Head down as I raced to the bottom, holding onto the railing to keep myself steady when I felt every inch of me falling apart.
“Brinley,” he heaved from over the upper railing.
Misery lancinated out.
I shook my head with the impact, swallowing down the sob that thickened at my throat.
I hit the landing and rushed for the door, trying to keep my movements quiet since Elena and Meems were trying to sleep. I didn’t want to disturb them, but I was pretty sure whatever Silas and I were emitting was likely rattling the walls.
I pulled open the door and slipped out into the night. Bugs trilled in the trees, and I could hear the faint echoes of the party happening at the clubhouse in the distance.
I diverted course, ducking under the cover of branches and heading up the shortcut that led to the front of the property.
I knew I was going to have to go toe to toe with some of Silas’s men, but they weren’t going to stop me.
I was leaving.
Silas had made it clear there was no place for me here.
I realized I didn’t want shelter.
I wanted a home.
I was finally almost free, and I didn’t want to go anywhere.
The full realization of that bled out. Rolling off me in staggering waves. The thought of never seeing Elena and Meems again splintered my heart.
But the thought of never getting to hold Kai again? Of never seeing Silas again?
It was gutting.
Knowing I’d never get to experience the high I felt when Silas walked into the room. Of never getting to feel that sense of surety. Of completeness. Of someone fully understanding me, and I didn’t have to be afraid or ashamed of it.
A sob hooked in my throat, and I attempted to smother it as I ducked through the shadows that played through the night.
That was when I felt a flashfire of heat roll over me from behind.
A shockwave that torched the air.
“Brinley!” The shout hit me from behind, an echo that reverberated through the heavens.
I stumbled a step.
Knowing Silas, he was setting out to stop me. A job he had to see through.
No more.
I hurried faster, the sandals I’d quickly shoved my feet into slipping over the damp grasses below.
My heart thundered and my senses whirled.
His aura caught up in a flash.
“Brinley!” he shouted again, that time closer.
And I got the same sense I had the night he chased me down when I initially tried to escape.
The fear that I was about to be destroyed, but this time it was a completely different form of annihilation.
