Page 79 of Splitting Secrets
The betrayal from Raze.
The suffocating weight of new gifts appearing every day.
The starvation. The dark. Matilda’s murder.
It’s all too much. Way too much to handle. I’m breaking apart into a million, fractured little pieces—my mind shattered.
I can’t take this. I can’t do this without Poppy. I don’twantto do this without her.
Until the world burns—that’s what we said. Well, my world is burning, and she’s not here.
She's notfuckinghere.
“Help!” My mother’s muffled voice rings out into the raging storm. Hands wrap around my arms as I fall backward, my head slamming into something. “I need help!”
Her panicked cries are the last thing I hear.
41
Sonny
Iwake blanketed in darkness, panic gripping my throat until I realize I’m not in my cell. I’m in a room, on a bed. Safely tucked under a soft comforter. Notmyroom—the one directly across the hall from Poppy’s—but the one I’m staying in. The one buried inside a mountain.
Everything comes back to me at once, tidal waves crashing into my chest—a force greater than I can physically handle.
Emotions flood back in, taking hold of my psyche and forcing me to face everything I’ve been avoiding.
The bed shakes as terror grips my body, sending vibrations through my limbs that have them bouncing off the soft sheets. Something falls against my bedside table just as the door flies open, revealing a dark silhouette reaching for me in the chaos.
My eyes shutter closed just as they get their hands on me, and I fall back into peaceful oblivion.
42
Raze
No one called me.
She was knocked out, in a cathartic state for seven days, and not one of them thought to call me.
Her emotions steamrolled her, the Valerian empathic gift overtaking her entire being until it hadfilled every crevice and cranny. It had nowhere else to go but out. The gifts extended their long, spindly fingers and hijacked everyone in the house, manipulating their emotions and pulling them all into a melancholy stupor.
She was depleted. The constant flow of energy drained her reservoir. It drained everyone around her. They’ve all been lying around uselessly for days, trapped under her spell.
And no one. Called.Me.
The only person capable of shielding themselves from such a vicious emotional attack. The only one who can reach into her mental psyche, grab her hand, and yank her out of it. I can’t even focus on my own hurt over being the last to know because I’m too pissed at her parents for wasting precious time.
Time we don’t have.
If this is how the Ellerys are going to lead us in war, they should be stripped of their power and thrown into the front lines. If they’re incapable of recognizing the individual talents of their soldiers and utilizing them for special circumstances, then none of us will survive.
I told them as much when I stormed into their home after Griff finally bothered to inform me that he hadn’t been able to get the four of them to train in days.
Naturally, they took offense.
Naturally, I didn’t give a fuck.
“Where is she?” I demanded as I walked through the door, my feet already taking me toward the stairs. It wouldn’t matter if they refused to tell me—my body could sense her.
