His voice lowered into a sickening sound. “Lead the way.”
Something in his eyes nearly stopped me. My gut screamed a warning. But I couldn’t just let him go. Not when we were so close.
So I ignored it, enclosing his arm in mine, leading him away from the party, toward the maze.
“Why did you come into my world?”
“You have what I want.” I glanced at him, and he added, “My son.”
We were nearing the entrance of the hedge maze. I steered him so he couldn’t see Grim and Lock waiting on the periphery. As I turned Vander away, I caught Grim’s gaze burning with fear and fury.
“I thought you wanted me,” I fake pouted. “You made my mom think you wanted to marry me.”
“Can’t I kill two birds with one stone?”
We arrived near the hedge’s arched, dark leaf entrance. Subtle, glowing orbs floated fae-like inside. I felt my ability to pretend slipping.
“I know your type,” I said. “You need to collect and own. You wanted to collect a shiny Gemma Crowne. You don’t care about Grim.”
He laughed. “I never said I did. This is his birthright.”
“Why won’t you just let them go?”
“I let them go.You’rethe reason they stayed. Why won’tyoulet them go?”
Anger bubbled up, and I unraveled my arm from his. I could practically picture my mother saying the exact same thing. It was my birthright to be a Crowne, nothing else mattered.
“You’re disgusting,” I said.
Another laugh. “Couldn’t even keep the mask up long enough to get me in the maze? Youhavechanged.”
Dread drenched my veins cold. Everything blurred with adrenaline. My heartbeat pounded painfully in my head.No.I refused to believe it.
“What?” I said. “What do you mean?—”
Pop.
The first pop came and lingered, and for a moment I thought I’d imagined it.
Then they came rapid-fire.
Pop. Pop. Pop?—
I was on my back with a thud that took my breath away before the thirdpop, pressed into the sand—Grim.
Sharp screams shattered around us like broken glass. Glitterati rushed out of the maze, Wraith and Raze not long behind them, shooting behind them at an unseen enemy. The prince looked down at Grim, then at the hedge maze, and without another word, disappeared into the chaos.
No.
No.
I watched him disappear into the glitterati stampede.
“Gemma.” Grim snatched my chin. Eyes roaming my body, my neck, looking for any sign of injury. I tried to focus through all the screams and buzzing in my chest to remember his clenched jaw, his flared nostrils, and the deep, achingfearand vicious rage in his dark eyes.
His shoulders visibly relaxed when he found me intact.
Grim shouted furious orders, but I couldn’t quite catch them. I onlysawthings. Like the way the muscle in his jaw flexed with each order.
