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I turned around and walked away, even when I wanted to stay, even when I wanted to fight.

I was too tired to fight so many fights anyway.

Too tired.

Ryden looked at me as we entered the car.

“What did she say?” he asked, after long minutes of silence that seemed to wrap itself around my windpipe.

“She said she wouldn’t be my sister anymore.”

I had always known Irene would someday realize her mistake and leave. I was always prepared for that. But it still stung like a bitch.

This was the life I chose when I took the knife into my room to kill my father. If I could go back… I would still choose the knife over becoming a victim.

This world was a cruel place, and the law was mostly, almost always, on the side of the powerful monsters. And so I made myself into one. A monster. I couldn’t change it, not even for Irene.

“It’s fine,” I said. “Nothing lasts forever anyway.”

“Some things do.” He looked at me. With all the love in the world. Love I had never been given freely before Kat. “I’m going to last forever.”

He pulled up beside the old garage, and something strange caught my eyes. I kept the garage closed.

The lock was still there, dangling from the latch, but it had been broken clean through.

My heart lurched.

I threw open the door before Ryden had even stopped the car fully and ran.

One step inside, and my heart shuddered.

This wasn’t right. This wasn’t…

There she was with painted lips, red roses, and a gaping throat.

Ryden cursed, his hands trying to steer me away, trying to save me from this horror.

Pressing a hand to my mouth, I ran toward her. For a breath, I believed I could save her somehow, after all this.

What a stupid thought.

Blood dripped down her white habit, which had now turned crimson.

I always believed I was immune to the pain of death. That Kat’s death was the last thing I truly felt, would feel, but I was wrong.

An earthquake happened inside me. Quiet but powerful. Scrambling my heart and stomach and lungs around, until nothing felt like it was in the right place.

“Oh God,” Ryden breathed. “No, don't…”

“I can take it.”

I had to.

Sister Serena looked peaceful even in death. As if she was napping and would wake up any second now and give me a smile, the same smile she gave me when she asked me to pray for forgiveness.

I wanted to scream, cry, tear the whole world down until I found that bastard and gave him suffering and pain. Ryden untied the bow around her neck. Opened the note.

I lied. You didn’t have forty-eight hours.