Filed to story: Mated and Hated by My Brother’s Best Friend Book PDF Free by Anna Campbell
But it wasn’t sudden.
It was slow.
Painful.
Her fingers scraped against the floor as she pushed herself upright like her body had forgotten how to move without him breathing beside her. Her knees buckled once-then again. She caught herself, knuckles bloodied from where she’d struck the ground, the memory of his name still stuck in her throat,
She wiped her face with the back of her sleeve, dragging streaks of ash and tears across her cheeks like war paint made of sorrow. Her lip trembled. Her shoulders shook. But she didn’t cry again.
No.
The kind of grief that lived in Eva now didn’t make sound.
It simply swallowed everything else.
She took one step back.
Then another.
Then turned.
Her braid was half unraveled. Her coat torn. She looked like a girl who had wandered through the ruins of her own heart and couldn’t find the door out.
And she didn’t say a word.
Not to me. Not to Ethan. Not even to Max.
Because denial only holds for so long.
And when it breaks-it breaks like bone.
Bastain moved to her side, but she didn’t look at him. She just walked toward the remaining tunnel, arms limp at her sides, like they didn’t know who to reach for anymore.
I leaned back against Nate, breath shallow, fingers still locked around Max’s ruined armor. His blood was drying now. So was mine. But neither of us felt clean.
“We have to keep going,” I said, and my voice cracked around the edges. Hollow. A breath pulled from stone.
Nate didn’t answer right away.
I didn’t blame him.
“We can’t leave him here,” I added. The words tasted wrong. Final. “Not like this.”
“I’ll carry him,” Ethan said from across the rubble, his voice low and ragged.
But I shook my head.
“No.”
He blinked, a muscle twitching in his jaw. “We can’t leave him alone-“
“He’s not alone,” I said, softer this time. “He made this choice. We honor it. We leave him with his mark.”
For a moment, no one moved.
Then Bastain stepped forward and knelt beside Max’s body. His fingers dipped into a pouch and retrieved a shard of white chalk laced with ashroot-a relic of remembrance. He traced a perfect circle around Max, murmuring something in a tongue I didn’t understand.
Not a cage.
Not a grave.
A seal. A promise.
One of remembrance.
One of protection.
Something old and holy and final.
I leaned down. Smoothed Max’s blood-matted hair from his brow. His lashes were still golden, even now. Still soft. Still him.
Then I pressed a kiss to his forehead, shaking as I reached beneath my collar and pulled the pendant he’d once given me the one I never wore, but never threw away.
I placed it over his chest, above the heart that had once betrayed me, then protected me, then died for me.
Then turned.
Her braid was half unraveled. Her coat torn. She looked like a girl who had wandered through the ruins of her own heart and couldn’t find the door out.
And she didn’t say a word.
Not to me. Not to Ethan. Not even to Max.
Because denial only holds for so long.
And when it breaks-it breaks like bone.
Bastain moved to her side, but she didn’t look at him. She just walked toward the remaining tunnel, arms limp at her sides, like they didn’t know who to reach for anymore.
I leaned back against Nate, breath shallow, fingers still locked around Max’s ruined armor. His blood was drying now. So was mine. But neither of us felt clean.
“We have to keep going,” I said, and my voice cracked around the edges. Hollow. A breath pulled from stone.
Nate didn’t answer right away.
I didn’t blame him.
“We can’t leave him here,” I added. The words tasted wrong. Final. “Not like this.”
“I’ll carry him,” Ethan said from across the rubble, his voice low and ragged.
But I shook my head.
“No.”
He blinked, a muscle twitching in his jaw. “We can’t leave him alone-“
“He’s not alone,” I said, softer this time. “He made this choice. We honor it. We leave him with his mark.”
For a moment, no one moved.
Then Bastain stepped forward and knelt beside Max’s body. His fingers dipped into a pouch and retrieved a shard of white chalk laced with ashroot-a relic of remembrance. He traced a perfect circle around Max, murmuring something in a tongue I didn’t understand.
Not a cage.
Not a grave.
A seal. A promise.
One of remembrance.
One of protection.
Something old and holy and final.
I leaned down. Smoothed Max’s blood-matted hair from his brow. His lashes were still golden, even now. Still soft. Still him.
Then I pressed a kiss to his forehead, shaking as I reached beneath my collar and pulled the pendant he’d once given me-the one I never wore, but never threw away.
I placed it over his chest, above the heart that had once betrayed me, then protected me, then died for me.
“You were more than the worst thing you ever did,” I whispered, voice breaking. “You mattered.”
I closed his eyes with trembling fingers.
And stood.
It took everything.
My spine straightened like it belonged to someone else-like I was slipping into armor I hadn’t earned. But the moment my shoulders rose, the air around me shifted.
Changed.
The world felt brittle and taut and brimming with something that didn’t belong to it.
The war outside hadn’t paused. I could still hear it-roars and screams, steel and claw. But it sounded distant now. Drowned beneath the pounding in my skull and the flame coiling beneath my skin.
Because all I could feel was fury.
And grief.
And flame.
My fingers curled. The fire lit across my skin in flickers at first, then fully. Like it was waiting for me. The rune on my back pulsed in time with my heart- slow, dangerous, final.
Nate rose beside me, his presence steady. I felt his hand ghost against mine, offering nothing but presence. Support. He didn’t speak. He didn’t need to.
Because when I turned-when I faced the shattered courtyard where death waited with open arms-
I wasn’t just Jiselle anymore.
I was every version of the girl who had once bled under the stars.
Every ghost of the child who had knelt by Eden’s grave.
Every echo of the girl Max had marked.
Every flame the Gate had tried to twist into something lesser.
And I was done letting anyone define me but me.
I walked forward.
Through the smoke. Through the ash.
And with each step, the world bent.
Bent to me.
Not in submission.
In warning.
In recognition.
The fire grew around me. In me. Because the bond wasn’t just a tether anymore. It was a purpose.
And when I stepped onto the final stone overlooking the courtyard, I stopped.
Lifted my chin.
No plea.
No fear.
Just a promise.
“This ends tonight.”
New Book: Veiled Desires of the Alpha King Novel
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