»» BOOK #2 of the X-MARKS: Shadows Series «« Valen and her friends are on the run once again. After their camp is disassembled, they take shelter in a series of traveling homes and meet hosts that will shape their journey in unexpected ways.
When...
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I stood behind a tree as the cold rain soaked into my t-shirt, but I did not reach into my backpack for my jacket.
I was hollow. That's the word, hollow like I a gutted animal, hung out to dry after a kill. And who killed me, you might ask?
Someone, I called a friend, and her name was Valen. At least she was a friend, that is.
I saw him kiss her. And she – she kissed him back.
"What did I tell you," the voice in my head said. Her voice was like fingernails on wet stone.
I knew what the voice had told me, and I wished it would be quiet for once.
I watched him hold her tight in his arms. I watched him look down at her with the same tender eyes I had waited so long from him. And I had told her all of this.
This was how stupid I was. This was how dumb I felt.
And she was probably happier to know she screwed me over.
"Look away," the voice in my head said.
And I did. I looked away. Only to have it repeat in my mind on and on. Her trembling lips. His loving eyes. Their bodies as the touched.
Stupid, stupid me.
I walked back up the path with the missing charm of her pin clutched in my fist.
"What they doing now?" the voice whispered, "Don't you want to see."
"No," I said and wiped a hot tear from my cheek and turned back for the tent, "I don't want to see them, ever again."
