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I see it the moment the woman stops breathing. Feel it as her life force leaves this plane.

She was human. A beta. A person. Someone who didn’t get a choice in the life they lived. For all I know, she wasn’t even a bandit. Just a lonely traveler trying to find somewhere safe for the night.

And Saren killed her.

Just fucking ate her.

The whip cracks forward, landing by his feet. He drops the woman’s corpse. His eyes return to their normal color, but they’re swimming with tears. He trembles from head to toe. “I need more,” he cries. “I always need fucking more!”

I’m angry, confused, and even more horrible, concerned. The pulse senses that my emotions are high, but I’m in control, so it heeds my command and disappears into my palm.

“I didn’t mean to take so much. I only meant to take a few emotions, maybe early memories she’d already forgotten. But I couldn’t stop. I couldn’t—”

“What the fuck are you?” I demand, slipping my gloves on and crouching to inspect her. I check for a pulse, but as I already suspected, she doesn’t have one. “What the fuck!”

Covering his face with filthy hands, Saren sobs.

I can’t stomach watching him bawl his eyes out, so I grab the woman’s ankles and drag her over to the tent. From there, I wrap her in the worn, hole-ridden blanket. A quick perusal of her things tells me what I expected. Not a bandit. I pinch the bridge of my nose and breathe.

He’s a Mindeater. What did you expect? This is what they do. It’s who he’s always been.

My hands are shaking so bad by the time I exit the tent that I’m not confident I won’t lash out. My brain tells me he needs to be put down like a rabid animal—that he’s too dangerous to bring around Kaya or Nina and definitely not around Salem. I can find them without his help. I don’t need him to tell me a fucking thing about New Grove. My fate is unstoppable. I’ll never find my bonded and stop this curse from killing all that I am.

Nina and Kaya are the future.

Salem is the mastermind.

They’re important, not me.

“You need to go,” I say, my voice unsteady. “You need to go right now.”

His head snaps up, eyes red-rimmed and pathetic. My stomach pinches uncomfortably, instincts insisting I fix whatever is making him cry. I ignore them. “Leave, Saren.”

“This is what happens when I push myself too hard. This is what I became when you forgot me!”

I wince. The pain in his voice is too real—too genuine.

I can’t listen to another second.

“Don’t follow me,” I rasp, adjust my bag strap, and turn on my heel.

“You dragged me out here! You!”

“And I change my mind!” I roar, facing him once more. I throw my hands in the air and let him fucking have it. “I have been on my own since before you were even born! I don’t need you! You’re a parasite, a leech, and fucking Mindeater! Why would I ever want someone like that around people I care about? People I love? Get the fuck out of my sight, Saren. I. Don’t. Want. You. Here.”

Fresh tears stream down his cheeks, but he doesn’t move an inch. Stubborn as always.

No. Fuck. Not now.

“Why did you leave me all alone?!”

I hear Saren screaming. Why is he screaming? I thought it was just a test?

I get up from the bed and crack the door open. He’s crying, yelling, and throwing things. I don’t know him well, but there’s something in my chest telling me I need to go down those stairs. I need to fix it. He’s not always nice, but he’s nicer than anyone has been to me in a long time.

Maybe he’s like me.

Afraid.