I tell myself a hundred other things—everything but the right thing, the true thing, the thing that keeps whispering through the barren halls of my heart.
Mine.
Ultimately, I settle on a slight variation of that truth, if only because I can’t bring myself to admit the rest.
When it comes to this girl, there’snothingI won’t do to keep her safe. To keep her alive. To keep her happy and whole and protected from all the monsters outside these walls.
Because there will come a day—sooner than I want and sooner than she deserves—when Westlyn Avery will once again find herself alone in a world that doesn’t fucking deserve her.
Chapter Twenty-Five
WESTLYN
Darkness takes me, sweeping me into another vicious dreamscape…
Rook’s arms tighten around my waist, my back pressed firmly against his muscled chest as we fly over New York City.
Manhattan is in ruins.
“Where… where is everyone?” I ask.
“Most of the supernaturals fled. Few humans survived the initial attack, but those that did… It’s not pretty, West.”
He banks a hard right, and I glance down through the clouds of dark, oily smoke, catching sight of a small group of people.
They’re shackled, chained together, bleeding as they march down Broadway, whips at their backs.
“We have to help them, Rook! We have to do something!”
“We can’t, West. We need to get to the portal. It’s our only shot at getting you out of here.”
He banks again, spiraling us up into the clouds, then tucking his wings in close and zooming south.
There, in the distance, I see it.
The last building standing, a lone sentry in a field of concrete-and-steel corpses.
The Blackmoor Capital building.
We land on the roof, and Rook sets me on my feet. His glasses are smudged with soot and grime. I reach up and remove them, trying to clean them on my shirt, but all I’m doing is smearing the dirt around.
“I’m so sorry, West,” Rook says. “It wasn’t supposed to be this way. Not for you.”
I glance up into his honey-colored eyes, the pain so endless. So deep.
“I never even kissed you,” he says, cupping my cheek. His palm is rough, the skin warm. “I should have… When I… I’m… sorry…” The light dims from his eyes. His face slackens, his touch turning stiff against my cheek.
“Rook? Rook!” I put my hands on his chest, but there’s no heartbeat to be found. Nothing but cold, hard stone. “No!”
I drop his glasses and beat my fists against his chest until my hands are raw and bleeding. I scream for Auggie and Jude, for Draegan, for the goddess.
No one hears me. No one comes.
All around me, the city crumbles and burns.
I don’t know where the guys are. Where this so-called portal is, or where it was supposed to take us.
I only know that I’m alone. That the men I love are gone.
