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I retreated and sprinted out the door, agony shooting up my legs. The sound of Xavier pounding after me echoed on the wooden floorboards, his gait off. He was injured.

I ran up the stairs, using the railing to pull myself along, leaving a trail of blood as I went. He was closing in on me, so close.

“Jasmine!” he roared. “Come back here.”

I hit the fourth-floor landing and backed up as far as I dared to the shadows and the snarling monsters. Their growls rose higher as they moved closer. Xavier swung around the corner, his face contorted. He slowed when he saw me standing there.

A snarl came from behind me, and his gaze sliced from me to the shadows behind me.

“Do you recognize them, Xavier? Your monsters?” I said, trapped between them.

“I don’t…” He shook his head. “What are they doing here?”

“You put them here. I can help you remember,” I said, pressing deeper into the wall when he took a step closer. I reached out with my magic, letting it build and grow. I’d had the night to recover, and I was close to full power.

Xavier moved closer still, and the monsters’ frenzied snarls grew in volume when they saw him. They wanted him, wanted to get to him. Xavier had created them, then he’d abandoned them here, and they were angry.

Xavier grabbed for me, and I knew it was coming. I latched on to him, wrapping my arms around him with all my strength, pouring my power into him, aiming it all at the attic wall in his mind. He groaned from the force of it, grabbing for the wall to hold himself up. My magic had finally had the chance to recover and he was momentarily weakened by the force of it.

I knew the moment it won out, when he stopped trying to shove me away and wrapped his arms around me instead, so tight I thought he might actually crush me.

He groaned again, then struck, burying his fangs in my throat. I screamed, but I didn’t let go. I needed to stop him, and the only way to do that was to break down every one of his emotional walls—before he drained me completely.

I cried out again and slammed the last of my magic into him, and it was like dominoes. As soon as the thickest wall in his mind came down, the rest followed, crashing down one by one, opening wound after wound, wounds I would not be healing.

He screamed and pulled away from me, his fangs tearing my flesh as he did. I fell back, pressing my hand to my throat. Xavier stumbled to the side, gripping his head, and that was close enough.

A black leathery-clawed hand grabbed his shoulder and yanked him into the darkness.

Xavier screamed, a bloodcurdling death rattle that sent ice down my spine.

The world shifted, the distortion that had surrounded me vanished. The realm Xavier created dying along with him.

Then Ren burst from the hall and gathered me up in his arms. “Butterfly,” he choked, pressing his hand to the wound at my throat.

It was finally over.

Then those words took on an entire new meaning, because Ren was alone. I realized for the first time in three years, there were no souls with him.

He’d finally let go of his guilt.

“They’re gone,” I choked out.

“What?”

“You freed them, the souls, you did it. They’re gone, Ren. You set them free.”

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Chapter 35

Ren

* * *

“I’m okay,” Jasmine said again.

As soon as we’d gotten out of Xavier’s realm, the hounds had picked up her scent. By the time we got to my place, everyone was here. My small apartment was overcrowded with Jasmine’s family, our family.