Chapter 146

Glass crunched beneath my knees.

Rain poured from the sky so hard it blurred everything around me. I knelt in front of the crashed car. It was upside down.

I saw a little child. It was me. Little me. I was trapped in the back seat.

Tiny hands covered in blood pressed against the shattered window while terrified sobs echoed through the wreckage. The sharp, heavy smell of gasoline burned my nose. My father was dead. The driver beside him, too.

And outside—screams. Growls. The sounds of guards and rogues fighting.

Then I saw her. My mother.

Her body lay twisted against the crushed roof, blood dripping down her forehead while one shaking hand stretched desperately toward the child version of me.

“Emily…” she whispered weakly. “I’m sorry.”

Everything inside me fractured.

“Mama…” The word came out as a broken gasp.

Little Emily cried hysterically in the back seat while my mother tried to drag herself