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PROLOGUE
WINTER
Past
“Ican’t do this.”
His words were like a blow to my chest as I stared back at him in disbelief. My heart had cracked wide open and I was bleeding out onto the floor as the blood pooled around my feet.
“What do you mean?” I questioned him, my voice small and hesitant. My heart was barely a flutter in my chest anymore.
His jaw clenched and he ran his fingers through his dirty blond hair. I watched him curl his hands into fists, holding on to his hair as he gave the locks a tug. “I mean, I can’t fucking do this anymore, Winter. All I’m doing is destroying you.”
“You don’t get to be the one who makes that decision,” I told him as I closed the distance between us. I stepped closer to him as my throat constricted. “Look at me, Kai,” I urged with desperation.
He lifted his head with hesitation. His eyes were dark as they stared directly through me and into my soul. “I told you that you should have stayed away from me, Winter. I fucking warned you.”
“I didn’t want to stay away from you.”
“Well, now you don’t get the choice anymore,” he said with such conviction, it sent a shiver down my spine. His voice was hard and cold. Distant and detached. “I’m leaving tonight.”
His words were like a knife twisting deep inside my chest. “Where are you going?”
“As far away from you as possible.”
My sternum was being crushed under the weight of his words.
“We had a good time, Winter,” he said with such cruelty as the ice hardened in his eyes. The venom dripped from his tongue as his gaze sliced through me. “But that’s all it was and all it would ever be.”
Tears burned my eyes as I fought to conceal them from him. “Don’t do that.”
He cocked his head to the side. “Do what?”
“Act like this means nothing to you.” I paused as my voice wavered. “Like I mean nothing.”
Kai’s jaw tightened and his fingers were warm as he slid them under my jaw. His hand was a stark contrast to the coldness he exuded as he cupped the side of my face. “You are everything, which is why I have to leave. Consider it a blessing in disguise. I’m the only one who can save you from me.”
“Please stop saying that,” I begged him with desperation drowning my words. “You’re not damaged like you think you are.”
Kai’s eyes were wild as he stared back at me, and he dropped his hand from my face. I instantly felt the absence of his warmth. The laughter that spilled from his perfect lips was harsh and hollow. It was rough and raw as it slid across my eardrums like sandpaper.
“I’m fucking broken beyond repair, darling. Please, just stop trying to fix me.”
I knew Kai was broken when I met him my freshman year of high school. He was a product of his environment. The lack of nurture had preceded nature and he was left to his own devices. He came from a wealthy family, but money could never buy the love he never received. He was merely a pawn in his father’s eyes and he was determined to burn the entire chessboard of his life to a pile of ash.
Whenever he got himself into trouble, his parents were always there to cover things up. They made his problems go away quietly, without leaving a mark on their family name and legacy. It seemed as though Malakai Barclay never suffered from the consequences of his actions to the outside world, but no one knew the truth.
No one else saw the bruises and scars that I did. The way they peppered his olive skin, hidden beneath his clothing. His father was a ruthless man and he wasn’t one to be challenged. That only added fuel to Kai’s fire and deepened his desire to rain terror down upon his family name.
Everyone thought he was just a troubled kid, but no one bothered to look at where the root of his problems were buried.
They were buried deep beneath the estate he lived in, entangling and entwining themselves in every empty crevice of his soul. Malakai Barclay was plagued by the demons his father had bred inside his mind.
In Kai’s eyes, he would never be enough.
“Please don’t leave me,” I pleaded as the tears spilled from my eyes. I fought an earnest battle against them, but I couldn’t hold them in any longer. The coldness that radiated from Kai had seeped into my bones and I shivered as I viciously swiped at my cheeks. “What about Vermont? We were supposed to go together.”
Kai’s eyes darkened under the moon that hung above us in the night sky. “I was never going to go with you, Winter.”
