Page 60 of Sinner's End

“I’m going to rehab,” she says, watching me as she speaks. “It may be too little, too late for me to save our relationship but you deserve to know. I’m sorry. Not just for trying to kill you but for everything I’ve put you through the past few years.”

“Emma, words are not going to fix what is wrong between us.”

Once more, my palm goes to my chest and I rub hard against my breastbone. How is one person supposed to handle so much pain and heartache?

“I know,” she says. “I need to do something big. I need toturn my life around and show you I can be there for you like you always have been for me.”

“You tried to kill me.”

“And of all the stupid things I’ve done, that’s the one thing I really wish I could take back. But we both know life doesn’t work that way.”

“You expect me to simply believe you?”

“I expect my actions to prove my words. I expect this to be hard and it will take a long time before you want to be near me again,” she replies earnestly. “But I need to do this before I end up in prison, or dead.”

“I’m happy you want to get clean and do better for yourself, but I’m done with you,” I say harshly, not wanting to listen to her anymore. “I’ve listened. You can leave now.”

Emma stands, a tear tracking across her cheek. “I really am sorry, Addi. For everything.”

She’s almost out of the bathroom when I call out to her. “Emma?”

“Yes?”

“Don’t ever fucking come back.”

The door clicks closed softly and then I am alone again. Alone in the quickly cooling bathwater. Alone in my heartache that just seems to keep growing. Alone in life.

I have a choice on this last part, though. I can choose to stay away from Mana, Kaleb, Lethe, and even Bowen, or I can embrace what I might have with them. The thought of losing them makes my heart palpitate and my breathing accelerate. I don’t want to lose them. Not a single one.

But then I remember the feeling of the darkness swimming in my soul, holding my mind and my body hostage. I still feel dirty after what happened in the graveyard, after the memories Kaleb’s mother’s ghost shared with me.

Having them, being with them, is never going to besimple.

As far as I know, the only human one is Kaleb. At least, that’s from what I’ve seen so far.

I should really be running as fast as my legs will carry me. The only problem is, I want to run to Harken. To Mana. To Kaleb. To Lethe and Bowen.

But somehow, I feel like that will be the worst thing to do. Sitting upright, I pull my knees against my chest and allow my emotions to take over. The tears come fast and furious. I cry until I have the hiccups, the bubbles are gone, and the water is frigid.

Eventually, I force myself to move. After drying off I wrap myself in a bathrobe.

“Come on, Daisy,” I say softly, padding down the hallway and into the lounge. “Tomorrow, we will find someone to replace the carpet. But, for tonight, we’ll sleep on the pull-out couch.”

It takes a minute to get the futon to work, but the moment it is open, Daisy jumps up, turns in circles for a bit before lying down, and resumes her snoring. I smile as I grab a pillow and blanket before going to sleep beside her. Maybe, if I’m lucky, the world will make more sense tomorrow.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

A Knight of a Different Color

Kaleb

Walking sucks. My seething rage takes me as far as Harken’s front gate. The moment I step inside the asylum’s grounds, the debilitating energy leaves me devoid of just about everything. Already low in the energy department and held up by a previously untapped well of wrath I didn’t know I possessed, I sag between Lethe and Mana who prop me up—no portaling allowed, as per Addi’s orders.

We’re on the straight and narrow, the three of us, a pact which lasts as long as that first step inside the building. No superpowers are required to sense the catastrophe that’s occurred in our absence of Mana’s domain. Blood and gore decorate every surface in an orgy of evidence even the weakest of detectives could find.

I stare at the dripping mess through slitted, blurry eyes. “I thought we cleaned this shit up.” Even my voice comes out groggy.

“Some of us did,” Lethe reprimands gently.

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