ELENAThe room was spinning when I surfaced.Not literally—not in that dizzy, vertigo way—but in a deeper, stranger sense. Like reality had been pulled too tight and then suddenly let go, snapping back with a sickening lurch.The floor wasn’t moving, but I felt as though I was tilting, like my soul
ELENAThe world tried to pull me back.I felt my body rise toward the surface, like a swimmer breaking through the final layer of water before air. My awareness strained toward consciousness.Light. Motion. The scent of the herbs in Dr. Voss’s office. But something inside me screamed not to go. Not
She mattered. Her work mattered. And I wasn’t going to let politics or petty grudges get in the way of that.Still, the silence from her was a wound that never stopped aching.That afternoon, my phone buzzed. I didn’t recognize the number.I almost didn’t answer.But some part of me—worn down, tired
DEREKI hadn’t slept much.Which wasn’t unusual lately. Not since the sentencing. Not since Elena had looked me dead in the eye and told me that she wanted nothing more to do with me.The words still echoed. Still hit like a shifting blade to the chest every time they replayed in my mind. And they r
ELENAThe box with Maggie’s dagger sat untouched on my nightstand for hours.I tried to ignore it, tried to read, tried to sleep. But my eyes kept drifting to that velvet-lined box. To the sharp glint of silver through the crack in the lid. To the way my pulse seemed to react every time I so much as
He didn’t flinch. Just bowed his head and let the droplets fall onto the stone.Then, slowly, he leaned forward and pressed his forehead to the altar.The stone accepted him. As it had all who came before.Then it was Mason’s turn.My brother walked steadily, a ribbon of tension in his shoulders. He