Page 152 of Scavenger's Oath
Now Phoenix wants to handherthe blade to cut us both.
She turns to me, voice breaking. “Myles… don’t let them do this,” she pleads. “Please. I’ll let you cut your name into me.”
“What? No, Ivy—” I choke.How could she say that?
“Do it. I won’t fight you,” Ivy implores. “Or I’ll do it. I’ll prove myself. I’m yours. You said I’m yours. You can’t take that back! You can’t leave me! Why are you guys doing this?”
Her question guts me.
Because I don’t want to do this.
But she might have a better option than us. And I know she deserves better.
I look at her, jaw aching from clenching too hard. “You don’t need to prove yourself to us. We’re not leaving you, but you have to know… youcanleave. And if you do, I—” The words scrape raw, like hauling barbed wire from my chest. I drag a hand over my face, furious at myself for unravelling in front of her again. “I can’t take it if you walk away.”
I stop myself before I spit it all out. The nights locked in unfamiliar rooms, the social workers, the endless rejections.
Nobody ever chose me. Not once.
Phoenix’s voice cuts through. Steady. Firm. “That’s why she has to choose, Myles. Otherwise, we’re just making her a prisoner again.”
My fists curl tight, nails biting into my palms. “She’s not a prisoner,” I bite out.
“Then let her prove it.”
The hallway goes silent. Ivy’s eyes flick between us, the same heartbreak that I feel, pouring from them in rivulets. She looks at me the longest. My chest feels like it’s collapsing.
I’m cornered by them all. Trapped in the hallway.
The wind whistles around the building, floorboards creaking under her shifting weight. My fists twitch uselessly at my sides.
I want to grab her. Beg her.Please don’t leave me!
Finally, she moves, closing the distance with quiet, cautious steps, until she’s right in front of me.
My lungs seize, terrified of what she’ll say.
Her hands ball my shirt as she looks up at me through her wet eyelashes. “Please. I want to come. Let me come. Wherever you go.”
The pressure in my chest shatters. Relief crashes through me so hard my throat closes. I blink hard, vision stinging, nose burning, and wrap my arms around the little woman that could crush me with one word.
“Yeah?” My voice cracks like I’m thirteen again.
She nods, smiling through tears as she presses her body tighter against mine. “Yes! There isn’t anywhere I’d rather be than with you.” Her eyes flick to Phoenix, then Zane. “All of you.”
Behind me, Zane exhales like he’s been holding his breathfor hours. Phoenix finally moves, shifting against the wall, shoulders lowering.
She choseus.
She choseme.
And for the first time in years, I don’t feel like I’m waiting to be abandoned.
It feels like we’re finally moving toward something that isn’t only survival.
Something that might actuallybeliving.
Chapter 49
