As Sera spoke, my heart sank deeper and deeper, like a weight pulling me under. The room felt colder, despite the warmth of the late afternoon sun streaming in through the window. Seraphina sat beside me, her voice steady but filled with an emotion I couldn't quite place. The more she said, the more I realized just how little I had understood about Eleri, about their history—about everything.
I'd known some of the story, of course. Seraphina had mentioned Eleri before, her past trauma tangled up with this girl she had once trusted. But I hadn't known the depth of it. I hadn't known that Eleri had been so close to her, so possessive, so obsessed. And I certainly hadn't known about… that—about the kiss, about the confusion Seraphina had felt in that moment.
My chest tightened as the pieces began to fall into place. Eleri wasn't just some villain from Seraphina's past. She was part of her story in a way that I hadn't anticipated. And I… I had been so naïve. I had asked for this. I had set all of this in motion.
When I first asked my mother to put out the arrest warrant against Seraphina, I thought I was helping her. I thought I was protecting her from making mistakes, from running too far, too fast. I thought it would bring Dragonir back to me. But now? Now I felt like I had opened Pandora's box, unleashing something far worse than I could have ever imagined.
My stomach twisted as Seraphina continued speaking, her words distant as my thoughts spiraled.
"I didn't want to feel anything for her, but I did."
Those words echoed in my mind, over and over, like a bell tolling some inevitable truth. Seraphina hadn't wanted to feel anything for Eleri, but she had. She still did. And now that Eleri was back, everything was coming to the surface—feelings Seraphina had buried, memories she hadn't confronted, wounds that hadn't healed.
And I was the reason Eleri was here.
If I hadn't pushed for the warrant, if I hadn't made that call to my mother, maybe Seraphina could have stayed hidden. Maybe she wouldn't have been dragged back into this nightmare, back into Eleri's orbit. Maybe… maybe we would have been okay.
But now, knowing what I knew, regret burned deep inside me.
I had thought I was doing the right thing, but I had only made everything worse. I had brought Eleri back into Seraphina's life, and now the woman who had once kidnapped her, who had tortured Dragonir, was not only free but also standing between Seraphina and the life she deserved.
How could I have been so blind?
"Gwen?" Seraphina's voice broke through my thoughts, and I blinked, realizing that she had stopped talking. She was looking at me now, concern etched into her features.
I forced a smile, but it felt weak. "I'm... I'm sorry, Seraphina. I didn't know."
She frowned slightly. "What do you mean?"
"I didn't know everything," I said, my voice wavering. "About Eleri, about... about what she did to you, what she meant to you."
Seraphina shook her head. "It's not your fault, Gwen. I didn't tell you everything because I didn't think it mattered anymore."
But it did matter. It mattered more than I had realized.
"I need to tell you something," I whispered, my throat tightening. My pulse pounded in my ears as the words struggled to come out. "I... I'm the reason there's a warrant out for your arrest."
Seraphina's eyes widened, and for a moment, the room felt impossibly still.
"I didn't mean for it to go this far," I said quickly, trying to explain. "I thought... I thought if my mother put out a warrant, it would bring you back to me. I thought I was protecting you, Sera."
Her expression shifted from shock to something more guarded, her eyes searching mine for answers I wasn't sure I had.
"I didn't know about Eleri. I didn't know she would use it against you like this. If I had known, I never would have—" My voice cracked, and I felt a hot wave of shame wash over me. "I'm so sorry, Seraphina."
The silence between us was suffocating, heavy with all the things I couldn't take back. I had been trying to protect her, but all I had done was make things worse. And now, I couldn't undo it.
Seraphina's gaze softened, though I could still see the hurt lingering behind her eyes. "I know you were trying to help, Gwen. But... it's not that simple."
"I know," I whispered, tears burning at the corners of my eyes. "But I'm going to fix it. I swear, I'm going to find a way to make this right."
Seraphina looked away, her fingers curling into the bedsheets. "I don't even know what right looks like anymore."
I swallowed hard, guilt wrapping around my throat like a noose. "I'll fix it," I promised again, even though I didn't know how. I had to try. I had to do something to make up for what I had done.
But as I sat there, watching Seraphina wrestle with the ghosts of her past and the weight of the present, I couldn't help but feel like I had already lost something irreplaceable.
And it was all because I hadn't understood—hadn't seen—what Seraphina had been hiding. What Eleri had meant to her.
And what Eleri still meant.