The doctors shared a horrified look. “Then...what do you suggest we do?”
Leaning against the desk—trying to look nonchalant but really needing the support—I crossed my arms and shrugged. “I suggest you play by his rules and forget you ever saw us. Pretend we never existed.”
Rook sucked in a sharp breath. “Lucien...what are you doing?”
“But...won’t you be taken back to wherever you’re being held?” the older doctor asked, his silvering hair catching the chandelier. “Aren’t we just condemning you to whatever you’re trying to escape from?”
“Not if you do me one last favour.”
“What’s the favour?” Harry asked suspiciously.
I couldn’t stop my hand going to the vitalsync core, exposing my plan—
“You can’t,” Rook gasped. “There’s nowaythey can do that here. You’ll die.”
Our eyes locked and the room dropped away.
It was just her.
And me.
And that damned electrifying awareness.
“Don’t.” Rook shook her head, tears welling. “You can’t ask them to do this.”
My fingers found Whisper’s ear out of habit, seeking comfort as a question I wasn’t going to ask spilled free. “You didn’t leave when you had the chance.” I shook my head, still unable to believe that a girl who’d meant nothing to me seven weeks ago had somehow become the most important person in my life. “I was unconscious and you didn’t run away.”
“Do you truly think I’m the sort of person who would do that?” Hurt flashed in her stare.
“You told Marcus that you weren’t pregnant—”
“To keep you alive! If I hadn’t, he might’ve taken your life right there.”
“He might.” I nodded. “But that was the gamble I was prepared to take. By revealing you’re not carrying an Ashfall, you’ve just given up the only protection I could give you.”
The doctors shuffled on the spot, awkward at being our unwanted audience but...fuck it.
I needed to say this because Rook was right. I might die tonight, and I didn’t want to have regrets.
“Leave.” I clutched Whisper’s ear, making the poor panther flinch.
“Excuse me?”
“You heard me.” I hated the sudden tightness in my chest at the thought of never seeing her again. “Go.”
I’d used her to get this far.
She was the first and only to help me.
The least I could do was set her free.
“Go with the doctors once they’ve finished.” I narrowed my eyes. “The guards won’t question it and by the time Marcus figures it out, it will be too late. You’ll be gone.”
“Do you really think I’d leave you?” Her face turned white.
“Do you really want to stay?”
“Of course I don’t.”
