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.

and he fell

was just

motionless, staring

dead, but deep down, he

heard footsteps approaching from

see Remy emerging

face, Remy picked Alyssa up ina princess

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

leaving you to

have

stood motionless, his

dressed, he looked like a man who had been

of all his worth—now thrown away like

in the statue of the goddess closed

laughing

has been a

deafening roar of

above, casting its shadow over the

with that, the seemingly

down, cutting Jameson's neck, cheeks, and