Page 2 of Break Her Heart
I didn’t answer.
He laughed, bitter and full of venom. “I thought so.”
Again, he looked to the side, his body coiled like a beast ready to lunge. “Now come on.”
“No!” My voice cracked. “I will not go with you. I will not be your queen! I never want to see you again.”
“Winnie—”
“Don’t call me that!” I hissed. “You kept things from me this entire time. You knew who Carrow was from the beginning. You let him meet me,feedon me—and you let him kill my parents. I told you I would kill Carrow, and I did.”
“You didn’t,” he said.
“What is wrong with you? Did you not see me kill him? Are you truly that insane?”
He ran his hands through his hair before letting out a grunt, the frustration in him boiling over. “You killed his host body.”
“What are you talking about?”
“On the next Blood Moon, his soul will take over my body. It’s his loophole—his way to gain true immortality. You can’t kill him. He will always be here, controlling everyone around him.”
The air vanished from my lungs. “No,” I said, barely above a whisper. Fire flickered in my hands, heat rolling down my arms, defiant against the frigid air. “He—he can’t. That’s not possible.”
“It is. He left his fae form and took the body of the Joveryn King. When that body gave out, he moved to the son, and then the next son. Now?” August’s eyes met mine, cold and calculating. “Now it’s my turn.”
I shook my head slowly, the world tilting beneath my feet.
“No,” I whispered, but the word tasted wrong—empty and thin. I stumbled back a step, needing distance, needing something to hold onto. But there was nothing. Only the jagged ruins of what I thought I’d won.
“You’re lying,” I said, but even I could hear the desperation bleeding through the words. August didn’t move. He didn’t blink. He just stared at me like he was waiting for the rest of me to shatter.
He’s dead,I wanted to scream.I killed him! I killed him!
But deep down, in the place I couldn’t protect, the truth had already started to root itself. I knew it. I had felt it even then—that killing Carrow hadn’t been enough. That it was all wrong.
I wrapped my arms around myself, trying to hold in the panic clawing at my ribs.
“I burned him,” I said, as if saying it out loud could make it true. Could make it real. “I burned him to nothing. There was nothing left.”
August’s mouth twisted. “Ashes can still speak. You just weren’t listening.”
The floor seemed to shift beneath me, and I squeezed my eyes shut.
This wasn’t just my failure. It was everyone’s loss.
And it was mine to carry.
I dug my nails into my palms, welcoming the sting.You did this. You trusted the wrong person. You let the wrong man close.
When I opened my eyes again, August was still there. Waiting. Watching me fall apart and daring me to stand back up.
“What do you want from me?” I rasped.
“I want you to fix it,” he said simply, as if it were the easiest thing in the world. As if it hadn’t already broken me.
He looked like a caged animal, every muscle pulled taut, his breath uneven and raw. Fury swirled within him, but something else too—something frantic and helpless.
I shook my head as he stepped closer.
