Chapter 7
Landon
Mason stops in his tracks as I double over, my vision blacking out for a second.
Someone’s reached into my chest, gripped my heart, shoved it into a blender on high.
My ribs cave inward, the force of it so violent I drop to my knees on the cold pavement, barely catching myself on my hands before my face hits the ground.
Willow.
No.
I gasp, trying to suck in air, but my lungs refuse to expand. The pain is suffocating, barbed wire coiling around my ribs, slicing deeper with every pulse of agony. It’s not just pain—it’s her pain. And I feel all of it.
Two months.
It’s been two months since I let her walk away, since I forced myself to believe it was the right thing, the only way to set her free. But there’s no freedom in this; no clean break, no slow, dull ache of missing someone.
This is the bond shattering. I’m being ripped apart from the inside out. A brutal, unnatural severing of something that was never meant to be broken.
If it’s this bad for me—
“Willow.” Her name breaks out on a ragged breath.
Mason’s eyebrows shoot up in alarm. “What the hell—”
“The bond—”
The words are barely out before another wave of pain slams into me, a jagged blade driving into my spine. I collapse onto my side, gasping, lungs seizing as though I’ve been drowning for hours and only now surfaced. Her pain. My fault.
Mason curses, crouching beside me, but he doesn’t touch me. “Shit, Landon. What the fuck is happening?”
I can’t answer.
I can’t breathe.
Everything is burning, twisting, crushing—like my body is rejecting me, like my soul is being ripped out piece by piece. And if it’s this bad for me—
What the fuck is happening to her?
Mason’s voice is a sharp snap of sound in the chaos of my head. “Landon. Focus.”
I can’t. I can’t think. I can barely function, barely hold onto reality through the splintering agony.
Because this isn't the same as when she left. This isn’t the dull, lingering ache I forced myself to live with. This is fresh. Immediate. Wrong.
I squeeze my eyes shut, but all I can see is her. Curled up. In pain. Screaming. Alone.
Alone.
After I… after I fucking ruined it.
I left her with my mark and never thought—never knew—never fucking considered what would happen when it started to fade.
But now I know. Now I understand. And it’s killing her.
Terror clamps my chest, squeezing until I can’t draw breath. My hands dig into the pavement, fingers scraping against the rough concrete, body trembling from the force of it.
I squeeze my eyes shut…and I see her.
Willow, curled in on herself, arms cinched tight around her ribs, desperate to keep from falling apart. Sweat slicking her skin. Her mouth open in a scream I can’t hear, but I feel it. Every shred of it. The bond lets me feel it. Makes sure I do.
Another wave crashes into me—pure, raw agony. I can’t catch my breath.
“I have to go,” I rasp. I push up, hands slipping, elbows giving out.
Another flash—her being held by someone. Clutching at his shirt, begging for relief. Sobs tear her apart, soundless yet cutting into me, jagged as broken glass.
Mason shouts something, but it’s drowned out by the next hit of pain, jagged and relentless.
Her pain. Mine. No difference anymore.
Her scent chokes me through our shattering bond; sour peaches and tart cream, the sharp metallic bite of panic and pain.
“Landon!” Mason’s shout tears across the haze, but it’s already too late. The image of Willow curling up, making herself smaller as she breaks, burns into my mind as the darkness swallows me whole.