Page 53

Story: Hound

No. This wasn’t my mom. She couldn’t be Elia Devon.

“You were a failure.”

Ihadfailed.

“Katerina, too, if she continues to be dormant.”

No. Nina couldn’t fail. She couldn’t end up like me. No, no, no. There was no?—

A whisper crawled from my side. I tried to follow it, but numbness echoed in my fingertips, startling my skin into a state of stillness. There was nothing to inhale. Fear itched to the surface as voices blended into each other, but just as quick as it emerged, it vanished. My throat tightened as I tried to do. . .what exactly?

A distant roar echoed. Brightness in the form of sage-green blanketed the darkness in my gaze. Beauty wasn’t supposed to be attainable in this world, yet I had witnessed it. Touched it. Loved it. Christopher had been mine and I’d lost him.

Everything washed away. A void sunk into me. Deeper, deeper, until only a brisk wave swept over me. I never felt cold,until now as it wrapped around my body. An empty silence descended, and I plummeted.

Luck had never shone on me. Succeeding was never in my cards. There was only one end I was supposed to meet.

Death.