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How could he? How could he do this to me? After everything we’ve been through. I keep picturing Max putting the sheet around herself and coming toward me. The triumph in her eyes, the smugness. And then Ayden is there, that face that I love more than anything else. I hear his dismayed shouts, see his expression of torment and guilt. It’s all too much. I can’t bear this pain; it has to come out. So I stop. It’s as if my body knows what it needs to do before everything inside me shatters. I fling my arms in the air, tilt my head back, and let it all out. I just want it gone; I don’t care what happens to me afterward. I just want this to end.
A wind buffets me, whipping up my hair and clothing. Flames envelop me, and I feel them dancing on my skin, my fingertips. I see Yoru standing beside me. He’s transformed, and his eyes are glowing, his nine tails wagging ecstatically. He too is surrounded by flames, but between them, I can make out dark smokespreading out inexorably.
I feel myself dissipate, lose myself in the feeling of power. My ego slowly fades away – I’m only vaguely aware of it peripherally, and it’s irrelevant now. Nothing matters anymore. Fire blazes around me, shooting out of my bones, my skin, wandering across my whole body. The smoke gets thicker. It hangs heavy in the air, streaming out of me and swirling around me like mist. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I know what this means.
And then two arms appear. They wrap around me, hold me. “Teresa,” I hear a voice say in my ear. “I’m here to help. Can you hear me?”
I recognize Noah, make out his face through the flames. He has to use odeon to protect himself from my fire. His face is tense, and he’s breathing heavily. It seems to cost him a lot of energy. But he doesn’t let go.
“I’ll take care of you. It won’t be easy, and we need to hurry. I just hope it’s not too late,” he whispers as he takes out his key. I watch him open a door to the Odyss. He looks at me again, silently asking me to trust him, to consent. I suddenly realize what’s happening to me. I’m turning into a monster, one of the fallen. As horrifying as that thought may be, right now it seems so enticing. Because it feels so good. Freedom from all that pain. A sense of lightness and ease call to me. I could forget everything. Leave it all behind me. I hear the fire around me, feel it prickling my skin.
“I won’t let this happen,” Noah says with dogged determination. He tightens his grip on me and pulls me without hesitation through the door into the Odyss, where he hopes I can be healed – not even knowing if I that’s what I want.
