The location I sent Lewis was close to the beach. He must have guessed there would be a night market nearby. He probably ca with nothing but hope in his chest one slim chance that fate would push into his arms.
I had warned him not to move blindly. But to Lewis, even a tiny opening was worth bleeding for.
And sohow... it worked.
The mont Yael walked off toward a candy apple vendor, I didn’t think. I just moved. My body chose Lewis before my mind could even catch up.
I ran to him.
He pulled behind a thick tree, out of the lights, out of the crowd, and wrapped in his arms so tight it felt like he was trying to fuse back into his ribs. Like if he held hard enough, I couldn’t be taken again.
I clung to him, breathing him in like air. His scent was familiar, but there was smoke in it now sharp and bitter.
He’d been smoking.
He never did that around before.
I swallowed the lump in my throat and forced my voice low. "Carl... don’t worry. I’m fine. I’m really fine."
His hands tightened like he didn’t believe .
"Elena," he rasped, voice rough like it had been scraped raw. "Co with ."
His eyes were bloodshot.
My heart sank.
Has he slept at all since I disappeared?
Guilt hit so hard I almost shook. I held his face for a second, thumb brushing his cheek, then I whispered, "I’m sorry, but I can’t leave yet. Whitney is still in their hands."
His face changed instantly. The tenderness pulled back, replaced by that hard calm he wore when he was ready to tear through anyone who stood in his way.
"Elena," he said, jaw tight, "I don’t care about anyone else’s life but yours. Not even your sister’s. If helping her puts you in danger, I won’t allow it. You have to co with ."
His voice dropped lower, rougher. "Do you know what these days have been like for ?"
Panic rose in my chest, hot and desperate.
Because I wanted to go.
I wanted to run with him, disappear, breathe again. But Whitney’s face flashed in my mind pale, empty, still trying to help even before she knew who I was. A good soul trapped in a cage that wasn’t hers.
"There won’t be a better chance than now, Carl," I whispered. "Trust ."
His grip tightened on my wrist. "Elena, stop being stubborn."
He tried to pull .
So I stood on my toes and kissed him.
Fast. Soft. A hit of warmth ant to calm the storm inside him.
But it wasn’t enough.
If I left right now, Yael would punish Whitney for it. Maybe not kill her but hurt her in ways that would keep her alive and broken. That was worse. Whitney had already survived twenty years of pain.
I couldn’t hand her another day of it.
I pressed my forehead to Lewis’s and breathed, "Carl... please. Help . Help Whitney. Please."
His breath ca out heavy. His eyes dropped to the charm at my neck, the Stone of Duality, hanging like a promise and a threat all at once.
His mouth tightened.
Then, finally, he gave in.
He slid sothing cold into my palm a small dagger, dark and solid, like it had weight beyond tal. "Protect yourself," he said. "And stay in touch."
My fingers curled around it.
It wasn’t just a weapon.
I could feel it in my bones this was also his way of holding onto when he couldn’t hold my hand. A silent leash. A tracker. A promise: I’m not far.
He kissed then hard, fierce, like hunger, like anger, like relief. When he pulled back, his voice was low and steady.
"Don’t be afraid. I’m here."
And then he vanished into the crowd like he’d never been there at all.
I held the dagger tight, breathing through the tremble in my hands.
Yael’s plan was already crawling closer, hour by hour. He thought the stone on my neck mattered. He thought he was about to trade lives like it was business.
He didn’t know the real stone was gone.
His whole plan was built on air.
"Elena, what are you thinking?"
Yael’s voice snapped back.
He was standing in front of again, holding out a candy apple like we were just two normal people on a normal night. Relief loosened my chest when I realized he hadn’t noticed anything.
I forced my face into sothing soft, sothing sad.
"I was just thinking..." I said quietly, "if Whitney has even eaten one of these in all these years. She used to love them. The night we got separated, she had one in her hand, but..."
My eyes were already a little red. The sadness looked real because it was real.
Yael studied for a long second, then his expression softened in that unsettling way like he was proud of my pain.
"Elena," he said gently, "do you know why I like you? Because there’s no one as pure as you."
He pressed the candy apple into my hand and pinched my cheek like I was a pet. "Take it. I’ll get more."
He walked off again.
And I knew Lewis hadn’t gone far.
I didn’t turn fully, but I caught him in the corner of my vision tall, still, watching from the shadows like a silent guardian. People saw a crowd. They saw masks and noise and bright lights.
They didn’t see the danger standing right behind .
Lewis’s hands were clenched so tight his knuckles looked pale.
It must have taken everything in him not to grab and run.
The worst kind of distance isn’t life and death.
It’s standing close enough to touch... and still having to pretend you don’t know each other.
I barely moved my lips. "Carl... don’t do anything reckless."
His fists loosened slowly.
His mouth ford two words I felt more than I saw.
Be careful.
I nodded once and turned away fast before my face betrayed .
Yael ca back carrying a whole rack of candy apples, smiling like a boy who hadn’t ever done anything wrong.
"Elena," he said brightly, "I bought enough for you and Whitney."
I froze for half a second.
His smile was so clean it almost made sick. If I hadn’t already tasted death, I might have believed he was harmless.
"You must be hungry," he added. "Let take you sowhere nice to eat."
Lewis trailed us at a safe distance.
Just knowing he was there made my chest ache. It was like a quiet hum under my skin, steadying .
For a few monts, I kept imagining it running back, Lewis lifting , disappearing into the night. No guilt. No responsibility. No Whitney. Just freedom.
But reality always ca back like cold water.
Whitney’s pale face haunted .
If I had been the one who fell into the river that day, the pain would’ve been mine. But it wasn’t.
She carried it. Every day. For twenty years.
I abandoned her once.
I wasn’t doing it again.
I forced myself to look away and stop searching the crowd for Lewis.
Carl... I’m sorry.
Yael didn’t notice the war in my chest. If he noticed anything, he blad it on Whitney.
He loaded the rack into the trunk, humming to himself. But it was too long to fit. So he pulled out a heavy cleaver and started hacking at the wood like it was nothing.
Thwack. Thwack.
The sound made my stomach twist. My mind painted pictures I didn’t want wood turning to bone, laughter turning to screams.
When he turned to , my fear must have shown, because his eyes narrowed slightly.
Then he smiled again.
"Elena," he said, calm as ever, "you’re such a good girl. I’d never hurt you. Get in the car."
My legs felt weak.
He tilted his head. "Want to carry you?"
I jolted and scrambled into the passenger seat so fast my skirt tangled under . I slamd the door closed like it could protect .
My hands hovered over the handle anyway, trembling.
In the side mirror, I saw him again.
Lewis.
Right behind .
If I opened the door and ran, he would take .
My fingers shook over the latch, caught between love and duty, safety and sacrifice
and my chest felt like it might split in two.
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