Chapter 2

I turned away from the noise of the Moon Temple and headed to the edge of the territory, to the home of Lina Taylor, the maiden witch.

During my time in the Blackwood Pack, my illness kept my wolf from awakening. I didn't want to be useless, so I'd been learning to brew healing potions from Lina.

I had a real gift for it. I'd developed a potion that could counter silver, the one thing that could bring a wolf to its knees. It was almost finished. I wanted to complete it before I left.

Consider it my breakup gift to James.

Outside, the sky slowly darkened, and I finally finished it.

I handed the potion to Lina and told her to give it to James only after I was gone.

On my way back, I passed the Moon Temple and spotted Emily inside, dressed to the nines, the center of everyone's attention.

She spotted me the same instant.

She came running toward me in a moon-white gown studded with diamonds, then spun in a circle, the diamonds throwing off blinding sparks under the lights.

Emily gambled away every coin she got. There was no way she could afford a dress like that. So it had to be James.

"Olivia, James said he'll never let me suffer again!" Emily's voice was pure provocation.

I knew exactly what she was doing. She was using James to get under my skin, hoping to see me angry, see me cry.

If this were before, knowing the James who once had eyes only for me now treated another girl like this, it would've cut me to the bone. I'd have cried myself to sleep all night.

But now, I'd already decided to leave James. The love I had for him was slowly letting go.

Even seeing him favor another woman didn't touch me anymore.

I smiled at Emily, calm and easy. "It's beautiful. You and James make a good match."

Then I turned and walked away without looking back.

But I didn't notice James standing not far off, fists clenched, face dark as he watched.

I went back to the home James and I had shared for over ten years.

In our bedroom, beside the bed, sat a memory crystal.

I walked over and ran my hand across it. The sweet memories of us flickered to life.

James covering my eyes, leading me to the birthday surprise he'd prepared.

Me wanting to see the sunrise from the mountain top but being too sick to climb, and him carrying me up step by step;

him whispering his confession in my ear, so full of feeling: "Olivia, I like you! Please, will you be my Luna?"

One scene after another flashed before my eyes, and slowly, my eyes grew wet.

But the next second, I shut my eyes, pushed the feelings down, and lifted my hand to erase the fragments from the crystal.

The old days were over. I would never look back again.

One image after another vanished from the crystal, until the last one.

Just then, James, who'd been following behind me, got home and saw the memory crystal wiped clean, completely dark.

He rushed over and grabbed my hand so hard it hurt, his voice shaking with fury. "Olivia, what are you doing?!"

I turned, looked at him, and smiled calmly. "This memory crystal's just taking up space here. A lot of it's gone."

James snatched up the crystal and swiped at it frantically.

But it stayed dark. Nothing lit up.

In an instant, he understood. Every image on it had been deleted.

He stared at me like he couldn't believe it. Then he raised his hand and smashed the crystal to the ground.

The crystal was fragile. It shattered into countless pieces.

James looked at me, eyes bloodshot, his whole body trembling.

"Those... those were our memories. How could you! How could you just delete them?!"

His face was full of pain and loss, and watching him, I couldn't help but feel confused.

He was always so steady. This was the first time I'd ever seen him lose control like this.

I thought—did he care about our memories?

Or did he care about me?

If he still cared, then why did he always fight with me over Emily?

Why did he always side with Emily, no matter what?

It was just some memories, and he fell apart like this.

Suddenly, I was curious. If he knew I was about to leave him and bond with another man, what—would his reaction be?

But I just spoke calmly. "They're just memories. If we want, we can always make more."

Except—we couldn't.

James stepped forward and pulled me into a tight hug, his voice uneasy as he murmured against my ear:

"Right. We can make new memories. From now on, we'll fill a hundred... no! A thousand, ten thousand memory crystals. What do you say?"

I didn't answer directly. I just made a soft "mm" sound.

Then I heard James keep going.

"This time, we can add Emily to our memories too. Didn't you say you think of her as a little sister? Then from now on, we'll be one family."

My whole body went stiff at his words.

When I first brought Emily back, I was scared James wouldn't agree, so I did say I thought of her as a sister.

And James had really taken it to heart.

He'd gotten closer and closer to this "sister," so close that I watched, and lost a little more of myself each time, my heart breaking...

Until now. Until I decided to leave.