Page 135 of Claimed In Darkness

And I have no room left for regret.

Not when he is the last thing tethering me to the world I am meant to leave behind.

He loved me, didn’t he? Even if he never said it.

I felt it in the way his hands lingered.

When his voice softened,just enough to let me slip inside. He would rather die than let me go.

But he should have known better.

I am not something to be kept.

There’s no holding me back.

I am something to be used.

This idea seems perfect, I don’t resent it.

I don’t fight it anymore.

This was always going to end this way.

Deep down, he knows this will happen.

I lean over him, just enough to feel the warmth of his breath. He’s breathing and alive while I’m neither.

He stirs, lips parting slightly, breath uneven.

I wonder what he’s dreaming about.

Does he feel it?

I wonder if he feels it coming, the way an animal senses a predator before the killing blow.

And still, I hesitate.

I want to remember.

The feel of his eyes on me.

The warmth of his touch when I was still something human.

I want to remember when he tried to save me, when I didn’t want to be saved.

After this—he will never look at me like that again.

He will only see what I have become.

I touch him one last time.

His lashes flutter, lips parting slightly.

His body knows before his mind does.

Some deep, primal part of him senses what is happening—that I am about to slip away.

And still, he doesn’t stop me because he knows I won’t let him.

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