Snarls echoed through the stone—mountain lions. The Hollow’s forces were inside now, and the battle had reached us. We were nearly at the closest exit leading to the Eternal Tomb when I heard the voice that shattered everything I thought I knew. Our boots skidded across the stone floor as we stopped.
It boomed through the stone, magically projected.
“Scarlet Thorne. You can avoid all of this destruction by giving yourself up to me. All these deaths are because of you, my dear niece.”
I didn’t know my heart could break any more than it already had. But hearing her voice again proved how wrong I was. The Grim owned the deepest parts of me—my lowest moments, my darkest fears—in a way no one else ever could.
Not even Michael Thorne.
Not even Arrow Fitzroy.
They hurt me, yes. But they never had a safe place in my heart. When they broke it, they only cracked the surface. The Grim… she broke something much deeper.
She had held my loyalty. My love. My safety. I thought I could run into her arms when I was afraid—but they were the same arms now threatening to strangle me. I thought I could trust her soul—but she’d only ever waited for me to reveal too much.
“Bring yourself to the only private place you know. Alone. No more blood needs to be spilled.”
Rhodes shook his head. “There’s no way in elemental hell you’re going to her alone.”
My mind raced. I turned toward the Tomb, then back again. I reached for Fallon through themarekem. “Did you two hear her?”
“Hear who?” Fallon asked.
Of course. Her words were only for us. She knew Rhodes wouldn’t let me go alone.
“The time is ticking. I have another friend of yours to incentivize you.”
My stomach twisted.
The Grim knew exactly how to force my hand.
Rhodes’s warm hands cupped my cheeks, lifting my gaze to meet his. A storm raged behind his gray-blue eyes—fierce, wild, and on the edge of breaking. I thought I’d seen his pain before, when he held me in the pouring rain atop the mountain peak. But now… now I didn’t just see it.
Ifeltit.
His voice was low, steady, and devastating. “I will not leave you to face her alone. Do you understand me? I let you walk away from me once—but I will never, in all the elements, let you do that again. Where you go, I go. Remember?”
I inhaled a shaky breath and pulled his lips to mine, grounding us both in a slow, steady kiss. When we broke apart, our foreheads rested together, breaths mingling.
“Where you go, I go,” I whispered. “But I have to go to her alone. She took Laney… and she’s not taking anyone else from me. I won’t let her.”
Rhodes pulled back slightly. Understanding flickered across his face—but I could see him fighting it, jaw tight with restraint.
Gently, I slipped his hands from my cheeks and held them against my chest, fingers laced tight.
“We’ll be apart for only a moment,” I said, swept up in the storm behind his eyes. “But when we break this curse, we’ll have eternity.”
Rhodes brought my hands to his lips, pressing slow, reverent kisses along my knuckles.
“Only a moment. That’s all the world gets,” he said, his voice low and raw. “We’ll be waiting for you.” He began stepping backward, eyes never leaving mine, still holding my hands. “Come back to me, my thorn.”
Then he let go.
His hands dropped to his sides as he turned and ran, and with every step he took away from me, it felt like my heart was being dragged behind him.
Chapter 60
I slipped out of the secret tunnels and into the hall, eyes sweeping the corridor before I darted toward the old wooden door—the most private place in the castle I could think of.
