Torn to pieces, my body walked further into the house, farther and farther from where my soul was crying out his heart. 

I wouldn't be listening to that sound of despair. I wouldn't let it tear apart the last part of me that still lived after him. It was that darkness, that need for revenge or maybe justice that was letting me leave my dream behind.

The hardest thing I'd ever done... breaking his heart and breaking mine. Leaving shattered pieces behind.

Coming into the kitchen where I knew they were waiting for me, I wouldn't look at either of them, I wouldn't tell them what I had just done to him. They knew.

"It's time to go." This was what I said. "You take care of him now, Healer. Help him move on." 

Not waiting for her answer, I took the bag of clothes waiting for me by the door and strolled out of the place that had been both a home and a prison for me. 

This is real. This is final. This is nothing like last time.

It hurt.

Placing his hand on my shoulder, I could feel the warmth coming off from Lucas even in that dark place I'd fallen into. "Are you alright, Scarlet?" he was asking.

The sun was setting behind the trees. Darkness was slowly swallowing the last rays of light for the day that were never to come back the same.

Bright. Warm. Loving the earth.

"No," I said, moving his hand away. It was all gone now.

Walking to the car, sliding into the passenger' seat, I waited for him to take his place next to me. That kiss we shared - our first and last kiss, it was all in the back of my mind while Regan occupied all that was left.

It would be that way from now on. Living in regret while seeking my stupid justice. Living in the past while protecting them because that was what I should do... live in the darkness after him.

'There just isn't any other way,' this was what I said to myself while listening to the purring engine of the car that kept bringing me farther and farther from happiness.

Sun rising up in the skies, traveling on its way up and down, then melting behind the horizon to be replaced by a cruel Goddess, I couldn't even count the miles we traveled in silence. 

All there was now between that stranger and I was that silence.

An accomplice in my betrayal, did he know that he had already lost his chance? Or was he still hoping for another moment like the one we'd shared before I went to break my man's heart? Has he now realized he was just a means to an end? Once and then I wondered, yet I could never ask. I'd been more cruel in a day than for my entire life.

Like waking up from a dream, it was when he stopped the car that I came back to myself.

The place looked like a camping site. Tents elevated everywhere in sight, some suitable for just a few people, others much bigger.

Following his certain steps into the very heart of the place, listening to his quiet directions, I tried not to be disturbed by the stares my presence was causing.

It felt like I was intruding on a peculiarly private world - I was a stranger here.   

"This is my place," Lucas gestured towards one of the smaller tents closer to a campfire that had been lit up for the night. 

Flames dancing in the night, I halted before I gave myself to the urge to come closer to their warmth.

"I suppose yours will be near mine since I'm the only one here you know and this way it will be safer." 

Willing my body to follow him further into the camp, my limbs didn't seem to be working properly as I kept stumbling every step of the way. Numb. I was shivering in my own skin.

"Whom do I need to be safe from?" I asked, my voice sounding as hollow as I was inside. 

"You don't need to be afraid anymore, Scarlet. You're one of us now."

"One of you?"

Stopping in his tracks, he glanced back at me. "A magical, of course. Didn't I tell you that?"

I shook my head. "No, you didn't," I said, looking at him with the corner of my eye.

It felt odd now that we were back to talking to each other now. It felt weird that, despite the strange conversation we were having, we could still be comfortable with each other, almost like nothing had happened when so much did.

"Magicals are people who hold magic inside of them. You can even say we're gifted if you wish and we stick to each other. We protect each other."

"Packmates protect each other as well so--"

"No, Scarlet," he cut in, taking a step towards me and placing both of his hands on my shoulders so he could look straight into my eyes. 

"Not like we protect each other," he breathed out.

"How do you do it then?"

Stepping away from me, his face more serious than I'd ever seen it, "Remember this. Just in case," he added cryptically instead of answering.

'In case of what?' I wanted to ask but before I could, Lucas pulled me to his side and placed my hand on his elbow.

"Shall we, my lady? There's someone who's been waiting to meet you." He winked at me.

"I guess but only because you asked like a gentleman," I responded, forcing myself to smile back at him.

Suspicion melted away that smile before I could stop it.

I needed to stop it yet, despite his closeness bringing gentle shivers to my skin, deep down I knew.

The path he was leading me on was filled with the pieces of my own guilty heart. A heart that kept betraying me when it needed to stay strong and at least pretend to forget that hopeless dream of ever coming back where it didn't belong.

It would be so easy for another girl to forget the man she left behind while comfortably walking on her mate's arm; I was not that other girl.

Several minutes and a narrow path into the woods later, I was looking at a woman who seemed to be in her sixties, her face wrinkled and aged with life's wisdom, her hair fell down her shoulders in white, fragile locks that looked like they were ready to fall off any second. 

Dressed in a white robe that covered every inch of her body, only her small feet were showing at the edges of the fabric. Bare against the wooden floor.

Glancing at her face, my eyes found hers watching me. Pale blue, nearly white, they were like the final touch in the mysterious masterpiece that nature created along with age.

The sight giving me chills that traveled up from my spine and blocked my throat, nothing came out in response to her greeting.

Besides, what could I say to this woman who was watching me with wonder in those otherworldly eyes? Did I say that it was a pleasure to meet her when it really wasn't? Did I tell her that her warm smile was making me nervous? Or did I say that I wished to go back already?

What could I possibly say to that woman who seemed to be seeing my deepest secrets revealed before her gaze?

Nothing.

"Welcome, moon-kissed child." She tried again. Her soft and raspy voice sounded like a whisper to my ears.

Just a slight nod, it was how I acknowledged her words.

"I've been waiting for you for so long, moon-kissed. Come in and you"- She nodded at Lucas - "stay here." An order spoken in a soft voice, there was no mistaking what this was.

Turning to Lucas who was standing next to me, he seemed to have shrunk into himself. Did this small, elderly woman really intimidate him so much?

"Go with her," he told me, giving me a slight nudge to the side.

Mistaking my stumble for consent, the woman went back inside, leaving the door open wide for me to come in.

With no other choice but to do as told, I suppressed a sigh and made my way inside the house.

"Close the door behind yourself, child."