezes on the doorknob. He's breaking too.
But he made his choice.
I'm making mine.
Chelsea
When Stave drives me across the barrier, it hurts. My chest caves as we push through, and I feel, for a brief flicker, the tug of Eryx—the pull of love, the pull of hope.
And for a split second I think I feel it—the bond. That connection we had. But it's just an echo. A ghost of what we were.
The barrier doesn't even recognize me as his anymore.
Sorrow crashes down.
Everything I stuffed deep into myself comes out like lava shooting from a volcano. How much I loved Eryx, how he accepted every part of me, how I accepted him, and how he made me his monster.
And then snatched it away.
Tears fall and I know Stave hears from the front seat, but I wipe them away and sniffle as little as possible.
When he sweeps past Helena’s house, I spot a For Sale sign pushed into the grass.
My stomach turns. Where is she? Can she hurt Eryx from wherever she is? Will she rip Nightmare away?
Oh God. What if she kills Eryx?
My breath catches and I force myself to exhale slowly. I can’t be betrayed by Eryx and run to help him.
He's alone. Vulnerable. And I must leave him that way.
Because he chose this.
Yet guilt still sits heavy in my chest.
I push Eryx from my mind and stare out the window, but Helena creeps back in. Where did she go?
I may not have my shadow claws anymore, but I still have fingernails.
Stave pulls the car up in front of my parents’ house. He takes my bag from the trunk and moves to carry it up the steps, but I stop him.
