AllFreeNovel
Share Us
1
“You will be okay, child,” Elijah whispered as I poured out my grandparent’s ashes over my mother’s grave.
But I didn’t think I would be. Too much had happened. Too much in me had been broken.
Too much of me couldn’t be put back together, and I think I’d always known that if I was honest.
It was five days after Elijah, Mason, and Kiera had broken into my condo in Berlin and found me catatonic. They’d given me a couple of days to settle after my talk with Kiera, thinking that had all been too much for me, but then realized no one had heard from me at all and I was ignoring important calls which I never did.
They found me in the same spot I’d been in after learning about my grandmother’s death and completely unresponsive. Alive, but dangerously close to my body eating myself. I hadn’t moved. Hadn’t eaten. Hadn’t even had anything to drink and that was dangerous for supes.
It could kill me as a supercharged demon.
Elijah had fed me power and Mason had used magic to heal me somewhat—somehow and then I sort of remembered Kiera crying that I couldn’t give up on her. That snapped me out of it.
Somewhat.
I couldn’t stand for Kiera to cry. She was such a good person and had been through so much. It always hurt me like a… A puppy whimpering for hugs. She clearly wasn’t helpless like a puppy or so fragile, but she was pure even after being touched by so much darkness.
And I couldn’t be the one to make her cry.
I didn’t feel better after the ashes were gone and it was done. I felt empty.
I moved to stand back by Elijah, grateful he was there with me. It was nice when he put his arm around me and muttered that now I could close this chapter of my life and look forward, especially since the murder charges had been dropped against Angela.
Maybe. Maybe I could now but in that moment, I just felt broken.
“I don’t want to be with Dylan,” I heard myself saying, shocked that it was at the front of my mind right then.
But it was.
He was.
“What? I thought you two were—”
“I don’t want to be with him,” I rasped before walking over to my mom’s headstone and placing a kiss on it. “Goodbye, Mom. Find peace and some nice soul up there who treats you right to be happy, okay? Just be happy.” I walked away, feeling Elijah’s confusion. “I don’t want to talk about someone abusing me in front of the three people who started my life with abuse.”
“All right,” Elijah accepted quietly and waited until we were by the vehicle we’d rented. Unfortunately, we’d had to do this all like humans so there were hoops with that. “Dylan abused you?”
I twisted my hands together and sighed. “Maybe. Kiera—”
“You told Kiera everything. She let me know.” He sighed when I didn’t say anything. “I’m glad you did, child.” He smiled when I looked up and couldn’t hide my shock. “She’s worthy of your trust, but it was your decision to make.”
“You’re so fucking confusing. Seriously, all men and ancients. You made it seem like I would betray everything if I told my best friend many times but then pushed me to tell six guyswaybefore I was ready and…” I shook my head. Still, I’d done it. I couldn’t keep blaming everyone else.
“This is your fear talking, Angela. Dylan is—”
“Why won’t you trust me and hear me that I don’t want to be with him?” I choked out. “I’m notrunning. I’m allowed to say no!” I got mad and shoved away from him, thinking of how Kiera phrased it so perfectly. “For so long Ihad tosay no to having relationships. Now things have changed. Yes, it started with Dylan, and that confused a lot, but it’s that I didn’thave tosay no anymore.
“No one asked me if that meant Iwanted tosay yes, Elijah. Mason’s right that everyone’s desires confuse me as to what the fuckI want. But I said it a lot that I needed things to slow down. That I wasn’tready. That I needed time. I don’t care how he framed it as caring for me, he walked all over me saying no.”
I went into more detail how clearly I had explained to Dylan how I got overwhelmed and then the buffet before. I didn’t want to bring up old stuff, but it was a clear example that Dylan did not listen to me as I wanted in a partner.
Even before with Aidan and telling him things, the two of them talking and sharing information.
“He’s selfish,” I said quietly after a few minutes of giving Elijah time to process what I’d told him. “He never even came to apologize to me for what he said at the meeting.”
“He came over to—”
