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 he fell

was just

motionless, staring

sure if he was dead, but deep down, he

footsteps approaching

see Remy emerging from

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

on the island." Without even a glance at Jameson, Remy's voice dripped

you to clean

have no objections, right,

stood motionless, his face

impeccably dressed, he looked like a man who had

been drained of all his worth—now thrown

the statue of the goddess

laughing

has been

finish, the deafening

casting its shadow over

crash, and with that, the seemingly indestructible glass

shards rained down, cutting