Protect Her: Part 11 Read Online Free PDF

pictured in my mind. “I’ve been so worried about you.”
    Riley moved into the room, and I took a step backward. His eyes narrowed, and he smirked at the movement. “What’s happened to me? I had an epiphany. A revelation. When I saw Adam slit Eva’s neck, suddenly everything was so clear.”
    “What was so clear?” I knew that I was talking to Riley, but this was a version of him I had never seen before. Everything about him felt cold, from his eyes to the way he carried himself.
    “I was free,” he whispered, but the words carried across the distance between us and seemed to explode in my ear drums causing me to wince. “Free from distraction. Free from the idea that I was the one who needed to protect Paige. Free to live my life unfettered by expectations of who I should be. I could finally be who I was always meant to be.”
    I keyed into the fact that when he said my name, he was referencing me as if I wasn’t there. It didn’t stop me from bristling at his words. “I never forced you to help me, Riley. You did that on your own, but I was always grateful for it. I’m alive because of you.”
    His eyes had a faraway look, and it was as if he was staring right through me. “I haven’t been free in my decision making since the day I was born. It was the same for Paige. Fate. Destiny. Whatever you want to call it, it has been dictating my actions. I was never free until I finally took control.”
    “I might have had a destiny prescribed for me, but I beat it,” I said. I took a small step toward him. “You helped me do that. Eva is gone from my life now. I can start over, and so can you.”
    His focus lasered in on me. “Paige died. Eva is dead. All the reasons that I was wedded to a world where I thought the underdog could win were shown to be a sham. This new world belongs to me.”
    Even though I was standing there in front of him, he still believed I was dead. There was something off in his mind, and I knew it had to be the darkness eating away at him and whispering secrets that weren’t real.
    “I’m not dead, Riley.” I took another step toward him. I held up my hands palms facing toward him so that he could see I wasn’t threatening him in any way. My heart ached for him. Wherever he was in his mind, he was trapped as surely as I had been when I consented to be Eva’s vessel once and for all. I just had to find him or that part of him that remembered who he truly was. “I’m standing right here in front of you. Can’t you see me?”
    “I see a vessel,” he said flatly. “An empty thing that is probably searching for Eva even though I watched Adam rip her life force away and bury it forever. Eva is no more, Vessel. You can wear Paige’s face and speak lies, but I know the truth.”
    If I pushed him, would he break? Would he come apart in front of me? What could I say or do to show him that I was real? I had to keep those thoughts at the forefront of my mind and not give into feeling hurt over words he didn’t mean. This explained why he hadn’t come for me. He thought I was some sort of imposter.
    “Riley, please,” I said softly. “It’s me. I’m right here.” I reached toward his face, but he knocked my hand away. I hissed as I cradled it against my chest. I saw an angry red mark where his palm had touched my skin. It burned as if he had set alight a dozen nerve endings. The pain was intense, but I forced my gaze back to his as I saw him watching my expression with a smirk.
    “Go back where you came from, demon,” he sneered. “I have no use for those who try to trick me with glamour. A hundred of you have tried the same trick, and each one has suffered the same fate. Go back to your master, and let him know that when I figure out who is doing this, I will rip out his heart and feed it to his servants.”
    My mind processed his words. He had been exposed to others wearing my face. Of course, he wouldn’t trust me. Of course, he would think that I was just like them. How