Elena's POV
The air still buzzed with static. My back was pressed against the wall, my lips swollen, my breaths coming in ragged gasps, but he was gone.
Gone.
One second his body was caging mine, his touch igniting sparks in every forgotten corner of my skin—and the next, a void remained where he once stood. The room was cold again. Quiet.
And empty.
My fingers slowly slid down the wall behind me as my knees gave out, the flare of my dress pooling like wilted petals beneath me as I sank to the floor. My heartbeat, still wild from what had just transpired, now pounded with something else entirely.
Shame.
I covered my mouth, not to stifle the moan that had already escaped me, but to stop the sob clawing its way up my throat.
Kane. I said Kane's name.
And Damon—no, he—had looked at me as if I'd sliced him open with it.
Because I had.
"You're so desperate to believe Kane still exists in me. You're pathetic."
