Another strike. Another. I couldn’t hear properly anymore. Everything rang. I forced my eyes open. I saw Drake and Jakobi talking, mouths moving, but I couldn’t hear the words. Then Jakobi nodded.
Drake picked Chiara up, held her close, and turned away. He walked off without even looking back. Not once. A laugh slipped out of me, weak and shaking.
“Ha… so this is it…” Ninety-nine lashes, and somehow none of them hurt as much as that moment.
The sky turned red as the sun set, like the world was bleeding with me. Something soft landed on me, a white seabird, its feathers turning red instantly.
“Drake…” I whispered, “Your fate… your bond… all those things you said… they meant nothing, didn’t they?” I tried to breathe but it hurts. Everything hurts. “If there’s another life… I won’t love you again.”
Then darkness swallowed everything.
I don’t know how long it has been. When I woke again, there were sirens, people shouting, hands moving around me. They said I was lucky. They said I survived. I didn’t feel lucky.
At the hospital, they treated my wounds and told me to stay, but I refused. What was the point? I went back to the glass house alone.