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Sybil shrugged and avoided our gaze. They’d been helping her all along.

Walden wheezed. “Are you trying to antagonize another panic attack out of me?”

“That phone call doesn’t mean anything. It was probably a prank.” Sybil let out a soft purr for a moment before cutting off with wide eyes. It wasn’t the purr we wanted.

“I just wish I could talk to Tully, to see what she’s feeling,” I sighed.

“Tully thinks we used her for her name. She’s been through trauma after trauma and survived, but it’s made her believe she isn’t worthy. I’m not letting her go or letting her move on. Our role right now is to be her support as she finds her power. She doesn’t need us, and we can’t force her to,” Walden said.

“How do we move forward when we can’t even say that to her?” I frowned up at Walden, his expression like stone.

I squeezed Walden’s hand and shared an intense gaze with him. I’d carve myself inside out and make a shell of my body for Tully. We both would.

“I’m falling apart without her. There are so many things I didn’t say…” Lloyd tugged his fingers through his hair.

His eyes were red-rimmed and hollow.

I massaged my pounding forehead. Everything was fractured, and I didn’t know how to process it. Hunger surged, hooks digging into my insides. Want for oblivion shuddered down my veins. But only for a second. I closed my eyes against the assault and breathed until the thought subsided.

Drugs hadn’t helped my shattered life in the past, and they wouldn’t now. I would not give in or let it take anything more from me.

“Are you ok?” Lloyd reached out and his beachy scent was like a vacation. His green gaze swirled with concern.

“I’m fine.”Lie.I couldn’t stop thinking about that voice. So masculine, with a threat entwined through it. Was the message for us? Or Tully?

But there was no point in dwelling on the hurt in my stomach. I’d been born twisted up inside, and the only thing keeping me from hurtling over a cliff was the thought of getting Tully back. I shook out my stiff wrist, and Walden tracked the movement with a sigh.

“Everything is going to be alright.” His voice was velvet soft, and I sank into it.

Lloyd’s phone buzzed, and he snatched it up. Ajax had a little wrinkle between his brow, and it deepened as we answered the phone. I scrambled over the back of the couch and peered at his screen.

“Tully?” Walden said.

“Don’t touch me,”Tully screeched.

“Are you alright?” Ajax said as she let out another scream.

“Thorn, I will scratch you if you don’t call him off, please. Gods.”

Thorn? Who was that? Ajax rubbed his chest.

Envy was a new, bitter taste that never left my tongue. Bitter scents swirled around us. It twisted my intestines until I gasped. Tully tilted her head on the screen and the sight of her neck, pale and unblemished, made me shiver.

“Don’t freak out.” Lorna waved her hands at Walden, whose face was turning red.

“Tully, please, answer us,” Lloyd begged as Tully’s voice got softer, but still distressed.

“Fuck, you rang someone, shut her up.”A deeper, razor-sharp voice filtered through and the phone call ended.

I leaped up, unable to stop the instinct to go to her. “Lloyd, you don’t have to come, but I’m not going to stay here. What if she’s in trouble?”

“You think I’m going to stay here while you all go? I-I’d do anything for her, including—” His shoulders hunched forward and he was so green that Sybil made a worried noise.

I knew what Lloyd endured there. The strength it took to survive. He was putting everything on the line for Tully.

“You three stay here,” Ajax said to the triplets, already moving to the door.

Lorna hurried alongside him and barred the doorway for a moment.