Wren is in the hall.
I blow past her. “He’s packing.”
She says something. My name, maybe.
I run, shoulder crashing into walls as I take turns too quickly, staff flying out of my way with startled cries. I get back to my suite and throw myself inside and lean against the closed door, forehead to the wood.
“Coal?”
Shit, they’re still here. Iris and Kris. Shit, shit—
A hand on my shoulder. My brother. He grips tight, and it’s all I can take.
I slide to the ground, on my knees, and finally fall apart.
Chapter Nineteen
There’s a weight on my thumb.
I grope at it, feeling the bedding shift beneath me, and my half-asleep mind thinks for a second,I only have two days until Hex leavesand I start to reach for him—
The weight is his ring. Still on my thumb. The pillow is fragrant with blood orange and cinnamon but it’ll fade now.
Because we don’t have two more days.
I grip my hand into a fist.
“You’re awake,” a voice says above me.
My room comes into shape around my widening awareness. White morning light. I’m in yesterday’s clothes. The comforter is thrown over me and I’m knotted in it from thrashing in what restless sleep I managed, and I groggily look up at Kris, propped in bed next to me. He’s in pajamas, typing away on his phone.
“What time is it?”
“Almost seven. You slept?”
I sit up, body bruised like I got pummeled last night, and I did, in a way that makes me rock forward, face in my hands. My eyes are knots of sandpaper.
“Go back to sleep,” Kris says. “It’s early.”
“I’m fine. I need to—”
“Youneedto sleep. You didn’t crash until nearly four.”
“I’mfine.”
“You’re a fuckingliar.”
“The sooner I rescind those invitations—”
“That can wait a few more hours. Lie back down.”
“Why are you here?” It comes out as a snap of anger. I immediately regret it.
“Because you don’t get to be alone right now,” Kris says. He doesn’t react to my anger. Just patience and calm.
I stiffen and glance back at him.
His brows are up in gentle appraisal.
