“You need to leave,” she said.
“No.”
“Solomon, if they find you...”
“They won’t.”
“You don’t know that. This place has cameras, patrols, and my father isn’t stupid. He’ll figure out the eastern breach was a distraction and redirect. You have minutes, not hours.”
“Then let me use them.” I took a step toward her. “The commotion outside is Percival running the diversion, he’ll make sure to buy me at least an hour. Lucian is injured but stable. We came to check on you, and the other two would be standing here with me if they could.”
Her jaw clenched. The journal tightened against her chest.
“I didn’t ask you to check on me.”
“I know.”
“I’m handling this. On my own. I have a plan, I have access, I have...” She trailed off. Her chin lifted with the familiar stubbornness. “I don’t need you to rescue me.”
“I’m not here to rescue you.” My voice came out quieter than I intended. “I’m here because I owe you more than I can say. And because you’re carrying our children and I needed to see with my own eyes that you’re alive.”
The wordchildrenhit the room. Her hand twitched toward her stomach before she caught herself.
“You heard,” she said.
“Three heartbeats. During the trial. We all heard them.”
Her entire body went still. The journal slipped an inch against her chest before she caught it.
“Three?” The word came out strangled. She stared at me then at her stomach. Then back at me. “You said three. As in... three separate heartbeats. As in not one baby. Three babies.”
“Yes.”
“Right. I just had to be three.” A laugh escaped her, wild and unhinged at the edges. “Of course it is. Because one baby in a hunter compound would be too simple. Too manageable. The universe looked at my situation and said, you know what this girl needs? Triplets.”
Her hand pressed against her stomach. “I’m going to kill all three of you. Your fathers. Not you. You three I’m keeping.”
The mask she’d been wearing since the clearing had cracked wide open, and underneath was the woman I’d crossed a portal to find. Terrified and furious.
Her eyes closed. When they opened, the humor had drained away.
“I found out alone. On a bathroom floor. While you were in another world.”
The words drove into my chest the same as the blade she’d buried in Lucian’s.
“I know,” I said.
“Do you?” She pushed off the door. The journal ended up on Thiago’s desk, abandoned, and she crossed her arms. “Because out of the three of you, Solomon, you were the one I expected it from the least.”
My lungs stopped working.
“Percival would follow Lucian into a fire. That’s who he is. And Lucian is the king. He carries a crown that weighs more than any of us can measure. I expected their reasons even when I hated them for it.” Her voice trembled but didn’t break. “But you? You were the one I always depended on. Who understood me even in silence. And yet.”
She uncrossed her arms. Her hands were shaking.
“You delivered the rejection with anger at me. As if I’m to blame for whatever your reason was.”
I couldn’t breathe.
