I press my lips to her forehead.
“I’m so sorry. I’ll never leave you again,” I whisper, my lips trembling. “I never stopped loving you, my little fox. Never even for a second. I couldn’t.”
My body feels like it wants to fold into itself and take her with me. I only now realize I collapsed on the ground again, kneeling with her pressed to me.
Her fingers just weakly curl into the skin on my neck, as if that’s the only answer she has the strength for.
“Kas,” Adrien’s voice cuts through the haze. “My wound opened. I’ll take her, and you cover me, okay?”
I finally lift my head and look up at him, forcing myself to pull back, though my hands don’t want to let go.
I can’t. I can’t let go of her anymore.
“Kas, just for a second. I can’t cover you like this,” Adrien silently urges me to let go, then slips her chained arms around his neck, scooping her up with careful strength despite the blood slowly dripping from his side.
Okay.
Let’s go.
Let’s go home.
We cover them from all sides, moving through the hallway, but no more guards appear.
The estate feels wrong. Too quiet and empty, almost haunted, like the walls themselves are holding their breath.
We step into the cold night air and Kiara gasps, a sharp inhale like she’s surfacing from underwater. She starts squirming in Adrien’s hold, mumbling against his collarbone.
“Kasien,”
“I’m here, I’m here, baby,” I take her face in my palms and run my thumbs over her damp skin. “Right here.”
Adrien shifts her carefully back into my arms when we’re back in the woods, far enough from the building.
Her fingers clutch weakly at my shirt as her eyes flutter open, trying to make sense of the dark forest around us.
“No,” she whispers and starts to shake. She tries again, voice slurred. “We need to go back.” Her breath warms the skin at my neck, her words soft but terrified. “We need to go back for Natalya.”
Adrien stops beside me, confusion written across his face.
“She’s drugged. She’s confused,” I tell him, shifting her weight in my arms.
“No,” she insists, barely audible. “She’s there.”
Adrien stares at her, jaw tightening, whole body tensing.
“Kiara, that’s not possible. She lives on the other side of this world. I made sure of it,” he tells her.
“Adrien, please.” Her voice is faint but desperate. “I swear. She’s there. With Lucien.”
That makes zero sense. Lucien wasn’t even in the house. We swept the whole house.
Marko finally adds, “We forgot the garage behind the property. He could still be there.”
I don’t care.
I have her.
I’m not risking anything anymore, we can take him some other time.
