AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I broke my promise.
Now orphaned and seventeen, I came back to my sanctum—perched on a crag in the mountains, listening to the loud roar of the waterfall. Within a few months, I had managed to compartmentalize the pain of losing my parents, but it never truly went away. All I did was deny and hide it.
Lowering my head, I took a peek at the bottom of the cliff. I’d been there countless times—on top, not the bottom—but never considered diving into the river.
Until now.
Dive. Your father drowned you before. What are you so afraid of?a voice in my head coaxed. With everything in my world crumbling, this devil and I were on the same page. Maybe I needed to drown and never resurface again. I had no power to fulfill my duties, my promise. I had failed so many times. Nobody listened to me anyway, right? How was I supposed to protect both sides?
I stepped a foot closer to the edge, ears pounding from the tempting noise. The sharp wind bit against my skin, making me fall back as I imagined just how cold the water beneath me would be. I shivered.
The idea made me waver, but only slightly. Or not. I couldn’t fathom doing it. Cowardice was the only word for it.
Scoffing at my lack of grit, I drew my phone out of my pocket and opened my inbox to text Cole. I was going to reveal everything to him, now that things were getting quite out of hand: the Crescent Lake pack, Rainer, and the poison that nearly killed Keith. Cole would never forgive me, but it would lessen the weight in my chest.
Probably. Not.
Then, Aera crossed my mind.
I reminisced about how she’d reacted every time I called her small bean, the way she’d smiled like a child in front of Cole, the way she’d devour her ice cream messily, and the way she had unknowingly saved me whenever I was on the verge of losing my humanity—the way she was my anchor.
In my phone’s photo gallery, I still had our picture from when we were kids.
I smiled a little upon seeing her face between mine and Cole’s, and I wondered,“What would she say if I tell her how hard this is? Would she even care to listen?”
Just when I was about to call her number, Cole’s name appeared on my screen. Luckily, Stan had boosted the signal on my phone in case I found myself lazing on top of the mountain again.
I answered the call, “What?”
“Hey, are you hiding Rainer from me?” Cole asked.
I arched an eyebrow. “Cole,” I started, “does he look like he needs my help?”
If Rainer didn’t want to be found, he most certainly wouldn’t be.
“You guys arefriends,” Cole emphasized, his words sharp. “You know, I didn’t want to say anything before because I trust you. Iwantto trust you, but now I’m finding it hard to believe that you don’t have anything to do with this. Just so you know, I told the Nightstalkers that Rainer, thatfriendof yours, is a werewolf. It’s only a matter of time before they find out we are too. If you’re working with Rainer to go against them, you better tell me now, Gray.”
I swallowed the dull ache settling in my chest. “You don’t trust me?”
He let out a heavy sigh. “Never mind. We’ll find him. Bye.”
After Cole hung up on me, I peered down the ragged cliff again. I had the chance to ask him to meet so I could tell him everything, but I let the words slip away.
The devil in me returned.
If I drowned, maybe I’d turn to ice, only to wake up a hundred years later to a band of fishermen instead of stubborn werewolves like Rainer.
I inched a foot toward the edge, the idea of sleeping for a few decades incredibly appealing.
Buzz!
My phone vibrated in my hand.
Maybe it was Cole again.
With a deep breath, I readied myself to call him back and plan to meet.
Except, it wasn’t Cole. Aera’s name sat in big letters on the sleep screen of my phone. She apparently followed me back on my one and only social media account.
