Page 294 of Craving Venom
The officer nudges gently. I step back once, then again, and then I turn. I walk through the door without looking back. My steps echo down the corridor each one further from the only person who ever made me feel like I was something more, even when he was a monster doing it.
One by one, the tears slip down my cheeks. I should feel powerful, after all I stopped a monster. This was supposed to save me, but instead, all I feel is shattered.
My purse vibrates against my hip. The sound feels so jarring in the silence that it might as well be a scream. I stop walking, but my tears won’t stop. They stream down my cheeks like they know something I don’t. Like they’ve known all along that this wasn’t justice. This was a funeral.
My hands shake as I click it open. The screen lights up. Tria. Her name flashes again and again, but I can’t answer.
My fingers are cold, blood-streaked, trembling as I hit decline, and my eyes follow a single unread message from Zane.
Earlier, I didn’t want to read it. I told myself it didn’t matter. That he’d lied. That knowing more would only hurt worse.
But now?
Now I’d give anything to hear his voice again, even if it was only in written words. I want to cling to every last thread of him. Every breath he left behind. Like maybe if I hold on tight enough, I can pull him back.
Maybe if I open this message, he won’t be gone.
My thumb hovers. Then taps, and I see a photo of Zane, Isabella and Alex.
Zane’s got his one arm around Isabella, his other hand resting protectively on Alex’s shoulder. Zane’s not even looking at the camera. He’s looking at them, and they’re all smiling.
Isabella’s wearing the same necklace that’s around my neck now.
The same necklace he gave me.
My hand flies to my throat, clutching the diamond.
I scroll down to read the caption.
For what it’s worth, I didn’t do it.
No.
No no no no no no no.
My knees almost give out. I slam against the wall, breathing like I’m being suffocated from the inside. He didn’t lie. He was here to save Corrine.
And I... I killed him. I fed him to the wolves. The scream finally comes. It rips from my chest, trying to drag my heart out with it.
My legs move before my mind catches up. I run faster than I ever have in my life. My lungs tear at my ribs. My vision blurs with tears that won’t stop.
I need to see him. I need to take it back. I need to beg him to get up, to breathe, to tell me I didn’t just kill the only person who ever loved me.
I reach the basement doors and they’re closed.
I slam both fists against it. “ZANE!”
I pound harder, screaming now.
“Zane, please.”
I hit the door again and again until my hands throb and my knuckles start to split.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper, rocking. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t know.”
Blood slips down my wrist and stains the metal, but I keep hitting the door, waiting for it to magically open.
“Zane,” I choke. My breath is breaking in pieces now. “Please.”
