A fresh silver wound gapes across her back—Miles’s last shot.
“No…” I press my hands to the wound. “No, stay with me, Lizzie—please—”
She smiles softly. “I’m… finally free.”
And then she dies in my arms.
I don’t know how long I stay in the rubble, holding her.
Caleb sits beside me, silent, his wounds healing but his soul bleeding.
At dawn, he touches my shoulder gently. “Isabella…”
“Don’t.” My voice is hollow. “You all used her. Miles. You. Even me.”
“I love you,” he whispers.
The words slice deeper than any blade.
“Love?” I look at him, numb and burning. “Your love imprisoned her. My love was too late. Miles’s love twisted into hate. We all destroyed her in the name of love.”
He has no answer.
I lay Lizzie down and stand. The silver dagger is still in my hand.
“Kill me,” Caleb says quietly, closing his eyes. “If that’s what you need.”
I raise the dagger—
and throw it into the forest.
“No,” I whisper. “Death is mercy. Your punishment is living. Remembering. Carrying tonight for the rest of your life.”
I walk away, every step cutting me open.
“Isabella!”
His voice cracks behind me.
I don’t turn.
If I do, I’ll run back to him.
Forgive him.
Forget my sister dying in my arms.
London wakes under a soft dawn, ordinary people starting ordinary days.
And I am no longer ordinary.
In my workshop, the last specimen waits—a pendant crafted from Miles’s silver bullet and Lizzie’s favorite blue ribbon.
Outside, a lone wolf howls through the morning fog.
A call.
A farewell.
A wound that will never close.
My fingers brush the pendant as I whisper to the one who will never hear it:
“I love you too. That’s why I had to walk away.”
Six months.
London’s rain was still the same—like tears the sky never got tired of shedding. My specimen workshop smelled of formalin and regret. And every night, those amber eyes hunted me through my dreams.
Master James said I’d changed. He wasn’t wrong. I wasn’t the girl fueled by revenge anymore, nor the woman who once believed in love. I was just… hollow.
Until that afternoon, when I pushed open the door of my workshop and found him standing there.
Caleb.
He was leaning against the specimen table, fingers trailing over the ear of a white wolf mount. He looked thinner, the shadows beneath his eyes as deep as mine. And when our eyes met, the whole world froze.
“Isabella.” He said my name like a prayer.
My heart went wild, but my voice came out strangely even. “How did you find me?”
“I always knew where you were.” His gaze swept over my face like a physical touch. “I watched your window from across the street every day.”
The words should’ve frightened me. Instead, they made something in my chest break.
“Get out,” I said, though my voice trembled.
“No.” He stepped forward, and suddenly the air was filled with cedar and memories. “I gave you six months. Now it’s your turn to listen.”
Instinct made me move back, until my spine hit the cold door. “We have nothing to talk about.”
“Nothing?” He let out a bitter laugh. “The day you left, I destroyed the entire manor. Burned everything that belonged to Lizzie. Fired all the staff. Because every corner carried your shadow, Isabella. Not hers. Yours.”
My breath snagged. He was too close now—I could see myself reflected in his eyes.
“That night in the cellar,” he rasped, “I found you not because you looked like Lizzie. I found you because you stood in the dark with a silver dagger and eyes burning like stars. And in that moment, I knew—”
“Don’t.” I covered my ears. Too late.
“I fell in love with you.” He gently lowered my hands, his palm burning against mine. “Not because you’re her sister. Not because you resemble anyone. Because you are you.”
Tears blurred my vision. “You’re lying.”
“Then look at this.” He unbuttoned his shirt, revealing his chest—right over his heart was a silver scar, shaped like my dagger.
“What… did you do?”
“Every full moon,” he whispered, “when the pain of shifting became unbearable, I touched the dagger to this spot. Let the silver burn me. So I’d remember that loving you hurt more than anything else—yet I still wanted it.”
I broke.
Like a dam bursting, like six months of walls collapsing all at once. He pulled me into his arms, and I cried like a lost child.
“I missed you,” I choked against his chest. “Every single day.”
His arms tightened. His lips pressed into my hair. “I know, my love. I know.”