Chapter TWENTY-AVERY

A shuddering gasp ripped from me, raw and uncontrollable.

The impossible weight of everything seemed to crash down all at once.

My chest felt so tight. I couldn’t think. Couldn’t move.

I wanted to follow Dante and Rosie. To go with them. Into the dark, cold woods.

But that was no place for me.

It was for them. The wild, magical things that roamed the earth.

Oh, Rosie Posie, please be safe.

With everything I was feeling, it was a wonder I didn’t pass out or collapse. But I knew why that was.

Rosie was with Dante, and that meant she was safe. He would bring her home to me. I just knew he would.

But even that certainty couldn’t stop my heart from squeezing.

See, what they didn’t tell you about being a parent, regardless of what age you were when you became one or the circumstances that made you one, was that once you had a child, your entire world changed.

Every action and reaction were no longer just yours.