Page 103 of Rejected By a Wolf

It turned out her lack of response wouldn’t deter Casper. So, for hours, he continued talking while she continued rocking, neither of them yielding to the other.

With every word Casper sent her way she would remind herself what he and Antonio had done behind her back.

If that amulet hadn’t been destroyed, she’d have a chance to bring her parents back to life. If that amulet hadn’t been destroyed, her entire life’s purpose wouldn’t have been for nothing.

So she focused on listening to the leaking water and the scurrying rodents that shared this space with her. Anything to drown out his words. Though, despite not hearingwhathe said, she heardhowhe spoke… and it was comforting, his soft voicesoothing her just enough to keep her from taking that final step into madness and losing herself to it entirely.

Drusilla had promised to free Sophia after she took Antonio’s soul, but Sophia wasn’t sure she wanted to be free. There was a sort of tranquility in this cell that she didn’t believe she’d be able to find out in the noisy, fast-paced world. She needed this silence. Perhaps, she needed it forever.

She suddenly understood why Antonio hid away from the world for so long - because he too suffered from guilt, shame, and loss.

Sophia gasped, lifting her head up for the first time in hours.

Drusilla was going to take Antonio’s soul! She didn’t even try to hide it from Sophia, who had been so caught up in her own thoughts, in her own mess of emotions, she didn’t actuallythinkabout anything Drusilla was saying after a certain point.

“She can’t take that from him,” Sophia whispered to the cool darkness. She was angry with Antonio. Yes, he had made a monumental mistake, but that mistake didn’t mean he deserved to have his soul taken from him and entrapped in some glass jar for eternity. Not even the worst of beings deserved a fate that cruel. “She can’t take his soul.”

She needed to stop Drusilla, she knew that. Which only left the question - how?

“Ah, you’ve finally decided to talk. ”

Sophia grimaced at Casper’s words. “And you still haven’t decided to stop.” He had been rambling on for hours. But he had also been soothing her for hours. He didn’t give up on her. For that, she was thankful. Forgoing her pride, she quietly added, “Thank you.”

“Did you listen to anything I said?”

“No,” she admitted. Whether she listened to him or not didn’t matter. Whatdidmatter was that the sound of his voice kept herfrom succumbing to her madness entirely. For hours, his voice tugged at her conscious, keeping her grounded in reality.

“Yeah, I knew.”

“How did you know?” She leaned back, pressing her head against the cool wall that separated the two of them. Somehow, she knew he was leaning against it too.

“For starters, you would’ve flipped a shit overat leasthalf the things I said.”

“You say that as if I care enough to flip a shit.”

For long moments, a painful silence followed. It was the first bit of silence she encountered in hours and it unnerved her.

When Casper finally responded, the worry she could hear nearly crushed her soul. “You’re acting like you don’t care enough to evenlistenand that scares the life out of me.Soph,you’ve always cared,fiercely, about everything. It’s who you are. This… this isn’t you.”

Sophia closed her eyes and envisioned her parents - her mother, who was identical to Sophia in so many ways, but with a brighter smile and larger eyes; and her father, with his scruffy beard and perpetually tousled hair. She missed them. Shehadmissed them for a very long time.

“I only ever cared about one thing, Casper. And that thing is gone.”

“That’s bullshit. I can name hundreds of other things you care about right now. Easily.”

Sophia’s eyes shot open, the image of her parents disappearing. “That’s a lie.”

“You mean to tell me you weren’t upset with me every time I disappeared? I know you were. I’ve always known, and I hated myself for it.”

Shewasalways hurt by his disappearing acts, wasn’t she? “If you hated yourself for it, then why did you constantly disappear?”

“Why? You’re looking at it.”

“To come… here?” Now that was something she couldn’t understand. Why would he willingly choose imprisonment over freedom?

Then again, hadn’t she just chosen the same only minutes ago?

“The witch Circe holds the life of someone I care about very dearly over my head. If I don’t do as she asks, when she asks, she threatens to hurt this woman. I’ve been her errand boy for a long time. Longer than I’ve known you.”

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