Page 208 of Fractured Devotion

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My hands tremble faintly, not from weakness, but from something deeper, something I don’t have the words for.

I sit on the edge of the old cot with my elbows on my knees, staring at the floorboards as my breath slows.

I drag my fingers through my hair, gripping it tightly.

I tell myself this is what had to be done. That there was no other option. That men like Vescari and Dunlay, even Rourke, don’t deserve last chances.

But the truth claws at me in the silence.

It’s not just vengeance that drives me.

It’s her.

Celeste.

Every time I close my eyes, I see her. Fighting, bleeding, and burning through every chain they wrapped around her.

I see myself in her rage, in her agony. I hear my mother’s screams layered beneath her voice.

It terrifies me how much I want to burn everything for her.

How much I already have.

I wonder, as I sit there in the dark, how much of me is left. How much of me ever existed beyond the blade and the hunt.

And somewhere deep inside, a voice whispers that maybe there’s nothing left to save.

That maybe I never wanted to be saved at all.

I lean back, my head resting against the cold wall.

Outside, the wind howls through the alleyways.

But inside, I let the monster stretch its claws in peace.

Tonight, there’s no guilt.

Only a steady pulse of what still waits ahead.

Chapter 59 – Celeste - Ashes Between Us

The air is sharp against my skin as I walk the narrow street.

I don’t know what time it is.

But it doesn’t matter.

I’m not leaving this night unfinished.

The last words I spoke to Irene still hang in my chest, but they feel distant now, fading as I move through the sleeping city.

I know where I’m going.

Alec.

He sent me a message earlier. A short one. Just a room number, a place not far from the clinic.

I keep walking.

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