The woods still smelled like smoke and blood, your throat raw from screaming as the chaos of the final fight sank into silence, but your body wasn’t calming down—your chest was heaving, your nails digging into Xavier’s arms as he held you back.

Enid stood there, panting, her claws still dripping with dirt and fury, her golden eyes slowly fading back into her normal ones,

and Tyler—God, Tyler—

was chained up, his body thrashing in the back of the van like some wild animal that didn’t belong to him.

“Please! He’s not a monster, he’s not, just stop!”

you cried, your voice cracking, but the guards didn’t even glance at you, their faces stone cold as they slammed the doors shut on him.

Xavier’s grip only tightened, his breath warm by your ear as he muttered,

“Don’t—you can’t. You don’t know what he’s done.”

But you did, you knew, and it didn’t make the ache in your chest any smaller.

The sound of the chains rattling inside the van felt louder than your heartbeat, louder than your sobs, louder than Xavier trying to ground you, because all you could think about was

Tyler’s eyes—

pleading, human for just a second—before the engine roared and they took him away.