Camillia hadn’t made it.
She… she’dfailed.
My heart stopped, my head swiveling back and forth in denial. “No.”No. Not Camillia. She couldn’t… She was…
I swallowed.
Everything inside me protested this reality, the fact that she wasgone.
“No fucking way,” I said, wanting to punch a hole through the screen. Except it wasn’t tangible, the mirage technology making it resemble a translucent space that allowed video play. “No.”
Camillia was too strong to just… justdie.
But Emelyn was strong, too, a dark voice whispered.And she’s dead.
Because I hadn’t been able to save her.
Yet I’d possessed every opportunity imaginable to save Camillia. And I hadn’t. I’d just offered some food and information. I’d fuckingtauntedher.
I threaded my fingers through my hair and began to pull. “Fuck!”
I should have tried harder.
I shouldn’t have let myself become attached.
I should havehelpedher.
I wasn’t supposed to fucking care!
The snake-vines hissed, agitated by my mounting fury. I couldn’t stop cursing. I couldn’t stop pacing. I couldn’t stophating.
So much anger. So much fucking pain. A new nightmare.
I failed her. I failed Emelyn. And now I failed Cami.
My knees gave out as I fell to the floor, my lungs no longer knowing how to breathe. Yet I tried to scream anyway. To yell. To rant. To beat the shit out of the stone beneath me.
It did nothing for me.
It just hurt me more.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck!
She’s gone.
Camillia’s gone.
And I’m the one who captured her. I’m the one who did this to her. I’m the one who killed her.
I grabbed my hair again, my past and my present converging to spin my reality out of control. I could hardly breathe. I could hardly eventhink.
Az wasn’t here to ground me.
Shade had left me here with his fucking cryptic statements.
I was alone. Just the way I wanted.
But some soft part of me didn’t want it this way at all.
