ONYX✔️

Chapter 49

Finn had dissolved the entire flower into dust. I stared at the dust settled in his palm until the wind picked up, and the dust swirled out of his palm and into the air, never to be seen again.

"I... You... What?" I say incoherently, completely dumbstruck.

Finn wipes his hand off on his shoulder. "Kallista calls it 'dusting'. Kind of an inside joke. But... yeah."

I'm sure my mouth was dropped open and almost on the ground. "You can just turn things into dust?"
Finn nods.

"Even people?"

Finn looks away. "Yeah. I did it once, accidentally. When I was younger. Kallista and I came across a rogue when we were outside playing, and it just happened. Out of instinct, maybe. It was the first time I used it."

I was speechless. But weirdly enough... I wasn't scared. Kallista was right. He did understand the Darkness, just as well as I did.

"Onyx?" Finn said worriedly. "I meant it when I said I don't use it to people."

I shake my head in disbelief. "No- I know. I believe you. Something... similar happened to me when I was young, too."

Killian. The reason I had been kicked out of Crimson Shadow.

"We aren't our Gifts, you know," Finn says quietly as he takes my hand in his much warmer one. "The ability to destroy doesn't mean we have to. I know you don't want to hurt anyone. I don't either."

I stared into his green eyes, and I couldn't believe how much of me he sees. I feel understood, in a way I didn't know was possible.

The sun had finally set, and the only light came from the moon, which was bright enough that I could see enough of Finn to really see how attractive he is. He looked kind of adorable in his green flannel and jeans, and his light brown hair was slightly tousled in a handsome way. My heart pounds in my chest when he leans in, and his lips are mere centimeters away from mine.

"W-wait," I stammer out. "I can't do this, Finn. I'm so sorry. You're a really nice guy, like seriously the nicest guy I've ever met, and obviously you're attractive, like, super hot. But I just can't give you more, not in the way you want. Not after... you know."

I couldn't deny that I was attracted to Finn. Anyone would be. He had the purest heart out of anyone I know, kidnapping aside, and even more significantly, he seemed to truly understand every part of my soul.

But Thane had destroyed any chance I had at true love. As much as I hate him, he's my mate, and therefore the only one that I would have been able to fall in love with. And when he ripped out Greyson's heart, he had ripped out mine as well. I wouldn't ever be able to trust someone again, and wouldn't be able to love as freely as I once had.

Finn nods, withdrawing his hand and pulling away. "I understand," He says with a small smile. "I wouldn't ever, you know, want to pressure you."

That just makes my heart break even more. He's perfect, so perfect it makes my head spin. Thane and I had been fighting before I left about Marking, and he was so insistent on doing it, and here Finn was, giving me all of the time I wanted.

"You should find someone else," I tell him, even though the words make my stomach turn. "I can't love or trust anyone after him. But you're a great guy, Finn. You would make another girl really happy, I know it."

He shakes his head slowly, his eyes piercing through me. "You know I can't do that, Onyx. There's nobody else I want. It's fine if you don't want to be with me. Really, it is. I can live with having you in my life as a friend. But make no mistake. There is nobody else I could ever want as much as I want you."