Unmasked | Book 1 in "Dark Descendants" (Editing)

Chapter 21

~Rose

I couldn't do it. And now that I stood there, holding the knife in a slipping grip with the very tip of the blade at his stomach, I knew I shouldn't have even bothered.

He had stopped me, catching my wrist in the nick of time. As his expression became impossibly colder and less friendly, it clicked. What had I done?

I was breathing hard, unevenly. He raised my wrist from his stomach, glancing at the knife in my hand. The anger was evident in his narrowed eyes.

I didn't even try to weasel my way out of this. I stayed in whatever position I was moved into. Staring right into my eyes, silently conveying his disappointment in my actions, his free hand closed around the blade of the knife.

Something in his expression caused my legs to wobble. My breaths came out loud and I involuntarily let my fingers release the hilt. Resisting now would make him even angrier.

He let me go and examined the knife, knowing fully well that I wouldn't try anything else. "Strange how you got a hold of this." He spoke as if he knew about the knife's existence.

I finally found my voice. "Fallon, I—" 

"Don't. Bother," he interrupted. I could see he was struggling to contain himself. "I've seen enough."

He turned around and started walking away. My chest heaved. That look, those eyes...He stared at me as if I had betrayed him.

That was exactly what I had done. I deserved it.

I hurried to catch up with him, squinting in the darkness. His face was nonchalant, emotionless. It seemed as if he put up another wall, blocking me out of his mind.

Why the hell had I listened to her?

"Wait," I begged, speed walking next to him. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be." He didn't even look at me. Was I that much of an abomination? Deep down I knew I deserved it, but that didn't stop it from hurting. "It's nothing out of the ordinary."

"It is for me," I prompted. I ran to stand in front of him, stopping him from going any further. As expected, he halted and looked at me irritably. "And I'm sorry. Please."

I had grabbed fistfuls of the black material of his shirt, avoiding the jacket, and gazed up at him pleadingly. I couldn't lose him, I needed him.

If I hadn't known better, I would have believed his gaze softened for a split second before it returned to impassive. He grabbed my hand and shoved something cold and metal into it, closing my fingers over it. He stared at me with his newly formed mask the whole time. "...Don't be." And those were his last words. That was all he had to say.

I closed my mouth, struggling to keep my lips from trembling as tears pricked at the corner of my eyes. He continued on his way, holding the knife in one hand.

Lightning lit up the sky for a short moment, the sky seemed to fade back to darkness particularly slowly. I slowly opened my hand and stared at my palm. I bit my lip. It was my necklace, clean and sacredly beautiful as ever. For the first time in a long time, I cried for a boy who wasn't related to me. Even as the first drops of ran pattered down, slowly turning to a heavy shower that soaked through my clothes.

I hurt him. I tried to kill him and now he hates me.

I raised my hand to my hair, delicately brushing the wet strands away from my face. I shouldn't have listened to her. I shouldn't have believed her. When she said she'd bring my family back, I was overcome by the reward that I wasn't thinking it through before accepting.