I flipped it open with shaking fingers and pulled out the worn photograph—Olivia, beaming behind a small cake, candles flickering.
“This is my daughter,” I said, shoving the image toward him. “She’s a Timeborne. And she’s in danger. Balthazar will kill her without hesitation. You have to protect her.”
His face twisted. His breath caught.
“Isabelle…” he whispered, his voice suddenly small. Haunted.
“What?” I blinked. “No. That’s Olivia.”
His face contorted with rage. Without warning, he slammed me back against the stone wall, the breath knocked from my lungs.
“Why are you doing this to me?” he snarled. “Why can’t you justleave me alone?”
“We’re allies, Malik!” I shouted, tears burning in my eyes. “You’re the one who told me to find John James. Youwantedme to search for the daggers. And I did! I’m not your enemy—Icareabout you.”
Even as I said the words, I wasn’t sure if I was trying to convince him… or myself.
Then a cry cut through the night—a baby’s wail, echoing inside the house. We both turned toward the open window, breath frozen.
“Malik… is that a child?”
He didn’t answer. His face turned cold. Cruel.
“I want you gone,” he said, each syllable precise and venomous. “I am a man barely holding on. If you stay, Iwillensure you don’t leave this place alive.”
The child’s wailing grew louder, shriller, unbearable.
I stepped closer. “I’m sorry, Malik, for all of it. But please… keep the journal. If you won’t help me, then at least help her. Don’t let Balthazar get to Olivia.”
His jaw clenched. His eyes were wet with fury, or grief, or both.
“After I escaped Balthazar, I swore I’d disappear,” he growled. “No more wars. No more daggers. No more death. I wanted peace. And now you’ve brought everything I tried to forget to my doorstep. I’ve already lost two people I loved—I won’t lose anyone else.Especiallynot because of you.”
The infant’s wails rose into a deafening crescendo as I sprinted through the front door, my heart pounding. I burst into the nursery and froze.
A tiny baby girl lay screaming in her crib, her face blotched with tears, her small fists clenched in agony. My stomach dropped.
A glint of silver caught my eye.
Around her fragile neck hung a Timebound necklace.
Before I could move, Malik shoved past me and scooped herinto his arms. He held her close, whispering until her cries faded. His face was a mask of fierce devotion, carved in stone. When he looked back at me, his eyes were ice.
“Leave,” he said, his voice low and lethal. “Don’t ever come back here.”
But I stood my ground, even as the air thickened with threat.
“Do you believe you can protect her forever?” I asked, voice steady despite the fear rising in my chest. “One day, she’ll be old enough to see the monster beneath your skin. And when she does, she’ll recoil in disgust.”
The shadows shifted with the blaze of fury that lit in his eyes. He looked feral—like a wolf cornered and ready to kill.
My pulse quickened. I instinctively stepped back.
“You knew what Balthazar was,” he growled. “You knew what he could do and stayed by his side anyway. Don’t lecture me about darkness.”
He clutched the baby tighter. “I willneverlet anyone hurt her. I’ll fight with every breath in my body to keep her safe. And if I have to give my life to protect hers, I will. Without hesitation.”
He raised his arm and thrust it toward me like a blade, cutting through the final thread between us.
