SEVENTY-FOUR | BEST LAID PLANS

Elijah

It had been a month.

Scratch that. It had been the worst month of Elijah’s life – worse than when his parents had died, forcing him to shift young at age twelve and take on the responsibility of being Sea Pine’s Alpha. It was worse than when Leahne had rejected him. It was worse –

It was worse than everything, because he had been so close. He had almost saved her. She had been in his grasp, and then… She was gone. Just like that.

“What do I do?” he mumbled, looking over the cliff’s edge and down, down, into the sea. He was a fire faelen, but sometimes it felt as though the water were his only friend.

He twisted her mother’s garnet ring around her finger. At first, the knot of emotion in his chest had swelled, too thick and too fast and too full of guilt, for him to be glad he had it. He knew he should’ve encouraged her more to keep it, but as the weeks had bled into one another Elijah had been glad of the small comfort it afforded him. He had a piece of her, even if she no lon