Page 21

AVA

W ith an exhausted sigh, I tossed yet another useless library book onto the dining room table. It joined the clutter of laptops, newspapers, more books, and pizza boxes, each a monument to our increasingly desperate search.

The air smelled faintly of cold pizza and burned coffee, remnants of the time we’d spent chasing ghosts through dead-end leads.

Ty didn’t tell Ciaran about the night at the observatory so things between Ciaran, Ty, and me settled into a weird kind of truce as we dug into researching the Sochai between classes.

“It’s been weeks,” I groaned, raking my hands through my hair. “And we still have nothing.”

“These assholes created a system to legitimize and hide their twisted activities,” Ty said from the chair beside me, his voice steady but simmering with quiet frustration. “They’re experts at hiding. It’s going to take time.”

Ciaran, sitting on my other side, slammed his palms flat against the table. “The bastards probably have high-level judges erasing public records, airline CEOs masking international travel, doctors forging documents—God knows what else.”

He was right, of course. But David didn’t need fucking constant reminding that he was up against Goliath.

I let out a sharp noise of frustration. “So what do we do now?”

Ciaran softened slightly, reaching for my hand and massaging the tension out of my palm, his touch grounding. “We’ll figure it out.”

At the same moment, Ty leaned closer, brushing a strand of hair behind my ear, his fingers lingering along the side of my neck.

A shiver went down my spine and a small, involuntary sigh escaped my lips.

The second it left me, I knew it was a mistake. Worse, I didn’t even know which of their touches had caused it.

The apartment fell deadly silent, the cool breeze of fall cutting through the open windows doing nothing to cut through the thickened air that made it hard to breathe.

I didn’t need to turn to know they had locked eyes. Each silently claimed my reaction as proof of his hold on me.

I gripped the edge of the table, willing the floor to swallow me. I didn’t want it to be like this—caught between them, terrified of letting my feelings slip because of the small war it might set off. Always hurting one to please the other.

This wasn’t just a rock and a hard place. This was two entire worlds, each with its own gravity, pulling me apart. And I knew it couldn’t end anywhere but in destruction .

“There is one thing we haven’t tried,” Ty said, his voice low, too calm, that voice scaring me more than Ciaran’s fiery outbursts ever could. “Ava, you’ve had more contact with the Sochai than you realize. At that clinic…”

The words impacted me like a blow to the gut. Flashes of that bright, sterile room threatened to drown me. The forced abortion. The cold hands. The suffocating helplessness. My vision blurred as the memory tried to claw its way to the surface, jagged and raw.

“I know it will be painful to go back… and I’m sorry.” Ty reached into his pocket and pulled something out, setting it carefully on the table in front of me. “But maybe you might remember something more.”

A glass vial, its delicate facets catching the dim light.

The sight of it sent a jolt of ice through my veins. My hand instinctively groped for Ciaran’s, and my lower lip quivered despite my best efforts.

I had been strong enough to face my abuse. To fight back against the shadows that threatened to consume me. But this memory—it was the one that shattered me every time.

Could I do it? Could I let myself go back there? Could I willingly tear open that scar, relive that pain, for the greater good?

“What is that?” Ciaran asked sharply, his brows furrowing.

To him, it must have looked innocuous sitting there—a fancy bottle of perfume or a vial of face oil. But I knew better.

“It’s a paralytic,” Ty said matter-of-factly, his voice devoid of emotion. “And a mental disinhibitor. ”

Ciaran’s face twisted with horror as his gaze snapped to me. “He made you take that?”

“Ava chose to take it at Blackthorn,” Ty said, his tone clipped. “Just like it’s her choice now.”

Ciaran growled low in his throat, his fury barely contained.

I cupped his cheeks with my sweaty palms, trying to anchor him, but his wild eyes kept darting back to Ty.

“I know you wanted me to keep my memories buried,” I said, desperation creeping into my voice. “But I needed to know, Scáth. I needed to face them.”

Ciaran’s voice cracked as he shrugged my hands off him. “So you chose poison over love? You chose him over me ?”

“Yes,” Ty said coldly.

“No!” I said at the same time. “I chose the truth!” I shouted, balling my hands into fists. “I chose me .”

Ciaran was shaking with anger, his knee bouncing uncontrollably as he swore under his breath. “I won’t let you get hurt ever again. I won’t fucking allow it.”

“She’s strong enough now,” Ty said, his words a calm provocation. “Thanks to me.”

“After you brainwashed her and tortured her for months?” Ciaran roared, his chair scraping violently as he stood.

“Stop!” I shouted, but my voice was drowned out by the sound of his chair clattering to the floor.

Ty stood too, his movements measured. He pushed his chair back against the table with deliberate precision, his eyes cold as steel.

“You’re a sick, sick fuck,” Ciaran spat, his lips trembling with rage as he unsheathed a knife, the sharp blade glinting with deadly promise.

“And you are a coward,” Ty replied with cold fury and he pulled out his own lethal blade.

Both their eyes contained a murderous fury as they faced off, ignoring my screams for them to stop.

The tension that had been simmering between them since the moment Ty and I returned to Darkmoor ignited, crackling like a live wire finally overwhelmed by the current.

This was it—the storm breaking. They weren’t just going to argue, weren’t just going to throw words laced with venom or punch each other.

No, this time, they were going to cut each other into pieces.

Ciaran lunged, his blade slashing out, a raw, unrestrained force of anger, his movements wild but driven by pure emotion.

Ty leaped back smoothly, calculated in every motion, raising his weapon in front of him as he took a disciplined fighting stance, his sharp focus in stark contrast to Ciaran’s explosive rage.

I stood helpless between them, knowing that once the first blood was drawn, there would be no stopping it.

They were going to kill each other.

Fuck. There was only one way to stop this.

I grabbed the vial from the table and yanked off the stopper as I stepped between them, wincing at the bitterness as I drank it down.