Page 71 of Edge of Control

A single word jumped out at me.

Chained.

I googled the original poem. Had them next to each other on the screen.

The word had been changed to “chained.”

Nevermore had made that change. He’d been sending a message.

Chained.

The bathhouse where Theo and I met.

My head felt light, my vision filling with dark stars as blood rushed away from my brain. Fight or flight.

Flight.

Theo.

Nevermore.

Chained.

“Holy shit. Is Theo Nevermore?”

Chapter 27

Theo Glass

I couldn’t sleep.

I couldn’t even lie down.

I couldn’t do anything but think of Jace. Think of my father. Think of Marielle.

It was like a hurricane battered at the confines of my skull, trying to snap it in half from the inside. I’d never felt this kind of intense panic. I wanted to run laps around my apartment. I wanted to bang my head against the bathroom mirror. I wanted to leap off my balcony, grow wings, and take to the sky.

I wanted to hunt down my father and make him pay.

Wanted to fall back into Jace’s arms and make things right.

He was close to figuring it out. I could feel it down in my bones. The walls of my living room felt like they were collapsing. It was six o’clock in the morning. The sun still hadn’t broken across the horizon yet. I walked out on mybalcony, placed my hands on the cool railing. The season was shifting from fall to winter. The air had a cold bite to it, especially up here on the twenty-eighth floor.

I looked down over the railing. My head spun with vertigo. The streets were busy with people heading to work, grabbing breakfast, going on their morning runs, completely unaware of the turmoil and chaos that swirled around me like hundreds of invisible phantoms, snatching at me, trying to pull me over.

It would be easy, huh? It would solve some problems.

Marielle had chosen this path. My own sister.

Maybe this was written in our DNA? Maybe fate had already decided this choice for me?

Luke appeared by my feet. He meowed, curling through my legs. He rubbed himself against my ankles, tail twining around my calf.

I took a few steps away from the banister and crouched down.

Luke, my furry little guardian angel. He must have sensed the insanity that threatened to crack me in half. I was becoming unmoored. So much was happening in my being, but having Luke purring by my face helped calm some of that down.

Fucking hell.

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