Chapter 259

Carter

It was over.

Her effect on me was now gone.

At least… for now.

But I knew that it wouldn’t last for long. She was going to try again and I might have to fight again. But I knew now that I could, that I didn’t need to keep running away, but I did not need to keep hiding.

The mist was gone from my skin, but it lingered in my chest. It made me alive, but I knew that I couldn’t do anything about it. I just watched in silence as the memory played in my mind. A cold memory. Like ash after the fire. I could still hear her sometimes, in the silence between blinks, in the hollow spaces of my breath.

It was hard for me to keep thinking about it, but I knew that if I did not hold on to it, I wouldn’t be able to stop. All of this was not going to stop.

But I’d resisted. I resisted her.

I’d stopped myself. I didn’t kill Lysandra.

I didn’t charge her like she wanted me to. I did not listen to the voices that played in my mind.