LWILLA

I saw red. Literal red.

Fury boiled hot and violent in my veins, burning away every trace of fear and hesitation like acid.

I lowered my partner’s body carefully to the ground, then shot to my feet with a speed that surprised even me.

A strength I had never felt before surged through my body like wildfire — raw, ancient, and completely unstoppable. It flooded my muscles, sharpened my senses, and set every nerve alight with power.

"Show yourself!" I challenged, voice ringing with newfound fury.

"Beautiful," the voice purred with wicked enthusiasm. "This is exactly what I wanted to see. The first surge of your power... and oh my...!"

"Begone, you evil thing," I growled, slamming the voice down with every ounce of will I had.

Unlike Nyra, who would retreat to the back of my mind when I pushed, this thing didn’t.

It roared.

Pain exploded through my skull like shattered glass. Claw-like fingers dug into every nerve ending, searching, tearing, finding nothing. The strength that had surged through me moments ago began to vanish — sucked out of me as if through a straw, leaving me hollow and weak.

I fell to my knees with a broken groan. It worsened. I collapsed fully onto the rocky ground near my partner, writhing, sobbing, screaming until my throat felt raw.

"Stop!" I whimpered.

It didn’t. It seemed to enjoy my agony.

"What do you want?" I choked out between sobs. "I’ll do it. I won’t question you... just stop."

The pain vanished instantly. I released a sharp, ragged breath, blinking away the tears blurring my vision.

"This should be the last time you try to rebuke me," the voice said coldly.

My jaw trembled. Fresh tears gathered in my eyes despite my efforts to hold them back. My vision swam.

I looked at my partner, still sprawled lifeless on the ground. Another boy was dead because of me. It didn’t even matter which one anymore.

Two people were dead.

I was cursed.

I curled into myself, letting the anger and grief consume me completely. I cried until I couldn’t anymore — until my breaths came in rapid gasps, until my head spun and the only sound left was the wind howling.

I didn’t move from the ground. I just lay there, empty. I should have accepted the offer to die on that bridge that day.

Everything would have stopped. This pain — I swallowed hard, glancing to my left — it would have ended.

I stared at the edge of the cliff for a long time.

The sheer drop seemed to pull at me, the dark water churning far below like an open mouth waiting to swallow me whole.

A terrifying thought pushed through the chaos in my head.

Jump, Willa.

I had always been scared of deep water and heights. The mere idea of stepping off something this high and plummeting into the violent waves below sent another wave of fear crashing through me. But it wasn’t like before. Not as intense. Not as paralyzing.

You won’t feel pain.

The dark thought whispered again, seductive and soft.

You’d be dead before you know it.

That sounded far more reassuring than anything else had in a long time.

I rose to my feet, legs shaky, and walked slowly toward the edge.

"You are not thinking straight, Willa," Nyra’s voice echoed urgently in my head.

"This is the straightest I’ve ever thought," I muttered, voice hollow.

"You can’t kill yourself," she pleaded.

"Oh, watch me," I answered.

"I’ll die too."

"That’s the point." Death. That was exactly what I wanted.

You’d have thought all the abuse I endured in the orphanage would have killed me. Or even the torment from the Baker household.

I kept surviving everything thrown at me.

I had believed there was a bigger plan. Where there was life, there was hope. I had been given the will to live over and over again.

Nyra had made me cherish it.

I wished I had known earlier this was the kind of hope waiting for me... I wouldn’t have fought so hard to stay alive.

I stopped at the very edge, staring down into the deep, bottomless water crashing against the rocks far below. A sudden dizziness washed over me. My stomach plummeted and a cold sweat broke out across my skin.

I took one trembling step back. "I’ll just close my eyes and jump," I whispered. "It’ll be over soon after."

"Normally, I wouldn’t have cared if you decided to kill yourself," the annoying voice vibrated through my head.

I pushed it aside.

"However, I can’t watch you kill yourself," it continued.

I didn’t care what it wanted. It was my life.

"You gave your life to me," it replied smoothly. "I have every right to do as I see fit with it."

"Go fuck yourself," I snapped.

A blinding pain seared through me instantly. I clutched my head, falling hard to my knees on the rocky ground.

"I told you to watch the way you speak to me," it stated, then tutted. "You’re lucky I still have a need for you. Otherwise, I’d personally push you myself."

Please. I wanted that more than anything right now.

Instead, something gripped the back of my blazer and I was yanked backward. At first I thought it was the voice in my head, until I was suddenly enveloped in a bone-crushing hug.

Then their scents hit me all at once — familiar, warm, and overwhelming.

My eyes, which I hadn’t realized were closed, snapped open. They locked onto three unfamiliar faces whose eyes were narrowed on mine.

Reinforcements?

I looked past them, searching desperately.

No Kol. No Eric. No Elliott? Then the person currently holding me so tightly...

"You’re okay," Lance murmured, voice rough with relief.

"Lance," I breathed.

"You’re okay," he repeated, like he needed to convince himself.

I wasn’t. I could never be okay again. I stared blankly at my partner’s broken body on the ground. The three boys were now crouched beside him, checking for vitals, searching for any sign of life.

"There’s no use," I said, barely audible. "He’s dead."

Lance pulled back from the hug. His hand snapped around my wrist, and he dragged me away from the cliff’s edge. I had no energy left to resist. I followed him like a lifeless puppet.

When we were at a safer distance, he stopped. His warm palms cupped my face, thumbs brushing gently over my tear-streaked cheeks.

"Are you hurt?" he asked, voice soft but urgent. His eyes moved frantically down the length of my body. When he found no obvious injuries, his gaze returned to my face, searching.

"Are you hurt?" he asked again, almost pleading.

I let out a shaky breath and forced a weak smile. "Does it matter what I feel?"

Lance’s brows furrowed deeply. The genuine concern on his face might have comforted me on any other day. It might have pushed back the darkness swirling in my head. But not now.

For a few seconds, I felt his eyes on me while mine looked anywhere but at him.

Then his grip on my shoulders tightened, almost bruising. He shook me hard, until my teeth rattled.

A low, feral rumble burst from his chest as he snarled in my face. "Are you crazy?!"

I flinched, taken aback by the raw fury in his voice.

"Were you trying to kill yourself back there?"

I studied his face. He looked absolutely furious — eyes blazing, jaw locked tight. If I told him the truth, he might try to strangle me.

That was still a death I’d almost welcome right now. But I didn’t think Lance would actually go through with it.

I chewed on my bottom lip, deliberately ignoring his question.

"Answer me!" he shouted, voice cracking with barely contained rage.

I shrugged out of his grip. "Why do you care if I try to do that or not?" My voice shook. "You’re not my father. You have no right to demand answers I don’t want to give!"

"I am your mate!" he thundered, "And you will answer me right now."

"Yes," I replied immediately, "I was trying to kill myself. So what are you going to do about it?"

Lance cursed under his breath. His hands clenched into tight fists at his sides, knuckles turning white. His face twisted with a mixture of rage, pain, and something deeper — something that looked almost like fear.

"Why?" he asked, his voice tight and strained. "Why would you want to do that?"

I shrugged carelessly. "There’s nothing worth living for."

Lance let out a disbelieving scoff. "Nothing worth living for?"

I nodded, unable to meet his eyes.

"Kol is dead. Eric is missing. And we just found out Dash died too," he jerked a finger toward my partner’s still body on the ground. "The boys are here because of you. I am here because of you. I am your mate."

"Damn it, Elyse," he continued. "Have you thought about how I’d feel? The pain I’d go through? The grief..."

I was selfish. No denying it. But this was the only way I could protect them from me. As long as I was near and alive, everything bad would keep happening to them.

"You promised to do anything," the voice pierced through my skull like ice, cold and demanding. "Now is the time."

"What do you want me to..."

"Kill all of them, Willa," the voice commanded. "Show me you are truly loyal to me."