I huffed, a smile spreading.
Then, it finally found me, saving me for last, like a dessert.
“Ah,” the whisper crooned. “Thereyouare.”
The trees seemed to lean closer, bark creaking, roots shifting. I swept my eyes around, nothing was moving against us, yet I felt observed.
“Do you remember the taste of her blood?”
My throat felt tight at the mere thought of it.
“They’ll find her soon, the others will hold you back, but you’ll watch, helpless, as they open her up. You will smell the sweetness spilling into the dirt. Youwillbreak. You will take the last drop yourself. Because you’re hungry. You always are.”
I stopped walking, my hands curling into fists.
The whisper crawled into me like smoke, twisting around my ribs. “You can’t change what you are.”
My body knew the history of hunger. Every cell remembered what surrender felt like, the part of me that bent towards violence reared its head and rejoiced at the whisper’s tempting offer. But the part that was still human, the stubborn, ridiculous, mortal part of me that loved her, slammed the door shut.
“Enough.” The word came out rougher than I meant it to, low and final.
It was never enough, the hunger was always tempting me, always trying to break free of my hold.
It was like an animal clawing at its chains in my chest, refusing to be silenced by words alone. I reached for the only human thing I was able to cling to, the memory of her palm pressed into mine, the way she trusts me without asking.
Slowly the hunger hissed and crawled back into its cage, letting me breathe normally once again.
Lionel’s gaze cut towards me, sharp, searching, but I didn’t meet it. My hands were steady even though the thing inside me was not.
“Keep moving,” I told them, voice calm, command firm. “Eyes ahead. Don’t listen to the whispers.”
Caleb muttered something under his breath, but obeyed. Nate adjusted his grip on his gun, tightening it, while Jaden walked a little closer to him now, quiet, but alert.
We moved forward again, and the whispers faded, not entirely gone, just waiting for the right moment.
And underneath it all, the thing inside me, the part I kept buried, was still whispering too.
Quieter now, almost patient.Almost.
It was the one thing I kept to myself, the constant hunger, the pain it brought, the constant reminder.
The only thing keeping me from eating the earth-boy right here and now, was that the taste wouldn’t satisfy the hunger. Not anymore, not afterher.
What had stopped me from devouring her at first sight?
Fear.
The deep fear of not being able to stop, the fear of seeing Ethalyn lifeless. To destroy the one thing that keeps me alive, that keeps me sane.
It had already happened once, against my will. It broke me into pieces.
Never again.
CHAPTER
14
—Ethalyn—
