39. Ava
AVA
T he first thing I noticed when I woke was the couch beneath me, unfamiliar and wrong.
The cushion was too soft, the blanket draped over me carried Ty’s scent.
My chest tightened as the memories came rushing back—the house, his admission, the panties he’d drugged and shoved into my mouth as he fucked me.
The library which had before been aglow in a bath of hazy golden light was deadly still in a dusky purple.
“Ty,” I rasped, my throat dry, the name barely audible even to myself.
I sat up too fast, the room spinning as the blood rushed to my head. My heart pounded as I tried to steady myself, clutching the edge of the couch.
Déjà vu slammed through me as I glanced down and found myself wearing a silky crimson robe and knew he’d dressed me after I’d passed out.
I winced as I reached around to the sore spot on the back of my neck and froze when my fingers came away red .
My gaze was drawn to the small implant sitting on the side table, sticky with dried blood.
The finality of it slammed into me.
Then the last thing he said whispered in my brain— Farewell, my love.
“No.” My voice cracked as panic clawed its way up my throat. “No, no, no.”
I scrambled to my feet, calling his name louder now. “Ty? Where are you?”
The house was silent, too still, as though it was holding its breath. My eyes darted toward the staircase, then the front door, my chest heaving with the weight of unspoken dread.
Then, through the suffocating silence, I heard it—the crunch of gravel. My head snapped toward the sound.
The beam of headlights swept through a window like that of a lighthouse in a storm.
A car. My pulse stuttered. He was here. He’d come back.
“Ty!” I yelled, my voice cracking with desperation as I stumbled toward the front door.
My bare feet skidded across the hardwood, and I grabbed the frame for balance before fumbling with the handle and yanking the door open.
The cold air hit me like a slap as I hurried down the porch steps, the gravel drive biting into my soles.
The car pulled up, the headlights cutting through the shadows of the surrounding pines.
The driver’s door opened, and I froze, hope surging like a tidal wave.
“Ty?” I called, my voice trembling as I took a hesitant step forward .
But it wasn’t Ty who stumbled out of the car.
It was Ciaran.
A flood of emotions hit me all at once—relief, disappointment, elation, and fear. They tangled in my chest, paralyzing me for a beat until he took a shaky step forward and faltered, collapsing to one knee.
“Ciaran!” I yelled, the fear taking over as I sprinted toward him.
When I reached him, I grabbed his elbows to help him stand, but my hands came away slick and warm. My stomach turned as I stared at my palms, streaked with blood.
“God,” I whispered, horrified as my eyes lifted to his face.
His features were a mess of cuts and bruises. Blood poured from deep gashes along his cheek and temple, his left eye swollen nearly shut, only a sliver of blue peeking through. His breaths were shallow, rasping, and his arm clutched his ribs protectively.
“Ciaran…” My voice cracked as I tried to steady him, my arms wrapping tightly around him as his body shuddered. “What happened? Where’s Ty?”
At the sound of Ty’s name, a broken sound escaped Ciaran—a mix of a sob and a groan. His head hung between his shoulders, and his arm trembled as he barely supported his weight.
“I’m sorry, Ava,” he rasped, his voice weak but filled with anguish. “I begged him not to do it.”
His words sent an icy lance of dread straight to my heart. My chest tightened as the truth threatened to crush me .
“What did he do?” My voice wavered, frantic.
Ciaran tried to push himself upright, but his strength gave out.
I tightened my hold on him, lowering us both to the ground as the sea breeze howled around us, battering us with cold.
“But you know Ty…” Ciaran whispered hoarsely, his bloodied fingers clutching the silk of my robe. “ Stubborn .”
His words slammed into me, but my mind refused to accept their meaning.
“No,” I whispered, shaking my head in denial. My voice cracked, rising in desperation. “Why? Why would he do that?”
Why did he do it? Why would he leave after fighting so fiercely to stay by my side? How could he possibly think I’d be better off without him, that I could live without him?
Ciaran’s body shivered against mine, his breath coming in weak, shallow gasps. “He said… ‘She’ll need your expertise now more than ever.’”
I gripped his shoulders, shaking him lightly despite the injuries I knew he had. “What does that mean, Ciaran? Where is Ty?”
My voice rose to a scream, the rawness scraping my throat, when the shrill ring of a phone cut through the storm of my emotions.
Ciaran fumbled weakly for the source of the sound, and I reached into his jacket, my shaking hands pulling out the device.
The screen glowed with Unknown Number .
My breath caught, and I jabbed at the screen, barely able to hold the phone to my ear .
“Ty?” I croaked. “Is that you?”
His voice came through the line, rough and heartbreakingly steady. “I only have a few minutes, hummingbird. Please, listen carefully.”
The tears started without me realizing. I tasted salt on my lips, felt my chest quaking, but all I could do was cry. “Why?”
“It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done,” Ty said softly. “But if it means you get to fly free, I’d lock myself away for a thousand lifetimes.”
“Ty, no. What did you do?”
“I thought I was your warden. But I was your prisoner all along,” he said, his voice strained but resolute. “I know you chose Ciaran. But it’s okay. Do you hear me?”
“No,” I sobbed, shaking my head even though he couldn’t see me.
“You belong with him, Ava. And you need him now more than ever.”
My chest felt like it was splitting open. Deep down, I knew he was trying to tell me something, but the overwhelming tide of emotion drowned out any clarity.
“Heartwarming,” Ebony’s cold voice sneered in the background. “But that’s enough.”
There was a scuffle, Ty’s voice growing distant as he shouted, “From every cell, from every shadow…” The line jolted with static, and his voice came again, farther away, raw and broken. “…for as long as I breathe and for whatever comes after, I’ll love you more.”
The dam inside me shattered.
“I love you more, too,” I sobbed, the words pouring out uncontrollably. “I’ve always loved you! I choose you, Ty. ”
But the call went dead.
I stared at the phone, my breath catching in my throat.
“No, no, no!” I screamed, my voice echoing into the night.
The weight of his absence hit me like a physical blow, shattering me from the inside out. My knees buckled, and I crumpled to the ground, unable to hold myself upright beneath the crushing grief.
The phone slipped from my trembling fingers, clattering away, forgotten. A guttural scream tore from my chest, raw and primal, as if releasing it could somehow fill the unbearable void he’d left behind.
I couldn’t breathe.
My sobs racked my entire body, jagged and unrelenting, each one cutting deeper. Tears blurred my vision, but it didn’t matter—everything around me had dissolved into chaos.
He was gone.
He’d misunderstood the cruelty of my grief, mistaking my desperate accusations for truth. I wish it had been you.
And in doing so, he’d condemned himself. The man who fought for me, who knew me better than I knew myself, believed he wasn’t enough.
But it had always been him . I’d been blind, stumbling in the shadows, and he’d seen it all along. He’d waited, hoped, and finally sacrificed himself—for me.
For what? To give me to Ciaran, because he thought that’s what I wanted most? Because he thought I didn’t love him back?
But I did. God, I did. It had always been him, and now… he was gone. He’d given himself up so I could be with the on e I loved most, never realizing that it had been him all along.
The realization ripped through me, hollowing me out.
My hands clawed desperately at the gravel beneath me, seeking some anchor in a world that had suddenly become unrecognizable.
And yet nothing grounded me. Nothing could.
Through the haze of despair, I felt it—Ciaran’s gaze.
It burned into me, filled with his own anguish and helplessness.
When I turned, his face—too fucking familiar, a reminder of everything I had lost—was pale, his eyes wide and filled with something unreadable.
He’d heard everything.
The realization tore through me like a jagged blade. The brother I had chosen would never hear my confession.
But Ciaran had.