Can’t Win Me Back

Jasper felt a pain unlike any he had ever known.

It wasn't a physical agony like having flesh torn away, but a slow, excruciating torture akin to being slowly sliced by a blunt blade.

It was a hundred times worse than dying instantly.

His mind raced through a chaotic sequence of images, like a black- and-white movie playing backward.

He saw people retreating and leaving —Javier, Anne, Newton, Landon, Lauren, Jonah, Axel...

He reached out desperately, trying to grasp any of them, but they were slipping away, one by one.

Finally, the image settled on Alyssa's radiant face.

"Lyse...

Don't go..." Tears streaming down his face, he lunged forward, wrapping his arms around her.

But she dissolved into golden dust, vanishing into the frigid air.

"No! iy A beep sounded in his ear as if everything had been reset.

him, and

there was just

stood motionless, staring at the fallen

sure if he was dead, but deep down, he was

footsteps

to see Remy emerging from the

emotionless look on his face, Remy picked Alyssa up ina princess

have arrived on the island." Without even a glance at Jameson,

you

you have no

motionless,

he looked like a man who had been thoroughly used and

all his worth—now thrown

opening in the statue of the goddess

scoffed, laughing at himself

your life has been a big

finish, the deafening

hovered above, casting its shadow over

was a thunderous crash, and with that, the seemingly indestructible glass shed was

down, cutting Jameson's