Blessed By The Moon

Chapter 50

Echo's POV : 

The boy's sobs bled into the night until they became a soundless echo inside my skull. I couldn't tell if my heart was still beating or if it had stopped entirely, frozen under the weight of what he'd said. My hands hovered in front of me like they belonged to a stranger. The silver glow that had always felt warm, protective... now looked obscene, it clung to my skin like a stain.

I had done this.

"Stop," I whispered, though I wasn't sure who I was talking to. The boy? Myself? The memories clawing their way back through my ribs? "Please, stop..."

A branch snapped behind me, the sound was soft, but it cracked through me like a gunshot. My head jerked up. The boy flinched, scrambling back into the shadows of the tree, eyes wide and wet.

And then Storm was there.

He stepped out of the darkness as if it had birthed him. Blood clung to his boots, dry at the edges. His shirt was ripped, his hands streaked with a brownish crust. He wasn't smiling now. His eyes flicked from me to the boy, then back to me.

"You shouldn't have come out here." His voice was low, almost tender.

My throat closed. "You lied to me."

Storm's jaw tightened, but he didn't flinch. "You weren't supposed to know."

"You told me you did it." My voice cracked into something sharp and brittle. "You told me you killed them. You let me believe-"

"I wanted to save you." He took a step closer, careful, like I was a wild animal about to bolt. "I saved you from this truth because it would break you. And it has. Look at you."

The boy whimpered. Storm's gaze flicked to him again. His nostrils flared. "He's still alive?"

"Don't." My voice came out like a blade. "Don't you dare try to finish him off."

Storm's lips curled, not quite a sneer, not quite a smile. "You think I'd kill him now? After everything? No. I'm not the monster here."

Something inside me snapped. "So then who is? Huh? Me? Do not call me a monster."

He tilted his head. "You called me a monster once because of these types of actions, I'm sorry does the qualification change when it's you?"

I flinched, he continued "I'm sorry, look, I didn't mean that."

The boy made a noise, somewhere between a sob and a cough, and tried to crawl away. Storm's boots shifted on the wet grass. I moved before he could, planting myself between him and the boy, hands raised. The silver light sparked again, but this time it felt jagged, fractured.

"Echo," Storm said softly, his voice a knife wrapped in velvet. "If you use it now, it'll tear you apart, you're not steady, you're remembering, but you're not whole. Put your hands down and stop with the power bullshit."

"Ha, are you afraid I'll snap again?" I asked.

"No, I'm afraid you'll exert all your powers, you're not strong enough right now."

"Saving him matters, even if I have to lose all my powers in the process, this was my destruction, it's the least I can do."

The boy groaled. "Get. the. fuck. away. from. me."

Images cracked through my mind, screaming, the smell of iron, a silver blur. Storm's hands on my arms, his voice pleading. My laughter, high, sharp, nothing like me.

The kiss.

Holy fuck I kissed him.

I staggered back, shaking. "Why didn't you kill me?"