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“Remind me why you have this weird anger toward her again?”

If he only knew. “It isn’t weird. You know exactly what she is.”

“‘What she is?’ Sounds like your uncle talking.”

My jaw hardens. To be compared to him in any light is enough to make my stomach roll. I want to be nothing like that man.

“How did she even end up here?” Ashen continues with the questions.

It wasn’t by accident Sumner basically found her way to my doorstep. I didn’t know when, but I knew she was coming. I made sure she was. I’m also making damn sure she doesn’t leave.

“Don’t know,” I answer with a shrug. Lying to my best friend isn’t a habit I normally fall into, but my backstory with Sumner isn’t a simple one. It’s also not one I’d ever planned on sharing. My grudge toward the girl with bicolor eyes is my own, and it’s very, very personal. She isn’t only taking up my space and time, she’s taken over my entire life, even before her arrival.

Sumner is like an illness that won’t go away. It doesn’t matter that her legs are so much longer than I’d expected, or how full the curves of her lips are when she smiles. So fucking what if the lull of her voice caught me off guard the first time I’d heard it. I hate her more for those things.

We end our break, making our way along the Whispering River. It’s extra quiet today, leaving too much room for my maddening thoughts. They’re always the same. It’s either her or them, the demons to come…the one living inside of me.

When the silence grows too loud, Ashen looks my way. “What I said about your uncle earlier, I didn’t mean anything by it.”

“I know.” It still stung though.

“You aren’t going to end up like him. I’ll be there to make damn sure of it.” He bumps my shoulder in a playful nudge, trying to be encouraging. “How’s all that been going, by the way?”

The sun beats down on my back, hot and mocking. I kick a stone from the path in front of me, feeling a quiver beneath my skin as the shadow stirs. It’s always there, living, breathing, clawing to get out. I used to have better control. Now, its thoughts are mixed with my own. Sometimes I don’t know who’s talking.

“Getting worse,” I admit. “Especially around her.”

“The human?” I nod in response to his question. “Should she be staying with you then?”

Probably not. Her arrival was…untimely. Still, I’ve waited too long to just let her go. For now, it’s contained to me alone. “She’ll be fine.”

“And what about you?” he continues, already knowing what my answer will be. It’s the same every time he asks.

“Fine.” I used to think it was true. I’m not so sure anymore. Not with how little time is left. The days are going by faster than I can keep track of.

I’ve always known this was coming, and I am still unprepared. The changes have already started, letting me know just how close to fucked I am. I know what to expect…sort of. I didn’t know how much I’d feel it, how much the human’s presence would alter it. I’m not sure if it’s fully my hate anymore, or its. Technically, we’re one in the same. Only it is so much worse. The very darkest part of me.

I have too much going on to think about that. For now, my full focus is on Sumner.

Maybe I should be concerned with how far this unhealthy obsession has gone, because I don’t only want her hurt, I want to be the one who hurts her. That’s how I know Ashen is wrong about me. I’m no different than my uncle at all. I’m the very same. Down to my blackened marrow.

CHAPTER TEN

RHENN

“Control it.” I hear my dad’s voice in the back of my mind. “It belongs to you. Take control.”

My eyes stay clamped shut, breathing deep but even. It aches in my bones, like the growing pains of a child, only worse, because it’s growing inside of me. Taking up all the space. Leaving me with nothing more than the constant irritation which gnaws beneath my skin.

It’s ready to come out. So close to ready. I couldn’t fight it even if my life depended on it, and, in a sense, it kind of does. To lose it would be to lose myself. To keep it… I still wish it wasn’t an option.

Today’s harder than most, leaving me dizzy and nauseous as fuck. I’m not exactly sure what I’m supposed to do, so I’m stuck here, yearning yet again for the wisdom of my dad. Neither of us expected that he wouldn’t be here to teach me this.

I feel it in my throat, threatening to block my airway. I feel it in my hands, forcing my fingers to curl. It’s everywhere. Just like her.

A constant torment.

I’m supposed to be figuring all this out, learning how to navigate this curse, but I can’t concentrate, because the living thorn keeps popping up. She’s taken over every inch of me, eating into my thoughts like the disease I’ve always known she is.