Page 143 of Queen of Diamonds

Knight had said it. The impossible. The inevitable. I’d protected them just like I always would have.

I’d done everything for them, and now…I was here again.

Because of it.

It wasn’t fair.

Nothing was fair.

Anger warred with dread, knowing what was coming for me. The hopeless, all-encompassing knowledge that I had no choice. Not last time, not this time.

I had to find my conviction. I didn’t want to give him this, too—and that made me so angry.

My family.

My pack.

A life I’d seen a glimpse of.

And it was over.

Trembling violently, I ripped the glove box open, searching through the car until I found a pen and a blank space on the back of the car insurance.

With tears wetting the paper, I found the words, and wrote. The letter I needed to write to Ace, even if he wouldn’t see it.

Because they were for me.

For my mates.

So they would know the truth.

It took me half the hour I had left to find the right words, the right sentences, but finally, I was done, and my breaths were coming clearer, tears finally drying up.

Not because everything was okay.

But because I would survive with the choice I made.

And now they would know that, too.

At last, I sat on the broad stage, legs dangling over the edge in the dim emergency lights and exit signs that flickered dully.

It was quiet and cold in here, representative of what the rest of my life would look like.

They’d tried.

They’d done everything in their power, and I loved them for it. I loved them more than I ever had, and each minute I’d had with them was a gift I never thought I’d get.

But now it was over.

I hated the idea that I couldn’t believe in them, but this was so far beyond that. This was about fear I’d been given over years, and I was so broken, no one could have taken that away from me.

And this was about love—the thing I would never trade. Everything Ace preyed on, and every vulnerability he would never have.

I wasn’t weak for that, and neither were they. In the world in which we were raised, it took strength to love. It meant making dares of devils that would never stop chasing us.

“I will never let you fall.”

Kyan’s promise sounded in my head. I had fallen for it, and I would never regret doing that.

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