Page 53 of Ghoul Me, Maybe

---

Wading chest-deep into the surf.

Wreckage breaking the waterline behind her like bones too stubborn to sink.

“Sienna!” I shout.

She doesn’t turn.

Of course she doesn’t.

I run, stumbling through foam and kelp until the tide’s up to my waist and I can grab her arm.

She jerks around, eyes blazing. “Let me go.”

“No.”

“I have to do this, Elias. He died for this. I’m not letting it end with another person I love being lost because I waited too long.”

“I’mnotJonas,” I growl.

“No,” she snaps. “You’re worse. Because youcould’ve stayed.And youdidn’t.”

I reel back like she hit me.

She exhales, trembling. “I’m not mad at you for being cursed. I’m mad you think that’s all you are.”

I don’t answer.

Because she’s right.

She steps back, closer to the wreck, water churning around her like it knows what’s coming.

“This relic,” she says, voice cracking, “It’s a memory. A prison. And I’m going to end it. If that means binding myself to it, fine. If it means tearing it out of the sea with blood and fire—thenso be it.”

“You’ll die,” I whisper.

She shrugs. “Then I die on my terms.”

My hand shakes.

“I can’t lose you.”

“You already did.”

And she dives.

One heartbeat.

Two.

The surface closes like a secret.

And I go after her, because I’d rather be damned a hundred times over than let her be alone when the wreck takes its final breath.

CHAPTER 20

SIENNA

The wreck doesn’t want me.

---