Aaron’s POV
I was no stranger to grief. And yet, this was different. It was easy to rationalize previous losses as having been a simple expected blunt force. You expect your parents to find peace, or whatever the humans call it to dull the ache of that new absence. But not in someone as early on as Maisie. Someone who never had a chance to know freedom or the connection such as the one I shared with Alessandra. Hell, she never got to leave the grounds of that godforsaken fortress aside from when she had done so and found only pain. And it was because of me that this had happened. No martyrdom of my remaining humanity was at risk to state a simple fact. I was selfish. And because I chose Alessandra, I lost Maisie.
It was why I hung over my bathroom sink, running water rushing against the
