bChapter /bb196 /b

    bApril /bPOV

    The sound of the door opening behind me has me tense, I know it’s Eryx, I can feel him. There’s no sound but the faintest bshift /bbof /bbair/b. I bdon’t /beven hear his footsteps, but everything in me goes still. I twist in my seat, the half empty mug of tea now forgotten between my hands.

    My heart is pounding in my chest so loudly that I’m

    in /ihear it himself.

    Eryx is standing at the doorway, framed by the weak morning light, but he doesn’t look at me right away. His gaze slides over the room, bsharp /band restless. Then they finally settle on me. He’s changed since what happenedst night. Now he seems colder, and I can’t find a trace bof /bwarmth in him that I clung to in the dark.

    For a long moment, he stands there, doing nothing, saying nothing. Just silent, with his hands at his side, and his chest rising iand /ifalling in slow, measured breaths. I feel like if I move or speak too quickly I matter shatter what little is left between us. I feel like one wrong motion

    could destroy everything. Maybe it could? But I can’t take the silence any longer.

    “Eryx?” I say, my voice is small and uncertain as if I’m a child again and bracing for bad news from my something wrong?” I ask.

    parents. “What’s wrong? Is there

    He doesn’t answer, at least not at first. Instead, he closes the door behind with an almost careful quiet and then he crosses the room. I stare at him, searching for any sign of the man I love, but there’s nothing life in his expression, nothing but a nk, inprable wall. I think of ball /bthe times he’s pulled me closer after a bad day, all the times that he promised never to leave me, and I force myself to believe that whatever

    this is, that it will pass in time.

    He stands now at the opposite of the table, keeping a distance from me, and he stares at me with those ice–pale eyes, and I realize, he’s waiting for me to say something else. Something that will give him permission to speak maybe? I push back my chair and stand even though my legs shake as I do.

    “If this is aboutst night and what happened,” 1 say, forcing out the words past the lump that’s formed in my throat. “About us… things are strange, I know I’m still healing, but I—”

    I bknow /b

    He shake his head sharply, and cuts me off before I can finish the thought. “No,” he says, and his voice is so cold, and t that I almost sit back down out of instinct. It’s so unlike him, so not him. “This isn’t aboutst night. it’s not about the Hollow, it’s not about Rnd. It’s not about anything except for you and me, and what we are, what we aren’t.”

    What does he mean, what we aren’t? I stare him, the words not registering fully. “Eryxb, /bwhat are you talking about?”

    He sighs, and it’s not a sound that I’ve heard before from him. It’s not tired, or fond, or even patient. It’s full of disgust, a sneer that twists the shape of his lips. “I’m saying this isn’t going to work, April. iUs/ii, /iwhatever you thought was happening here, I think it’s time you left Darkmoon,

    saving.” and stopped pretending there was anything between us worth s

    The blownds like a physical thing. My breath stutters and I feel as if I’m falling through the floor, as if the ground beneath me has bvanished /band I’m left with nothing to catch myself on but air.

    “I don’t understand.” My voice is barely above a whisper. ”

    why?

    imed each other. You said you loved me.” He saved me, brought me bback/bb, /b

    His mouth curls bin /bba /bcruel, humorless smile. Did I? I must’ve been out bof /bmy mind. You were convenient, April. A distractionb, /bmaybe beven /bba /bmistake. I was trying to do the right thing after what happened to you, but this-” He gesturesb, /ba careless flick bof /bhis handb, /bbas /bbif /bbhe’s /bbdismissing /ba piece of dust. “I don’t want it anymore.”

    I flinch and I feel the sting in my eyesb, /bbut I blink furiously, refusing to let bhim /bsee my bcry/b. “bNo/bb, /bbyou /bbdon’t /bbmeant /bbhat/bb. /bbI /bbknow /bbthat /bbyou /bbdon’t/b, bEryx/b, please, just tell me what’s really going on. Please, if I did something bwrong/b, bif /bbthis /bbis /bbabout-/bb” /b

    b1/2 /b

    He steps forward so fast that I freeze and tense, but doesn’t touch me. Instead, he leans in closer, his face only inches bform /bbmine/bb, /bbhis /bvoice dropping to a dangerous intimate hush. “Stop begging. You’re embarrassing yourself. Don’t you get it? I don’t want you. bI /bnever bdid/b. Last bnight /bwas ba /bmistake. I don’t know what else I have to say to make you understand.”

    Each wordnds like ash, sharp and precise, stripping away everything I thought I knew about him, about us.

    “Saving you from Rnd was nothing more than a power y from the pack, from my father, to get back at your father. It’s not for byou/bb, /bbit’s /bnot about saving you. We did it to get back at your father, to destroy his ns.”

    nothing left but pain, and the echo of his words in my ears. I thought bthey /bTopen my mouth to protest, to plead, but nothinges. There’s saved me for me? Was that really just a lie, something to do to cause more war between the packs?

    He straightens and turns away from me, as if even looking at me is too much effort. “iYou’ll /ibe leaving today. There’s a car waiting outside band /b

    I you won’te back here. You won’t contact me. You won’t speak my my mother has arranged everything. You’ll go to the other pack, and name again.”

    He can’t mean this, a cold shock goes through me. I take a step toward him slowly, and look at him, desperate for any sign, any flicker of the truth beneath his cruelty. “Eryx, don’t do this, please don’t-”

    He turns and this time his eyes are t and death. “I, Erux Voss, reject you, April ckmoor. As my mate, as my lover, as anything. I reject the bond, I reject everything that you are, and everything you brought here. Do you understand?”

    My heart cracks, the bond between us howered frayed and battered shuddering my chest, fighting to hold on, to resist the magic of his words. But Eryx, he’s relentless, and the force of the rejection rolls through me like a wave of ice and fire that weaves together, burning and freezing me in equal measure. I feel myself folding inward, copsing around the hollow ce where his love once lived.

    “Say it,” hemands, his tone sharp and merciless. “ept it, and go, or would you rather I drag you out myself?”

    Tears spill down my cheeks, hot and unstoppable now, and I shake my head, unwilling to give him the satisfaction of hearing me break, but! can’t fight the pain that tears through me. “No. I don’t ept, and I won’t.”

    He steps closer, looming over me, every inch the cold, ruthless Alpha now. “Then you’ll be dragged out, April. And I’ll watch you go, and I’ll forget you the moment you’re gone.”

    I feel thest threads of hope snap. I stagger back, clinging to the edge of the table, my nails digging into the wood.

    He doesn’t soften, He doesn’t reach for me. He stands there, silent and stone–faced, while my world crumbles at his feet. I feel the bond tear, a scream of agony that only I can hear, echoing through every part iof /ime.

    For a long moment, I can’t move. I can’t speak. The only sound in the room is my ragged, broken breathing and the thunder of my heart.

    Atst, I manage to whisper, “I loved you.” The words are all I have left. “I ept your rejection.”

    He says nothing. He only turns away and walks from the room, the sound of his footsteps fading into silence behind me.

    And

    ise that

    AD

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