Sven looked up. “Now?”
“I won’t be long.” Jakob was already moving. “Send for me if you reach a conclusion.”
Sven studied him for a long moment, then gave a curt nod. “Go.”
Jakob didn’t slow once he left the room. His boots echoed through the corridors as he found an empty library and pivoted to head straight for Mallory’s quarters. Every step tightened the knot in his gut.
He told himself this was nothing. That she was resting. That he’d find her exactly where she was supposed to be and curse his own paranoia.
Please be here.
The door was unlocked which caused his pulse to spike.
“Mallory?” he called as he stepped inside.
Silence.
The room was untouched. The bed was still neatly made. Her phone sat on the table beside the lamp. No coat or boots. And no sign she planned to return quickly.
His gaze went back to the table. Her phone.
He crossed the room in three strides and snatched it up with his thumb already moving. The screen lit instantly. No lock made things much easier. Jakob swallowed and opened the messages.
The thread wasn’t long. It didn’t need to be. He frowned as he tried to figure out the sister connection. He needed to find Mallory to ask her.
It’s time. He’s in the war room.
His pulse stuttered. Someone in the castle watched him like a hawk. Mallory had replied instantly.
Where?
No hesitation or time lapse. She had waited for instructions. Another message followed, time-stamped less than an hour ago with a pinned location.
Come alone. If Jakob follows, you both die slowly.
Jakob’s jaw clenched, teeth grinding as heat surged behind his eyes. His fingers tightened until the edge of the phone bit into his palm.
The one that had decided everything.
Jakob sucked in a sharp breath and pain punched straight through his chest.
“She did this for me,” he whispered. The words tasted like ash.
Of course she had.
The last message was hers. One line. No fear in it. No hesitation.
I’m headed there now. Leave Jakob out of this.
Something inside Jakob fractured.
He stared at the screen until the letters blurred, until the weight of her choosing him over her own safety pressed down so hard he had to brace a hand against the table.
He’d told her to stay. He’d believed she would listen. That was on him.
Jakob straightened abruptly and turned, striding out of the room with Mallory’s phone clenched in his fist like a lifeline. The halls seemed narrower now and the distance to the war room unbearable.
When he burst back inside, the advisors fell silent at once.
