Chapter Forty Eight: The Space Between

I didn’t mean to run. Not really.

I didn’t even pack a bag nor leave a note.

Hell, I didn’t even put on shoes.

All I knew was that something inside me snapped when Gavin said the bond could destroy me.

All of a sudden, I couldn’t breathe so I ran.

Down the stairs, out the side door, through the trees.

The wind howled in my ears. Leaves whipped past my face. My pulse pounded in my skull, in my chest, in my wrists.

The further I got from our place, the easier it became to breathe, but the ache in my ribs never went away.

It was like something was inside me, pressing outward.

Clawing. Screaming. Trying to get free.

It wasn’t just fear.

It was rage. The kind I hadn’t let myself feel since I was thirteen.

They said the bond was rare, that it was sacred.

What they didn’t say was that it could kill me.

Nor the fact that I would have to choose between them or myself.

And the worst part? The truly most awful and gut-wrenching part?

I didn’t want to choose.

Bu