It was as if the core of who I was had turned to glass—fragile, empty—and with every breath, more of it slipped away, leaving me hollow. The person I used to be was gone, lost in the quiet where there had once been life. Now, there was only the ghost of who I had been, the power Everett had mentioned, nowhere to be found. Maybe I hadn’t taken matters into my own hands and saved myself. Maybe I’d destroyed myself instead. But I’d chosen this…and there was no going back now.
