Page 96 of Say You're Mine

"It was Elaine." The words rasp out of me, dull and lifeless. "She did this. She killed him."

A beat of shocked silence, a collective intake of breath. Then Natalie is there, her eyes flashing murder even as she cradles my face in gentle hands. "We'll make her pay," she vows, soft and vicious as a knife between the ribs. "I swear to god, Cara, we will burn that bitch's empire to the ground."

And oh, there it is. The spark, the ember, buried beneath the miles of cold hard emptiness. Vengeance, bright and vicious, a crimson thread to follow through the labyrinth of grief. I cling to it, let it flood my veins like acid, like napalm, until it burns away everything else.

Elaine Deveaux stole my future, my love, my beautiful, broken boy. She broke him in ways I'm only beginning to fathom, snuffed out his light with her poison and her perversion. The pain of it is bigger than my skin, than my bones, a screaming, unholy mass devouring me from the inside out.

But beneath the pain, rising from the ashes, is an inferno of pure, crystalline rage. It hardens in my belly, sharpens my shattered edges into a blade forged for one purpose and one alone.

Revenge.

I am a black widow now. A creature of shadow and wrath, a king cobra coiled to strike. Elaine took everything from me, cut out my heart and left me bleeding - but that's her fatal mistake.

Because she forgot the cardinal rule. She forgot that a woman with nothing to lose is the most dangerous creature of all.

I can still feel the chill of June's hand in mine, still smell the copper of his blood beneath the antiseptic. I can't unsee the slack finality of his face, can't unhear the flatline's awful shriek. He was my north star, my entire world - and Elaine snuffed him out like it was nothing.

So I will raze her to the ground. I will salt the fucking earth with her ashes and laugh as she chokes on the dust. I will dismantle every poisoned brick of her kingdom until nothing remains but the bones, and I will do it all with a smile painted scarlet.

June, my love. My warrior poet, my gentle phoenix. I could not save you. I could not bring you home.

But by every god in every heaven, I will avenge you.

I'm coming, Elaine.

And hell is coming with me.

Chapter twenty-nine

June

I am dead...

Or am I?

If you're reading this, if you've skipped ahead to see if I've really shuffled off this mortal coil, then shame on you! Spoilers are a reader's worst enemy, you know.

But I get it. I'm irresistible. You couldn't bear the thought of a world without June Deveaux, could you? Well, too bad. Because as far as you know, as far as Cara knows, I'm gone. Kicked the bucket. Bought the farm.

But here's the thing about death in stories like these... it's rarely the end. No, it's just the beginning of a new chapter, a new twist in the roller coaster ride of love and loss and vengeance.

So maybe I am dead. Maybe Elaine finally won, finally snuffed out the flame of my life like she's been trying to do for years. Or maybe, just maybe, there's more to the story.

But I'm not going to tell you. Where's the fun in that? No, you'll have to keep reading, keep turning those pages, to find out the truth.

Will Cara avenge me? Will she burn down the world in her grief and rage? Or will she find a way to move on, to build a life for herself and our child in the ashes of what we once had?

I wish I could tell you. I wish I could take away the pain I know she's feeling, the agony of losing half of her soul. But this is her story now. Her fight.

And let's be real - Cara's always been the strong one. The brave one. She's the phoenix, rising from the ashes time and time again. She's the flame that never goes out, no matter how hard the world tries to snuff her.

So have faith, dear reader. Have faith in her, in the love that binds us even across the veil of death. Have faith that the truth will out, that justice will be served.

And most of all? Have faith that even in the darkest of nights, dawn is coming.

Ashley – I mean Cara, my love, my heart, my soul... I'm watching over you. Always.

And when the time is right, when you've fought your way through the hellfire and come out the other side?

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