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FORTY-FOUR

FREYA

My mom warned me that there are monsters in this world and that they don’t just hide under my bed. They hide in plain sight, within the people we trust. What she failed to mention was that sometimes, they come as someone who claims to love you beyond the stars and to the universe. She never told me that loving a monster meant loving the mask of a man who pretended to heal my scars, only to carve the deepest one through my entire body, straight to my heart.

Every place where he kissed me burned. Every touch he left behind reopened wounds I thought had healed. His words used to be my comfort, but now they echoed in my mind like ghosts, tormenting me with the weight of what is true and what is false. He gave me his darkness, but he hid the worst parts. Was it the truth? Or was it all just one big fat lie?

My body trembled, my breath hitching as flashes of his dark eyes haunted me. The way he had looked at that poor woman, the way he had sliced her cheeks, matching Adeline, just before he hunted her down like prey.

Why did he have to be a monster?

And why did I have to love one?

He stood before me now, begging for forgiveness I wasn’t ready to give, shattering every promise he had made.

I was supposed to be his universe. But I was just another fallen star.

Lucius was on his knees, pain twisting his face, his eyes filled with tears. I know he still loves me, and that was the worst part. And I love him too. But what hurt the most was knowing that love wasn’t enough to make me forget. Or forgive.

He was breaking in front of me, and I was falling apart in front of him. He reached for me but I flinched back, my fingers curling around the doorknob.

“Stop. Don’t touch me.”

“Please,” he begged, his voice cracking, his palms pressed together. “I promise, it won’t happen again. Please, stay. Please—I’m begging you. Don’t do this to me.”

I opened the door just slightly, my whole body trembling.

“Lucius…” I struggled to breathe, to think, to hold myself together. My heart screamed at me to stay, to choose him. But my mind, my mind was still trapped in the woods, reliving the nightmare of what he had done. And seeing all those faces the detective had shown me, I know he hunted them down too.

“Don’t,” he whispered, shaking his head. “You won’t.”

He wiped his eyes, sobbing, his whole body trembling. “You’re mine. My star wouldn’t leave. You’re my soul—my soul would change me.”

Tears streamed down my face, my lower lip quivering as I took another step back.

“And what would happen if I stayed?” My voice cracked with pain. “Would I live in fear? Always wondering if one day I’ll say the wrong thing? What if we have a daughter, and she reminds you of her? What then? What would you do? Would we both end up like her?”

“I would do anything for you,” he swore, his voice heavy. “You know that. I would never—“

“Hurt me?” I whispered, the words slicing through me like a blade. “But you did.”

His breath hitched.

“You took my pain away and replaced it with love,” I continued, my voice shaking. “Then you took that love away and replaced it with lies. And now you stand here, replacing those lies with a promise that nothing will happen to me? But you happened, Lucius. You had so many chances to tell me the truth, to give me a choice.”

I let out a broken, bitter laugh.

“A choice!” I shouted, my chest heaving.

I sobbed, my body shaking. “You took my heart, my body, my soul. You shattered the last pieces of me and left them in ruins. If I stay, would you fix that? Or would you expect me to change and fix you?”

“I can fix this. I can fix us,” he sobbed. “Freya, I can change, I—“

I opened the door. He was already there, standing in front of me, his eyes desperate for mine. His hand shot out, grasping mine, pulling me toward him as he rose to his feet.

“If you go, take my heart with you. Rip it out,” his voice cracked. “Because I swear to God, I can’t exist in a world where you don’t.”

“Don’t,” I choked, my voice trembling. “Don’t you dare...”

His fingers brushed against my wet cheeks, but it was useless, tears kept falling, unstoppable.

“I was a monster before I met you,” he whispered. “But for the first time in my life, I tried to be something else. Something better. And I failed. God, I failed.”

He exhaled sharply, his hands tightening around mine like I was the last thing tethering him to the earth.

“I didn’t tell you because I was afraid. Afraid that if you knew everything, you’d look at me the way you are looking at me now.” His voice barely rose above a breath. “Like I’m already gone.”

He lifted my hand and pressed it against his chest, his heartbeat a wild beat beneath my palm.

“Please, please stay. We can try again. Just stay for me. I love you, please...”

“Love isn’t supposed to make me afraid of the person who holds my heart.” My voice was steady now, colder. I stepped back, prying myself from his hands. “Maybe some people are meant to love each other but never meant to stay.”

Something in him shifted. The grief twisted in his eyes and darkened into someone else.

“I will ask you one more time, Freya Sinclair.” His voice dropped to a growl. “Stay.”

A shudder ran through me. “Don’t do this.” Tears burned down my cheeks, but they weren’t just sorrow now. They were fear.

He exhaled. “You wanted a monster?” His lips curled, his grip tightening. “Fine. I’ll be that monster.”

His fingers locked around my wrist.

“But you will stay for me. Until you are mine again.”

I jerked back, but his hold only tightened. Panic came to me.

“No—don’t!” I thrashed, shoving him, my body twisting against him.

The door. It was open.

I yanked my arm free and slammed it into his gut. He stumbled back, clutching himself, his breath hitching. But when he lifted his head, his eyes were black. I didn’t recognize him anymore.

And for the first time, I realized, he had already become the monster.

The only question left was whether I would escape...

Or if I would stay.

“You better run,” he growled.

And so I did.

I ran.

I ran like I should have the first time. Like a woman who was no longer blinded by love, but chased by the man who had promised her the world and instead gave her nothing but pain. I ran until the air burned in my lungs, until my heartbeat thundered in my ears until my legs felt like they might give out beneath me.

Until I dared to look back.

He was chasing me.

“Freya, stop!” he shouted, his voice cutting through the cold night. But I didn’t stop. I couldn’t.

The road stretched ahead, the distant glow of headlights growing brighter. There was a car closing by.

Maybe my only hope for escape. My chance to leave, to get away before it was too late. Because I knew what would happen if I stopped. I knew what would happen if I let him reach me.

But what if?

What if some lessons are the hardest ones to learn? And loving him had been the hardest of them all?

What if the love I thought we shared was never real, just a reflection of what he wanted me to be? What if he never loved me , only the idea of me? His perfect little star, caught in his orbit.

“Freya, no!” His voice was closer now, his footsteps heavy against the cold road.

Then, his fingers brushed mine, catching me and pulling me to face him. His grip was so strong. “I’m a stupid, stupid man,” he whispered, breathless, “but I won’t be dumb enough to let you go. I’ll change. I’ll make this right. I’ll make you love me again. I’ll make you mine again.”

What if I had always been meant to fall for a man who would teach me this lesson? What if I deserved this?

Did I?

But then, with a slow exhale, I let my hand slip from his grasp.

He had taught me so many things. How to love. How to believe in something bigger than myself. How to scream when silence wasn’t enough. How to run. But the hardest lesson of all?

Loving a man who could never let go of the past, who would rather let me burn with him than set me free.

We stood in the middle of the road, two people who had loved each other, two people now falling apart. Broken.

Was this the end of our story? A tragic romance closing its final chapter? Or was it just the beginning of a horror story?

“What if I choose to stay, Lucius?” I cried out, “What would you do?”

“I would...” As he was about to say, out of nowhere, his fingers found mine again, butthe car was faster than both of us.

The impact came like a flash of hot pain, and then the world flipped, twisted, shattered. My body slammed against the cold asphalt, breath ripped from my lungs.

“Freya, no!” he shouted, dragging himself toward me, his hands reaching, trembling as he saw me gasping for air.

This was the moment I should have regretted everything. The words. The choices. The leaving.

But before I could speak, before I could move, before I could tell him that maybe I should have stayed, the sound of heels clicking against the road echoed in my ears. Approaching.

I tried to lift my head to see through the pain.

She didn’t come for me.

She went for him.

She lifted the bat in the air and swung fast, a blur of motion, the sickening crack of wood against flesh ringing through the empty road.

His body crumpled.

“You,” he gasped, recognizing whoever she was. Her image in his eyes disappeared before they rolled back, and then he closed his eyes.

A scream tore from my throat.

“No,” I shouted, “No, I am sorry, I will stay,” I cried, “I will stay...”

But someone grabbed me from behind, their hands hauled me upward, dragging me to the car. My skin burned from the pull against the rough road, and as we got closer to the red car. She yanked the door open.

I barely had time to struggle before pain exploded in my skull—

And then there was nothing.

No more him.

No more me.

Just fairies in front of my eyes.