Chapter 4

I sat apart from them and checked my flight confirmation again.

Check-in opened in six hours.

“What are you looking at?”

Everett stood over me.

I locked the screen. “Nothing.”

Across the terrace, Sadie laughed as Miles tried to steal a strawberry from her plate.

I held out my hand.

“Your Sadie’s happy. Can I have my pendant back now?”

His brows drew together.

“My Sadie?” He sighed. “You’re not getting jealous again, are you?”

“My pendant, Everett.”

He reached into his pocket.

“Here. See? You worried for nothing.”

Just as I reached to take it, someone slammed into my shoulder.

Sadie.

The moonstone slipped between our hands and struck the stone terrace.

It broke with a small, sharp crack.

For a moment, I couldn’t move.

The rune my grandmother had carved lay in pieces at my feet.

“Oh, God.” Sadie caught Everett’s arm. “Audrey, I’m so sorry. I didn’t see you.”

“I was standing right here.” My voice shook. “You ran straight into me.”

I looked down at the shattered moonstone.

“It was an accident.” Miles said.

I looked up.

“She apologized,” Nolan added.

Everett stepped between us.

“You didn’t have hold of it yet. Don’t put this on her.”

A sharp edge sliced my fingertip as I picked up the largest piece.

My grandmother had worn that stone smooth with her thumb before giving it to me.

Whenever you’re scared, hold on to this. You’re never as alone as you think.

I searched for the rest, blood spotting the pale fragments.

But they’d already turned their attention elsewhere.

“Here,” Nolan said brightly behind me. “Let’s do the wishes.”

He brought a box to the table.

Inside were narrow strips of birch bark, each stamped with a crescent moon.

We used to write wishes on them and burn them beneath the open sky, asking the Moon Goddess to listen.

Sadie clasped her hands.

“Then I wish the five of us could stay together forever.”

Everett smiled at her.

I wrapped the fragments in a tissue.

Nolan passed out the strips.

One for Sadie.

One for Everett.

One for Miles.

He took the last.

Then he glanced at me.

His empty hand hovered above the box.

“I thought there were more.”

Four again.

They’d forgotten me again, and it still hurt.

He cleared his throat.

“You never really believed in this stuff anyway, right?”

Before I could answer, Everett said, “She doesn’t need one. I can give her anything she wishes for.”

I closed my hand around the tissue.

He could have given me back my grandmother’s pendant.

He could have remembered dinner.

Neither had required a goddess.

Sadie leaned across the table to peek at Miles’s wish. He covered it, laughing, while Everett accused Nolan of copying his.

I stayed on the ground until I was certain I’d found every piece.

When I finally stood, a streak of light crossed the sky.

A shooting star.

I closed my eyes.

Please let me leave them behind.

Even if I missed them. Even if I remembered how good they’d once been.

Let me keep going.

“All right,” Sadie announced. “Read them!”

Miles went first.

“For Sadie to stay healthy and safe.”

Nolan grinned.

“For me to be there whenever she needs protecting.”

Everett looked at her.

“For you to have a happy life here in Blackthorn. No more worrying about where you belong.”

She pressed a hand over her mouth.

They gathered around the fire bowl and dropped their wishes into the flames.

I watched the bark curl black.

They could keep those promises.

I wouldn’t be here to get in the way.

I had just picked up my bag when rain struck the terrace.

Within seconds, it was pouring.

Everett pulled off his jacket and held it over Sadie’s head.

“This way!”

Miles and Nolan hurried her toward the timber pavilion at the edge of the lawn.

I followed, clutching my bag against my chest.

By the time I reached shelter, water streamed from my hair. Sadie stood between them, wrapped in Everett’s jacket.

No one looked at me.

Runoff rushed down the slope behind the pavilion. Gravel rattled against the wooden steps.

Everett checked his phone.

“Flash-flood warning. We need to get off this mountain.”

Thunder shook the roof. Sadie flinched.

Everett turned to the others. “Stay with her. I’ll get the car.”

He ran into the rain.

I moved toward the steps, ready to follow when he returned.

A horn sounded.

Miles took Sadie’s arm. Nolan opened the rear door, shielding her as she climbed inside.

I hurried after them.

Lightning lit the lawn. Sadie screamed.

“We have to go. Now!” Everett said.

The door slammed before I reached it.

I stopped with my hand still outstretched.

The tires spun, throwing muddy water across my face.

Then the SUV disappeared down the drive.

For a few seconds, I stood there in the rain.

After everything, some part of me still expected them to come back.

But once again, they’d forgotten me.

I wiped the mud from my eyes and gave a small, breathless laugh.

Then I called our family driver.

Thankfully, I’d asked our family driver to wait nearby so I could leave early for the airport.

That decision had just saved my life.

At home, Mom met me in the hallway and helped me clean the cuts.

I left Everett’s ring on my desk beside a letter.

There was nothing left to wait for.

At the airport, a news alert appeared on my phone.

A landslide had buried the mountain estate.

I opened the article. The terrace was gone. So was the pavilion.

I stared at the place where I’d stood, reaching for a door that had already closed.

I felt empty.

Once the plane was in the air, I blocked their numbers, deleted their contacts, and removed my SIM card.

I was done being forgotten.

I was leaving them in the past, even though I’d once pictured them in every part of my future.

Back in Blackthorn, Everett sent a voice message to the group chat.

He’d finally remembered me and realized I might still be at the mountain estate, right in the path of the flash flood.

“Where’s Audrey?”

His breathing was ragged. The Alpha who always had an answer sounded terrified.

“Has anyone heard from her? I can’t find her anywhere!”