Page 127 of The Drama King

They can't take what I don't give.

They can't own what I don't surrender.

They can't claim what I refuse to be.

Even if that refusal cost me everything I had.

Even if it nearly killed me.

I was free. And that freedom, painful as it was, felt more real than anything I'd experienced in months.

But as the fever climbed higher and the world began to blur around the edges, I couldn't shake the memory of Corvus making those phone calls, of the cold calculation in his eyes as he watched me flee.

They weren't giving up.

This wasn't over.

This was just the beginning of a much longer, much more dangerous game.

And I had to find the strength to keep playing.