Falling.
Falling.
“You wereheretoday? That’s why it took you so long to get back?” Of course. That was why he hadn’t needed the address. He’d been here before.
Shaking, I could barely get my voice to work. I was going to be sick. I was going to vomit.
“You’re...you’re going to take the Stone from me, Kole? You’re going tostealit?”
Kole’s face was the portrait of steel. Hard. Smooth. And entirely unbreakable. But beneath his Shield, guilt burned. Heavy, hot, and unrelentingguilt.
And that was when it hit me.
He’d truly received orders when he’d left me.
His job had changed. It was no longer to track and kill thethingsin the Wood but instead to find me and steal the Wishing Stone that was rightfullymine.
“Kole?” The word came out choked, disbelieving. I thought back to our previous week together, the random encounters, the joy I’d felt in our budding friendship, the crazy attraction I felt toward him that I knew he felt too, and the fact that I’d so easily believed that I could trust him.
I’d trusted him completely. I’d even told him things I’d only told Ree before.
“No,no.” I shook my head rapidly. “Please tell me you wouldn’t do that, even if your commander told you to. Please don’t. Itrustedyou.”
Not one line on his face moved.
Not one breath lifted his chest.
“Oh my Gods. You’re truly going to take it from me,” I finally whispered. “I trusted you to help me, but you’re just following orders, no matter what those orders are. You don’t care if it’smeyou’re stealing from.”
Before I could comprehend what was happening, the warrior took the Stone out of my hands. Kole pried it away from me so easily, taking it from me in a moment of weakness when I was still reeling over his betrayal.
As soon as the Stone left me, I gasped, realizing what he’d done. I reached for it, tried to take it back, tried to reclaim what wasmine, but he held it out of reach.
“Give that back to me!” I snarled. “I need to save Timith!”
“We’re going downstairs, Primelle.” Kole’s voice was hard. Detached. As though it came from eons away. Guilt still burned beneath his Shield, yet he didn’t return the Stone.
And then he said something that would ring through my memories until the end of time.
“Your uncle can’t be saved.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
I was numb. Broken. Destroyed. Dying inside.
All of my efforts that I’d done to save my uncle hadn’t worked. All of it had been fornothing.
Gwen’s arm was around my shoulders. She was leading me down the hallway, as though I was a toddler all over again, and she had to guide me. Care for me. Hold me.
I walked woodenly at her side, yet instead of numbness in her aura, rage filled it.
“We can’t fight them,” she whispered in my ear. “I tried. Trust me, Itried, but the Council has made its decision. The warriors told me that if you found the Stone, they were going to take it so the Council could cast its single wish. Not you.”
We walked down the stairs, one foot moving in front of the other.
One step.
Two steps.
