Page 151 of Veiled

She looks around the room, then turns back to us, “Yeah, but you’re going to have to tell me where they are. I’ve searched a few times and still can’t find them.”

I snort, and the disgusting boogers that come from my nose make us all laugh.

Putting me down for the first time since he walked into my room, Matt starts pulling handfuls of snacks from the hidden pockets I made at the base of the curtains.

Sasha lets out a loud gasp when that hiding spot is revealed. I can only imagine how she’d react if she knew all of the other spots, too.

The connection with Tyr starts to fade as I start to calm down, but I don’t want him gone.

He must feel that, though, because he says, “I’m flying closer; if it cuts off, it won’t be for long.”

We don’t get cut off, and Tyr stays with me in my mind until I fall asleep, squished between Matt and Sasha on my bed.

Chapter fifty-four

Annalise

I’m numb.

“You’ve never had a family that wanted you…How could you ever think you could give me one?”

I would kill for a dagger to my heart or a rock to my head right now, anything to stop his words from playing on repeat in my mind.

Tears well in my eyes again, but I’m not sure how I have any left. It’s been thirty-six hours. Thirty-six hours of crying, raging, then feeling nothing at all.

I convinced Matt and Sasha to leave my room after we’d all gotten up yesterday. Sasha tried to insist on staying, but Matt dragged her out with him.

He came by to drop off coffee, a ton of snacks, and actual meals during meal times, but like always, he knew exactly what I needed and didn’t hover. He’ll be back when it’s time to go to sleep. The emotions I’m going through are sure to keep inducing nightmares or night terrors, and as undeserving as I am, he won’t let me face them alone.

I’m pretty sure Tyr stayed on campus all day yesterday just so we could stay connected, though when I asked, he wouldn’t confirm, probably knowing the guilt I would have felt over that, too.

But I’m going to spend time with him now.

“We’re going flying. Climb on,” Tyr tells me as I approach, leaving no room for discussion, not that I have the energy to argue right now anyway.

“Where are we going?”

“You need fresh air and to get away for a bit.”

“I have formation in two hours.”

“You’ll be back with plenty of time,” he blows out a puff of smoke as he lowers to the ground.

“I could have climbed,” I say softly.

“I know, my legs were just getting tired.”

I smile at his blatant lie, but I don’t call him on it.

Neither of us speaks while we take off, or in the next fifteen minutes, as the wind whips through my hair and the fresh air is forced into my lungs, giving me the first real breath I’ve taken since Aiden walked into our room—no, my room.

My space that he invaded. My heart that he forced himself into. But he’s gone, and it’s still beating.

Tears flow down my cheeks as I realize he was telling the truth; he never loved me, because if he had, he wouldn’t have tried to break me before he left me.

“Jokes on him,” I snort to myself, because a far worse man has been trying to do that for years. I found the strength to survive long before Aiden came into my life. I’ve earned every scar. I’ve worked hard for everything I’ve ever had—my grades, my magic, my future. He may have held my heart for a time, but it never stopped being mine.

“There’s my Faren,” Tyr says, pride and love pushing through to me. “Told you it wouldn’t take two hours. Now, are you ready to really fly, or do you want me to keep lazily flapping around up here like a kite?”