“Let it go,” I said, pulling my shirt over my head. “I’m decent enough.”
“Not yet.” Her voice was strained, thin. “You need your boots. And I need my—” She swayed on her feet.
I crossed to her in two strides and wrapped an arm around her waist, steadying her. “Enough. Let it go.”
She released the magic with a shuddering exhale. Color drained from her face entirely.
The door finished opening.
“I hope Grump won’t be mad at me,” she whispered, sagging against my chest, “for freezing him and the others.”
I held her close, but frustration coiled tight in my gut. She'd burned through what little she had left—magic she might need to survive—just to spare her father a few seconds of awkwardness. “He’d better not be.”
I narrowed my eyes at the door, ready to do battle with Grump if he suspected. How could he not? Alice’s skin glowed from more than just magic. Her lips were swollen. Scratches from my shadow of a beard marked her neck and jaw.
We looked exactly like what we were—two people who’d just been tangled in each other. Good. Let Grump see. Let him know his daughter had been claimed, and I wasn't going to apologize for it.
But Grump didn’t walk in.
Rabbit did.
Alone.
Time stopped.
He looked nothing like the nervous but composed messenger who’d left hours ago. His face was haggard, drawn tight with something beyond exhaustion. His pale eyes were bloodshot—red-rimmed, as if he’d been crying or hadn’t slept in days. Maybe both.
He wrung his hands, the gesture no longer just a nervous habit but something desperate. Frantic.
“Rabbit. Where are the others?”
He flinched. His gaze darted to Alice, then back to me, and the pleading in his eyes made my stomach drop.
“I had no choice.” A bead of sweat rolled down his temple. “They have my family.”
The words hit me like a blade to the chest.
Betrayal. Rabbit had sold us out.
“What have you done?” I growled, shoving Alice behind me.
Rabbit hung his head, his shoulders sagging as if the weight of what he’d done was crushing him. “Please forgive me.”
Forgive him? I’d kill him. I’d rip his throat out with my bare hands.
Alice clasped my arm. Her fingers were trembling. “Darius?”
The fear in her voice shattered something inside me. She’d been through so much—fought so hard—and now this. Betrayed by someone we’d trusted.
No one was going to hurt her. Not while I still had breath in my body.
Rabbit was dead to me.
“Grab my hand.” I pulled her against my chest, wrapping my arm around her waist. My wings burst from my back, unfurling with a sharp snap that echoed through the cavern. This was do or die. I had to get her out of here. Now.
A cold wind swept through the entrance, carrying the scent of jasmine and something darker beneath—rot, decay, deathdressed in perfume. The torches flickered and dimmed as if the flames themselves were afraid.
Then she swept into the cavern.
