“Gregory, Gregory, stop,” Nora pleaded, pulling Gregory back. “Stop. He’s right.”
Gregory stilled, looking at her, his anger morphing. “What do you mean?”
The look on Nora’s face. I wanted to run away at what I knew was coming. At what I knew I was about to hear.
“We have to stop this. He’s right. Others are noticing. William knows, and Arabella is almost the same age as when”—Nora swallowed—“when I was Mated. I can’t watch her go through what I did.”
“What are you saying, Nora?” Gregory trembled, forgetting about Phillip and me. All of him focused on her.
“You know what I’m saying,” she muttered, tears welling in her sapphire eyes. Gregory shook his head like he could make this stop.
“You do not mean that,” Gregory insisted.
“I have to.”
“Then say it,” Gregory demanded. My heart cracked as grief leaked from him, so poignant that it sucked the air from the room. “Say it, Nora.”
A tear rolled down Nora’s devastated face. Gregory stepped into her, his thumb wiping it away.
“I’ll say it then,” Gregory whispered. “That was the last time. We can’t do this anymore.” Nora’s shoulders shook harder as Gregory’s hand ran along her face. “I won’t come back. They’ll be safe.”
Nora watched him walk away, choking on a sob before she ran after him. “Gregory, there’s a”—she sobbed, her voice breaking. She stood, clutching the green robe like it was a lifeline.
“I know, love” was all he said before he turned away from her, grabbing his shirt and shoes before walking out onto the balcony. Nora fled to her room and snapped the door closed.
I stood alone with Phillip as he pulled out his Comm Device again.
“Would it be the worst thing in the world for the Illum to just let two people who love each other be together?” I asked.
“Yes, it would be,” Phillip admitted hollowly as he turned and left. I slipped into my future living quarters.
I shut the door, sucking in deep breaths. The sky outside was an ominous orange as the smoke from the fire choked out the blue, blurring the time of day. I beelined for the bathroom. I cranked the hot water knob in the tub until the temperature was close to scalding. Maybe it would burn away the feel of Hal on my skin. I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror and froze.
I looked the same as I did this morning, yet I did not recognize the woman in the mirror. I turned away, unable to look at myself, at what I no longer had, at what I had fallen for.
I couldn’t get a breath in, the feel of him a brand. I yanked my clothes off, throwing them to the far side of the bathroom.
I submerged in the tub even as the water scorched my skin, turning it pink. I welcomed the physical pain. My fingertips burned viciously. I turned them to see blisters from the chute. Tears threatened to spill.
Hal’s hands on me. His mouth against mine. The feel of him inside me. The file. The broken woman with the book. The chute. The humming device. Gerald answering my questions. The fire. Gregory and Nora breaking before my eyes.
A sob snuck past the knot threatening to suffocate me, unraveling me. I had thought giving myself to Hal would give me love—a choice. I thought siding with the Reaper would give us freedom—a future.
I have been protecting you.
But Hal hadn’t protected me, not in that closet, not today. What were the ramifications of our choices today? I’d be eliminated if our actions beneath resulted in something that wasn’t meant to exist. I hadn’t cared because I thought this thing with Hal had been real. It wasn’t.
I had been a mission. An assignment. A job. Selected. Researched. How far did that assignment go? All the things I had confessed—how much had he already known? How much had he pretended to go along with while I thought it was a real connection? While my foolish heart thought it was more. I was so desperate to be loved, I hadn’t bothered to look too closely. Desperate to not be alone anymore. Hal had known. Yet here I was.
Alone.
They destroy everything beautiful and different.Hal had said that about the Illum and the Elite.
I couldn’t accept that he had as well.
I couldn’t stomach the betrayal.
I couldn’t handle the destruction.
