Page 90 of Edge of Control

“Are you okay?” I asked Jace, scanning him for any lethal wounds. He was battered and bruised but appeared to be okay.

“I am. You?” His eyes raked over my body.

I felt like I was able to finally breathe, as if an invisible weight had been lifted off my chest, my lungs no longer compressed to the size of tiny tin cans. I looked down at the corpse of the man who’d been a part in giving me life and simultaneously making that life a living hell. I restrained myself from letting go of another sequence of gunshots into his back.

“I am,” I said. “I can’t believe this…”

“Neither can I.” Jace surprised me by reaching for my hand. His fingers locked between mine. He blinked, his head shaking as if in disbelief. Could it have been the adrenaline? Did he forgive me for everything I’d done?

“Theo… you need to go. People probably heard those gunshots. The police will be here, and if they aren’t on their way, then I’m calling them myself.”

He was letting me run again. Permanently, this time?

Jace continued, his hand still in mine. “I’ll… I’ll tell them Leo confessed to being Nevermore. I’ll tell them I was close to figuring it out and that he abducted me to keep me quiet. But Theo… you have to promise me. Nevermore dies today. Right here. It’s over.”

“I promise, Jace. Never again. I won’t ever take justice into my own hands. I’ll never take another life. I swear it.”

He scanned my face, looked into my eyes. I could do nothing but promise him. I gave him not only my word but my heart. I’d give him my life. I’d give him everything.

“Fucking hell,” Jace said. He let go of my hand. “Okay, go. I’ll handle this.”

Before I left, I kissed him. This was the least romantic setting imaginable, but I had to have his lips against mine. Had to seal my promise with a sign of my love for him.

He didn’t pull away. He kissed me back. I could taste the blood from his busted lip. I wanted to heal it, fix him, make everything better.

And I felt like I finally had the chance to do that.

First, I had to leave, though.

“Come to my apartment when it’s done,” I said to him. I didn’t even look at my father. To me, he had died a long, long time ago.

“Okay,” Jace said, already pulling out his phone.

I went to the stairs, every step pulling me further and further out of the nightmare I’d been living in for the past few years.

As I exited Marielle’s and hurried down the street, the final line of the Raven poem struck me.

And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting

On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;

And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon’s that is dreaming,

And the lamp-light o’er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor;

And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor

Shall be lifted—nevermore!

Nevermore was dead, but I felt so fucking alive.

Chapter 34

Jace Holloway

I knockedon Theo’s door.

Nevermore.

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