His voice comes from far away now, muffled by the cotton candy fog descending over my thoughts.
"Target secured."
Target.
I'm the target.
He was never saving me.
He was CAPTURING me.
Betrayal crashes through me like a physical blow—sharp and hot and devastating.
I trusted him.
I TRUSTED him.
I let him in, let him close, let myself believe that maybe?—
His face swims in my vision.
Blurring.
Fading.
Dissolving into darkness.
But I see his lips move.
See him form words that I can barely hear through the roaring in my ears.
"Don't hate me."
Don't hate me.
As if that's possible.
As if I could ever feel anything else after this.
After he looked me in the eyes and asked me to trust him and then?—
Darkness takes me.
Complete and absolute.
Swallowing everything I am, everything I was, everything I thought I was becoming.
I pass out before I can answer.
CHAPTER 26
Blood And Belonging
~SERAPHINE~
Consciousness returns in fragments.
First: pressure.
