Page 109 of Entranced By the Basilisks

That cuts me to the quick. “No. When I met you, it started that way, but you very quickly won over my heart just like I expected you to. I couldn’t stand the thought of being alone again.”

“Then maybe you should have trusted us more.” Her breath shudders out. “I’m leaving.”

“Wait!” My mind reels and I know the words are a mistake at this moment, but I say them anyway. “There’s a way.”

Everyone in the room freezes, and for better or worse, I keep speaking. “I thought it was impossible, but there is a way to take being Chosen from you. We can do that if that’s what you wish, just please don’t leave.”

Tears stream down Emilia’s cheeks and she looks like she wants to throw something at me. I’d beg her to. I’d beg for whatever pain she’d want inflicted if it meant not losing her.

“I’ll give you anything you want,” I say. “I-I love you.”

Everything about this moment is coming out wrong. The chessboard has been flipped. There is no strategy here, only my desperation.

The silence stretches between us and Emilia’s inhale shudders, the loudest thing in the room.

Her eyes are full of pain. “I don’t think I believe you.”

It would have hurt less if she had used a hatchet on my heart. The pain makes it hard to make out her words before she leaves.

“I need time, Ari. I need space.”

Now, Jasper is the only one left.

I take a step toward him, and he takes a step back.

“Jasper.” I don’t recognize the broken sound of my voice and he blinks as if pained by it.

“I can’t right now,” he says. “I need to make sure that she’s going to be okay.”

Afterward—afterward, I’ll be glad for Jasper positioning himself as Emilia’s protector, but at this moment it only crushes my already bleeding heart.

“We’re mates,” I say. “We’ve always been mates.”Please don’t leave me.

“I know.” He shuts his eyes and takes a breath before continuing, “I’m not running away, but she’s hurting, Ari. Hurting because of what you’ve done. What I’ve let you do—”

He breaks off on that. When he opens his eyes again, disappointment skewers me. It’s no less than I deserve.

I don’t stop him from leaving.

45

EMILIA

Time stretches and snaps,pulling me into a world that ripples with pain.

Ma holds me as I sob, her fingers running through my newly shifted hair, not asking questions, not giving any advice. She speaks about the stomach-turning things she’s seen at work while I was away to distract me from the emotions drowning me.

My chest is empty. The loss of it all carves my heart out.

I’m angry, but I’m also lost. Something about Ari’s manipulations unraveled the progress I’d made, the strength I felt. Because it feels fake now. I was only a pawn in his game. My empowerment was a contrived way to manipulate me into being in their triad.

My anger would whisper these things to me, but then I’d remember his exuberant joy every time something I tried worked, his quiet happiness when I’d woken up in Jasper’s arms, the pride and vulnerability when he’d set out a meal, his hushed tones when he’d called us his family.

Or his shattered expression when he asked me not to leave.

Jasper is another matter entirely. Not separate, but not sharing in the betrayal of Ari’s real intentions. I don’t exactly know where he fits. He packed my bag and sent his father to deliver it. He’d packed up my restoration projects and moved them to my office at the library. He sent text messages with these details like signals in the night, short but full of meaning.

It took me well into the next day to tell Grace what had happened. I want to hide from everything and everyone until the pain in my chest stops. Lost in the sea of my thoughts, I text Grace the details of what happened and the next thing I know, she’s on my doorstep, being let in by Ma.

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