Page 84 of Sent To A Fantasy World and Now All the Men Want Me 7

And I was right.

The darkness around me started to clear, like rolling black smoke. But the moment the scene came into view, I wished the darkness would have remained.

A scene of a stormy sky and a vast field of red spider lilies, their petals falling to the grass like drops of blood. Bodies appeared around those fallen petals, each flash of lightning revealing details that made me feel sick.

A body with silver hair and fluffy ears stained red. One with dark-auburn hair held together with a golden cuff. A pair of glasses with the frames busted, the man they belonged to face down and too still. The fourth body lay on his back, his chocolate brown eyes open but not seeing.

I slapped my hands over my mouth, too horrified and shocked to make a sound. The sound came all too soon, though, tearing through my throat like a wailing cry. I’d rather die a thousand deaths than see the men I loved like this.

However, the elixir had wanted me to see it. Why? Just to freaking torture me?

“Please, sweetheart.” The voice was so full of grief I barely recognized it as Maddox’s. I’d never heard him sound so broken. “This isn’t you.”

I turned toward the direction of his voice. And quickly wished I hadn’t.

Maddox was on his knees a short distance away, blood splattered across his cheeks and on the front of his armor. A sword rested in his hand, though he had it lowered to the grass, either too exhausted to wield it. Or too heartbroken to do so.

Because the one standing in front of him? Someone with golden hair and aiming a malicious smile down at him?

It was me.

“You’re wrong,” the other Evan said, grabbing Maddox by the chin. “This is who I am. Who the world made me become.”

“No,” Maddox rasped, swallowing hard. “The man I love would never… he wouldn’t…”

“I did this for you.” Evil Evan motioned to the battle-stricken field around them. “For all of us. I destroyed our enemies, Maddox. So we could finally be happy.”

“For us?” A single tear slipped from his eye and rolled down his bloodstained cheek. “Look around you, sweetheart. Look at the casualties of your war. Lake. Rowan. Callum.” Another tear. “Briar. Even your demon lord. They’re all dead. How can we be happy now?”

Ice filled my veins. With it came understanding. The elixir had shown me my deepest, darkest fear. The fear that once my powers fully awoke, I’d lose myself and become the monster standing in front of me, that I’d let anger fuel my actions, resulting in the ones I loved getting hurt.

A fear that instead of saving the world, I’d bring it to ruin.

I woke with a gasp, finding myself back in the cot inside the clinic. Greeted by the sunlight coming through the window and surrounded by the faces I loved.

“Sweetheart?” Maddox shifted closer, concern in his eyes.

One look at him did me in. I started crying. Hard. The kind of sobs that shook my entire body.

“It’s okay, Ev.” Callum appeared beside Maddox, lightly ruffling the top of my hair in his familiar way. It made me cry harder. “We’ve got you.”

As the memory of his lifeless body flashed through my head, I lunged at him, throwing my arms around his neck and crying so hard I couldn’t catch my breath. I couldn’t hold him close enough. Couldn’t chase away that image.

The scent of magnolia blossoms joined the fray as Briar dropped down onto the cot, wrapping his arms around me from behind. Rowan and Lake followed suit, both reaching for me.

There was so much to tell them. Things I’d learned about my parents and the true reason why King Eidolon betrayed my dad. But I couldn’t get the words out. I was too busy reveling in the fact that they were safe and not lying lifeless on a battlefield somewhere.

As Maddox started to stand, I gripped his hand tighter, an ice-cold panic squeezed my chest.

“I’m not leaving, sweetheart,” he gently said. “I’m only fetching you a glass of water.”

I shook my head and tightened the grip on his hand, silently urging him to sit back down. Just like the image of my other men’s deaths, I couldn’t shake the brokenness in Maddox’s voice as he’d stared up at the other Evan.

It was a version of me I wouldn’t become. Refused to become.

No matter what.

Chapter Fifteen