Hades
The question slammed into me like a wrecking ball.
"Who would you choose?"
I didn't move. Couldn't breathe.
The air between us was razor-thin, thick with the weight of every single thing I had never said aloud. My claws were still at her throat, but I wasn't seeing Felicia anymore.
I was seeing Danielle.
I was seeing the blood on my hands, the body I hadn't buried, the ghost that had lingered inside me for five fucking years—wrapped around my ribcage like a noose, tightening every time I tried to breathe.
Felicia's lips curled, a mockery of a smile, daring me to answer.
"You can't, can you?" she murmured, voice softer now. Almost mocking, almost pitying.
My chest burned.
My shadows coiled tighter, writhing against my skin as if they, too, could feel the noose drawing closer.
"Say it, Hades."
The words weren't real, but they might as well have been.
Danielle's voice, a whisper in the back of my mind.
I had never said it. Never let myself say it.
But Felicia?
