Kendrick's POV
The word hit me like a blade across my chest and I gave Jasper a questioning gaze but he avoided my eyes.
My heart slammed against my ribs so hard it felt like it would tear through and I forgot how to breathe for a few seconds.
She had said it.
She had called him the sacred word that should have belonged to me.
For a second, I thought maybe I misheard. Maybe the panic in the room had scrambled my brain, maybe the rush of fear in my blood had made me imagine it.
But I saw how her eyes softened when she looked at him.
I staggered back, my knees threatening to give out beneath me. The walls spun, and all I could hear was the pounding in my skull.
Jasper's eyes met mine, and for the first time since we were kids, I didn't see the warm, brotherly smile of my friend.
All I saw was pity.
Pity and something that made me want to smash my fist through the wall.
"Come with me," he said to me with a firm tone.
