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He shook his head and stood. Although he was always taller than me, I never felt so small before. Until now. “Who knows what could happen in a room filled with humans and vampires while unmedicated. But I’m not putting that to the test just for you to have fun for one night, Katerina!”

I couldn’t respond to him. But there was one thing I needed to know— even if it destroyed me. “Did you ever really trust me?”

“I can’t say.” His throat bobbled. “I never pestered you for answers. I respected your privacy and kept all my questions to myself, but if I can’t even depend on you doing the bare minimum, there are no more excuses.”

“What does that mean?”

His expression grew blank, but I could tell how much he fucking despised me as he said, “You’re unequipped as a guardian, Katerina. You’ll be leaving with me after the Ball, and I will push for your title to be stripped to Lace.”

He left me all alone in the swallowing abyss that became my room.

* * *

Water overflowed from the tub as I sank deeper. Lorenzo’s words replayed in my mind like a broken record, growing louder each time. I wanted to drown it out. But the lake was too far, and the tub wasn’t doing enough.

I pushed myself until my head hit the floor. His voice continued to seep through my skin until I drifted away.

My eyes stung as a white fluorescent light beamed on me. The walls and furniture were a clash of whites, reviving memories of the place I thought was home before the CEG.

It was my own personal fucking nightmare.

A girl came into view, her height meeting my chest as I stood. She wore a dark, violet dress covered in dirt with ripped sleeves. We shared the same bushy eyebrows and round face, but there was still a youth to hers that made her lips smaller and eyes larger. Despite that, there was the same hollowness in those green eyes and dark shadows underneath them.

“Who are you?” I said, my voice distant.

Although her lips didn’t move, mine parted and slipped, “Rin.”

Two doors appeared behind her. She stepped through one, and my body instinctively followed behind her. We stepped inside the same house.

The oneshealways forced me into.

But this time,shewasn’t there. It wasn’t me who crouched in the corner of the room. Instead, it was the little girl.

Her entire body trembled beneath the wet, long strands of hair, and her arms tightened around her knees. Loud steps vibrated against the floor. The same man with the taunting eyes towered over her. In a split second, his hand gripped her hair and pulled her to stand. I tried walking, but my feet were glued in their spots.

He shoved the girl to a bare wall, her body tumbling to the ground and stilling in the corner as someone stepped inside. Their outline was blurry as if water drowned our surroundings and contorted their features. I couldn’t make out their faces, but their voices rose the hairs on my nape as a low, flat tone spoke.

“Abdel,” she said.

The man scoffed and swung the cup in his hand across the room. Glass shattered across the room, and dark liquid pooled on the floor. “Fuck off, Elia.”

She shook her head as she stepped toward the other end of the house. “What have I told you about the girl?”

“I don’t give ashitwhat you’ve said about that monster,” he spat, his deep voice resounding with disgust. “She killed her. She killed my one and only love.”

“And yet, you continue to uphold that empty promise you made to her,” the woman said, a sneer hinting, slowly breaking the blurry effect. “The deal stands whether you survive her or not. I will be more than willing to take away the burden that’s been bestowed upon you.”

“This hasneverbeen an empty promise, unlike those you’ve made. Your stolen bastard proof of them.”

“I gave that child a chance at a meaningful life, one he would have never achieved with that failedmutt.” Now a wave erased the distortion above her eyebrows. “Don’t forget Abdel, that monster was brought into this world because of you. She had that childforyou.”

He sprinted across the room, nails lengthening as he gripped her neck. Fangs crowded his mouth as he spat, “All you do is spit lies. That’s what you’ve always done to my people— to lycans that oppose being your guinea pigs.”

Suddenly, the blurry outline washed away and revealed a woman who met the man’s height. She had slicked dirty blonde hair and wide, moss-green eyes that deepened as they stared at the hand around her neck.

“Don’t say I never warned you.”

Their voices dimmed, and a large wave of darkness swallowed the room, my eyes blinking at the sight of the white room again.