Page 162 of Psycho Alphas: Part One

It vanished again, leaving ink stains in my vision, hiding the reality of the art room beyond. Aside from when I’d caught Thistle snooping, I hadn’t been in here for an age.

This place was filled with paintings of voids, failed attempts at healing, and ones that still tried to swallow my soul when I looked at them.

I blinked as the flame came into dim focus again.

Scratched wooden tables and easels, black canvas after black canvas. A thousand images smothered in darkness?—

Flicker.

The flame came to life again, trying to drag me away, but it failed to obliterate the memories.

I was bound and shivering, laying on that forest floor.

I couldn’t move as I watched a nightmare unfold, until I was handed from the grip of one monster, to the next.

Flicker.

The orange flame burned those images away. Another breath of freedom. Of something between me and the place this had all begun.

And now, there was another truth I now couldn’t escape. A truth that broke everything… I wanted her—needed her. But she had him.

I hated him.

I hated him for knowing all that he knew. For finding me in that forest and seeing, not my suffering, but an opportunity.

I hated, more than anything, that for one insane moment, when I’d shoved the gun against his head today and told him she deserved more, that he’d stopped. He’d stepped back, as if, even beyond the threat I wielded,thatwas the thing that could have convinced him not to claim her.

Because what that could mean wasn’t something I was ready to face.

But more than any of that, I hated that I’d blown it anyway—pushed him to his cracking point and lost control.

Lost everything.

I could kill him and claim her, but that would mean breaking her. And for some stupid fucking reason, that was off the goddamned table—even though that had been the point.

Break her to break him.

Flicker.

The flame lit again before my eyes, casting the dimmest light on the easels and shelves.

I stared, thinking of how much in here might catch the very flame dancing before me. And like I had a thousand times before, I wondered how easily I would catch it, too.

My phone buzzed in my pocket, dragging me from my pity party.

I flipped it open to find a text.

Callum: Did you reset the cameras? I just got a notification that they’re down.

I frowned at the words, opening the security feed, faint alarm bells sounding in my mind. A reminder of what Doyle had said this evening.

That was why I’d been looking for her. To make sure she was safe…

I opened the security feed on my phone, then froze.

There was something wrong.

The security app cycled through the cameras if one wasn’t selected, but right now the feed was black.

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