Marco shakes his head violently. “No. No, this isn’t right.”
I turn to face him, studying the angles of his face in the lamplight. “Listen, Marco—”
“No!” His shout echoes off the stone walls, loud enough to wake the dead. “This isn’t right!”
“You’re right. It isn’t.” I step closer, needing him to hear me. “But it’s happening. And we have maybe minutes before—”
“I’ll fix this!” he screams, and I grab him. Shake him. But it’s no good. There’s a wild look in his eyes. I’ve lost him. “You’re going to live!”
“No,” I say, pressing a palm against his chest. “But you are.”
Marco shoves me.
The force of it sends me stumbling backward. That’s how I know he’s truly gone.
Marco would never risk hurting me, not right now. Not just before the match. But his eyes hold nothing but wild panic, and I’m currently just another obstacle between him and whatever impossible solution he thinks he can find.
He spins toward the guards, who stand frozen in the doorway, their faces slack with shock at the scene we’re creating. Blood and a body and two prisoners losing their minds in the depths of the arena.
“Take me to the Emperor,” Marco demands, his voice cutting through the dungeon air like a blade. “Now!”
“No!” The word tears from my throat. I lurch forward, reaching for him, but he’s already moving toward the guards. “Don’t leave me, Marco!”
But it’s no good. He’s already decided, already chosen this path that leads away from me and toward whatever bargain he thinks he can strike. The same stubborn determination that kept him alive for five years is now driving him straight into the Emperor’s hands.
He stops at the threshold, turns back just long enough to press a swift kiss to my forehead. His lips are warm against my skin, gentle despite everything.
“It doesn’t end like this. I promise you. I will see you soon, my love.”
And before I can blink, he’s gone, the guards flanking him as they disappear up the stone steps. Their footsteps echo through the corridors above, growing fainter with each passing second until there’s nothing left but silence and the stench of Harlan’s blood.
I stand alone in the lamplight, surrounded by death and the shattered pieces of my heart.
Chapter forty-one
Marco: Paradise Lost
The palace lies vast and pale in the morning sun. Clipped hedges, playful statues, soft blooming flowers. It offers no hint of the evil that lives inside, that rules this place, this city, all the wastelands, and beyond.
But not for long.
He’s not getting another drop of blood from me or from Robin.
Today, I’m ending him.
There’s little sign of other human life here this early. Just the heavy steps of my feet, the clank of the guards’ armor. Almost nothing until we arrive at those enormous wooden doors.
I raise my hand, pound on them.
They open instantly.
Sunlight cuts into the dark hall, illuminating the marred and malevolent face of Kane Bishop. His scar tilts as his smile emerges. “Verus. We’ve been expecting you.” Before I have time to react to the shock of seeing him, he snarls, “Guards! Seize him!”
My own guards, who have walked me back and forth to that dungeon for a year now, who have witnessed the blooming love between Robin andme, predictably stand back and do absolutely nothing. It’s the Emperor’s own detail who moves forward.
My arm strikes out. I take the first one with a crunch to the gut. But in the same moment, a sharp jolt cuts through my shoulder, down my spine, my body screaming all over. I fall to my knees, then a kick lands hard in my stomach, knocking the breath out of me.
In half a second, chains snap closed around my wrists, my neck, and I’m hauled to my feet, a prisoner in full regalia once again.
