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Again and again, he shook his head, staring at me as if he had to make sure that I was Julie and not J.

J was dying. Right here, right now.

“Quentin, please...” I sobbed quietly, wanting him close to me, my hands on his warm skin. Forehead against forehead.

I wanted to save us. But there was nothing to save.

My legs could barely carry me. I was about to drop to my knees in front of him and beg him for mercy.

He shook his head, over and over, staring at me with wide eyes, as if he were only now realizing what a monster was standing in front of him, how unforgivably I had betrayed him.

“This isn't real. You're not real... You've never been real...”

His voice broke as he exhaled.

He tore my heart with him, pulling the thread mercilessly.

Something in his gaze changed. It was as if I was losing my connection to Erik, as if he was slipping away from me for good as he stepped back, staggering.

I followed him, the cracking ice beneath us something neither of us paid any attention to, and he quickened his pace.

“Quentin, I can explain everything...”

“No.”

He shook his head again. Again, he tore at my heart, this time harder.

“Go away...”

He stumbled into a side table, which tipped over. A plant pot broke, a picture frame shattered, and the shards slid across the floor along with three books, but Quentin didn't look down, merely reaching for the wooden column next to him to steady himself.

“Get out of here...”

I stopped, grimacing as my eyes blurred.

“Please, Quentin...”

“Please... Please, go away...”

He was crying. Quentin was crying.

Suddenly, he stepped toward me, grabbed my hand, and a new wave of overwhelm washed over me as I felt his trembling warm finger on my ice-covered wrist. They wrapped gently around my skin... weak... pulling me across the room, his grip so tenuous I almost slipped away from him.

It was only when he let go of me to open the door that I realized I was about to lose him completely. Forever.

All I could do was stare at him.

I was going to lose him.

“Erik...”

He flinched, grabbed my hand again and grimaced as if it hurt him to even touch me, pulled me outside and immediately let go of my hand to rush past me back into the house.

A bang made me flinch, cutting the string in two for good.

The frozen sponge contracted with a crack until there was nothing left that could contract any further.

It was as if I was watching my heart fall to the ground in slow motion, knowing that I could no longer catch it.