Chapter 101
Chapter 101
Chapter 101
I’m sorry. I’m so fucking sorry, but I can’t do this anymore.
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I can’t wake up next to the man who killed my father. I can’t wear a crown built on his blood. I can’t love you the way you deserve to be loved when every time I look at you, I see the choice you made that destroyed my family.
You sent him to war. You knew he would die. And maybe you had reasons–good reasons, strategic reasons, kingly reasons. Maybe it was necessary for the good of your pack, your territory, your reign.
But he was my father.
And you took him from me.
I’ve tried to reconcile these two truths: that you’re the man I love, and that you’re the man who killed the person I loved first. I’ve tried to find a way to forgive you, to move past it, to build a future on the ruins of my past.
I can’t.
The bond makes it worse, not better. Every time you touch me, every time you look at me like I’m your entire world, every time you build me art studios and promise me forever–it just reminds me that I should hate you. That any daughter worth her salt would choose justice over love.
So I’m choosing.
I’m sorry I’m not strong enough to face you. Sorry I’m not brave enough to say this to your face. Sorry I’m taking the coward’s way out.
But I think, maybe, we’re both better off this way.
You’ll move on. Find someone worthy of being your queen. Someone who can love you without reservation, without grief, without the ghost of her father standing between you.
And I’ll be free.
Free from the impossible choice. Free from loving my father’s killer. Free from myself.
This isn’t your fault. You were being a king. I’m just a girl who couldn’t handle the cost.
Thank you for the art studio. For the vacation. For loving me the way you did.
I’m sorry I couldn’t love you back the same way.
I’m sorry I’m not enough.
I’m sorry.
– Sorin
I read it three times, tears blurring the words, before carefully sliding it back into the envelope and taping it to the back of
the canvas.
Let him find it when he’s ready.
Let this painting be the last thing I give him–beauty and truth and heartbreak all wrapped together.
“It’s time” Marg says gently. “If you’re really doing this, we need to go now. Before anyone notices.”
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Chapter 101
I stand, my legs shaky, and look around the studio one final time
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This room–this beautiful, sun–soaked room that Alaric built for me with such careful attention–will be my monument. The place where the Queen who never was left her final masterpiece.
“Okay.” I whisper. “I’m ready.”
Night has fallen by the time we move through the passages.
Marg leads me through corridors I’ve never seen before–servants‘ routes, hidden staircases, the secret architecture of the pack that exists beneath its polished surface. Places where Omegas move unseen, where the real work of maintaining an empire happens away from noble eyes.
We don’t speak. Don’t dare risk it.
My bag–small, nondescript, containing almost nothing–is slung across my shoulder. Everything I’m taking from this life fits in a single backpack.
Funny how you can condense an entire existence into so little.
We reach a narrow passage that smells like dust and old stone, and Marg stops.
“This leads outside the pack borders,” she whispers. “About half a mile from the northern cliffs. Tessa’s waiting with the… with everything you need.”
I nod, not trusting my voice.
She hugs me suddenly, fiercely, and I hug her back just as hard.
“Thank you,” I manage. “For everything. For believing me. For helping me. For-”
“Don’t.” Her voice cracks. “Don’t thank me. Just… be safe. Be happy. Be alive.”
“I will.”
She pulls back, wiping her eyes, and then we start moving again.
The passage is dark and narrow, barely wide enough for one person. I follow Marg’s silhouette, my heart pounding so hard I’m surprised it doesn’t echo off the walls.
We’re almost at the exit when I see her.
Tully.
She’s standing at the end of the passage, tears already streaming down her face, arms crossed like she’s been waiting for hours.
“You didn’t think I wouldn’t know, did you?” Her voice is thick with emotion. “You two, planning this whole thing without me?”
My heart shatters completely.
“Tully”
“I’m not going to stop you,” she interrupts, and a sob breaks through “I know why you’re leaving Murg told me everything. And … I understand. I do. But you thought” Another sob. “You thought you could leave without saying goodbye!
I cross the remaining distance and poll her into my arms, and she clungs to me like I’m the only thing keeping her upright
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Chapter 101
“I’m sorry,” I choke out. “I’m so sorry, I just thought–I didn’t want to hurt you. Didn’t want to put you in danger-
“I don’t care about danger.” She pulls back, her face blotchy and wet. “I care about you. You’re my friend, Sorin. My sister. And I needed–I needed to see you one more time.”
Marg joins the hug, and for a moment we’re just three girls holding each other in a dark passage, crying for everything we’re about to lose.
When we finally break apart, Tully wipes her eyes with the back of her hand and tries to smile.
“You were a good queen,” she says. “Even if it was only for a little while.”
“You’ve been a great Queen and Luna,” Marg adds, her voice steady despite the tears. “As short as it may have been. But more than that? You’ve been a great friend.”
I can’t speak. Can’t form words around the grief choking me.
So I just nod, and wipe my own tears, and try to memorize their faces one last time.
“I have to go,” I finally manage.
They nod.
I turn toward the exit, toward freedom and death and whatever comes after.
“Sorin?” Tully’s voice stops me. “I love you. We both do.”
“I love you too,” I whisper.
Then I walk away.
I don’t look back.
If I look back, I’ll stay. And if I stay, I’ll die anyway–just slower, more painfully, piece by piece until there’s nothing left of the girl I used to be.
The passage opens onto forest, dark and thick and mercifully empty.
I pull out the burner phone and check Tessa’s pin.
The cliffs are close. Maybe a ten–minute walk.
I text her: On my way.
Her response is immediate: Everything’s ready. The body’s in place. Just… be careful.
Careful.
Right.
Because I’m about to fake my death by jumping off a cliff while a mangled corpse takes my place.
What could possibly go wrong?
The walk feels both endless and far too short.
Trees give way to rocks. Rocks give way to open air.
And then I’m standing at the edge of the cliff, staring down at darkness and crashing waves and certain death for anyone
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Chapter 101
who actually makes this jump.
Tessa’s done good work.
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There’s already a body down there–positioned just right, face destroyed beyond recognition, dressed in clothes similar to mine. From a distance, in the dark, after a fall like this?
It’ll be me.
As far as anyone knows, the Queen couldn’t live with her grief and threw herself into the sea.
Tragic. Poetic. Final.
My phone buzzes.
You sure about this? Tessa’s message reads. Once you jump, there’s no going back.
I stare at the screen for a long moment.
Think about Alaric, probably sleeping in some war camp right now, dreaming of coming home to me.
Think about Marg and Tully, walking back through those passages alone.
Think about my father, dead because of a king’s command.
Think about the girl I used to be, before bonds and betrayal and impossible choices.
I type back: I’m sure.
Then I take a breath.
And I jump.
୦
曲
AD