I got out and pushed it open. The long groaning creak of the hinge echoed through the vast pines, sending a shrill spike of lightning up my spine.
Fuck, was I really doing this?
Katie’s voice echoed in my mind:“Drive until the moonlight breaks through the pines. Just beyond… will be the cliff. Get out. Leave the door open.”
I reached over, grabbed the boots from the floor, and paced my steps wide—mimicking Hunter’s stride. The forest debris crunched under each step until I reached a large stone on the edge of the cliff. I stood and took in the inky black painting in front of me.
Thenight bled into the black sea below—the water absorbing all light.
Dark.
Quiet.
Still.
A craving for that peace lodged itself deep in my throat. It would have been so easy to just step off that ledge. Katie was right. It was the perfect spot. Once my body hit the hard granite below, the crashing waves would carry me out to sea. Any remnants of my body… blood… bone… would be washed away before anyone would have a chance to miss me. And once I was in the open ocean… it would only be a matter of time… maybe three—five days, if a shark didn’t find me that I’d start to float, a curious storm petrel pecking at my carcass.
It would be so simple.
So quick.
But I promised him—no shortcuts.
I stepped out of Hunter’s boots and threw each one over the edge, watching them plummet to the rocky shore below and get swept up in the crashing waves.
Then I removed his ring and flipped it over, reading the inscription—A chuisle mo chróí. Forever my beating heart—before opening my fingers and dropping it to the rocks beneath.
Did killing Hunter make what I did right? Of course not. But itdidprotect the world from another monster hungry for blood.
That had to be enough to justify his death. Cause if it wasn’t… I was just as bad as he was.
epilogue
A CHUISLE MO CHRÓÍ
Maggie
Another two weeks.Graham still hadn’t opened his eyes.
“This is insane!” I said, pulling the spoon out of my mouth and jabbing it into the obnoxiously huge bowl of rocky road ice cream on the butcher block while Katie side-eyed me through the video chat. “Can’t somebody do something? Is it even working?”
“I don’t know, Mags,” she said, holding the black-and-white striped knitted bikini top she was working on up to her chest. “The aunts aren’t worried… so I don’t think we should be either.”
“How can theynotbe worried?It’s almost been a fucking month!”
Katie sighed. “Girl, will you relax? Just trust them. They’ve got more experience with this wholewolfything than you wanna know.”
I picked up the phone, collapsed onto the window seat, and let out a defeated sigh. “Fine. I’ll try.”
Out of the corner of my eye, a police car pulled up my driveway. It rolled to a stop, and Nettles got out, followed by another officer.
“Kates, I gotta go. Nettles is here.”
“Mm-kay, girl, call me back.”
I clicked off the phone and opened the door before he had a chance to knock.
“Hi there, Maggie,” Nettles said, eyebrows raised. “I’m going to skip over pleasantries. I wish I had better news to give you. Can I come in? You’d better sit down.”
