The world is not what you think. Love isn't what it seems to be. Life is a cycle of magic. And Scarlet is the girl who has that magic. Once they called her a halfling, an aberration that shouldn't have existed but now others say she's special.
In a...
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The wildlings parted in front of us, the soulless made way for us to pass, neither suspecting our deception, none of them even glancing our way or trying to stop us. It felt like we walked for miles. It felt like I was so far away from where my mate fought his enemies that if I turned and ran back I was never going to reach him.
I was alone with two men who had both betrayed me, one of which had already claimed it had been all a game, the other still to give me his reason.
"I think we're far enough," Cole announced as we approached the group of people I'd thought I'd never see again.
Micah, Adam, Jazmine and Hunter were waiting for us in the middle of the road, the sounds of the battle hushed with the distance.
"Hopefully, they won't be able to reach us in time once Leila detects you," Cole told me and motioned toward the others. "We are going to do our best to keep them off, but you better hurry up because as soon as she's through with her fun she's going to look for you."
He let go of my elbow and went to join his friends.
"I'm sorry, Scarlet," Micah said, guilty eyes gleaming with tears that looked at me. "I never wanted to..." She choked on her words, those tears spilling out.
"I thought it would be all fun and games when I first joined Cole. I thought we'll get our revenge, be heroes and help others... I never thought that I'll have to kill... and in the end... in the end, I became a monster..." she trailed off, voice lost in her ragged breaths that were ripped out of her chest with the enormity of what she had realized about herself.
And it hurt. It broke my heart to see her so broken, hear her say something that I was guilty of thinking myself, know that she was right.
Perhaps there was a time when she was different—a normal girl, a person instead of a cold-blooded killer, but she was no longer that person. She was a monster and it was all I could see now, had seen in her for a while—in all of them, and I couldn't bring myself to try and convince her of the opposite.
"We're all monsters, Micah," I told her instead. "It doesn't matter if we use our hands, feelings or words. At one point or another, we all end up being the monster. It's just life that works this way."
Wiping the tears off, she held my gaze. "So you forgive me for what I did?"
I shook my head. "A lot of water must flow before it washes off the bad blood between us, but if you're really going to do what Cole says, it might help."
She nodded. "Let's do this."
"I'll need a bit of space too," I piped in, glancing at Lucas. "You're going to help, right?"
"Is there any other reason I would tag along, Scarlet?" He rolled his eyes at me, a gentle smile tugging at his lips. "Of course, I'm going to help, or did you truly believe that I'd just desert you for Leila?"
