Page 250 of Scarlet Wars

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“I’m not leaving you here?—”

“Caden Colt,” I said, and every word shook like it was held together by splinters. “I am asking you to leave my room. And you…” my breath hitched, “you no longer have my consent to hold me, or even stand beside me. So, I am asking you to respect my choice and leave. Now.”

He went still.

Completely, utterly still.

Like I’d stabbed him.

His chest rose once.

Twice.

Then he turned toward the door.

Stopped.

Looked back at me with an expression that shattered something inside my ribs.

“Don’t do this,” he said quietly. “There’s always another way.”

Then he walked out.

FIFTY-FOUR

EMMA

Empty.

And numb.

There was too much to feel, too much to mourn, too much to hold inside one body without shattering. Breaking Caden’s heart. Saoirse’s execution. Nino strapped to a chair. And now, bonding with James.

It was too much.

So I shut it all off. Every emotion. Every thought. Every scream clawing its way up my throat.

The High Chief sounded distant, as if he were speaking from underwater. “Please proceed.”

I blinked twice, slow and mechanical, then lifted my head to face James. “Let’s do this.”

His hands balled into tight fists—white-knuckled for a brief, telling moment—before he forced his posture into something cold, controlled, almost careless. “Fine,” he said, voice steady. “Let’s do this. But not here.”

“Mister Walker,” the High Chief began, irritation creeping in, but James lifted a hand, silencing him with the simple gesture.

“I don’t trust Colt not to intervene,” he said, the words clipped, calculated, but there was something else beneath them,something urgent. “We should move out to the Human World. Make sure there are no Healers nearby who can undo it in the first few minutes of the bond. And if there are, in the Human World we’ll at least be able to see their translation, and we can counteract it.”

My heartbeat—wild and frantic seconds ago—began to slow.

A fraction.

Enough for the meaning to sink in.

A True Bond could be undone.

By a Healer.

Whose translation would be visible in the Human World.

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