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Grey buried his face in his hands, gritting his teeth and blocking out everything crumbling around him. Of course it’d come to this—of course the Wild Hunt would still drag him in.
Something clamped around his wrists, pulling them away to take in Noel’s green eyes peering back at him. “I’m going with you.”
“Don’t—” Grey cried, the rest of his pleading cut off by a sudden, world-shattering kiss.
Everything dulled as he squeezed his eyes shut and reached for Noel’s hands now cupping his face. He wasn’t sure if he’d tumbled into a dream or nightmare anymore until his senses finally gripped him and pushed Noel away, panting.
“Take it back!” he screamed, his vision glossing over. “Please take it back. I can’t lose you too?—”
The door vibrated with a heavy thump as the shadow cackled again. “It’s no wonder Reign hisses when they speak of you, little iron-wielder. You’re playing a very dangerous game even before the Hunt with that sort of affection toward their object of desire.”
Noel’s head whipped around, and his dagger slid from under his jacket. He lunged at the shadow, slicing at it right after it dissolved into a cauldron of ravens shooting outward. Grey ducked and dropped into a crouch, his body shaking uncontrollably, even as Noel covered him and tangled a hand in his hair.
“I’m not leaving you. I don’t care if you hate me, but I can’t let them drag you away by yourself.”
A tortured, hopeless sob erupted from Grey, and then the doors flew open.
50
GREY
Noel’s scream of fury when he was pried away pierced him like a knife to the heart. The clatter of Noel’s dagger against the floor was the second blow. All the fight had left Grey by the time the guards ripped him to his feet and tied his arms behind his back. He tamped down a twisted, morbid giggle that he’d been so generous as to wear gloves for them this time around.
“Grey—Grey, look at me,” Noel demanded, trying to struggle free as he was hauled through the door to the dais.
“Shut the fuck up,” one of the guards spat.
Grey’s head spun too wildly for him to focus on anything but the flurry of black birds zipping across the ceiling and out an opened, stained-glass window at the top of the altar room’s tower. A cruel thing sent by Reign or not, that creature had broken the last thread holding on for the possibility of a different future. Now, whatever waited in the Otherworld would decide his fate.
He didn’t resist when the guards dragged him after Noel, stopping occasionally due to a couple outbursts and strings of choice words before they made it outside. The cover of night greeted them, enveloping Grey in its cold embrace. They shoved Noel in the back of the van and held him down while they chained his ankles to one of the two long, grated metal benches inside. Grey’s guards helped him up instead, working around the two still pinning Noel down across from him, like he was some sort of wild animal.
Two resounding clicks, and Noel’s guards hopped out. The doors slammed shut behind them, dropping them into darkness.
“Grey,” Noel panted, the bench creaking as he leaned forward like he wanted to reach out and touch him if it weren’t for his arms at his back. “Please say something—anything.”
“I’m so stupid,” Grey whispered, warm tears sliding down his face. “I don’t know why I thought that would be enough.”
“You couldn’t have known. We weren’t even sure if?—”
“You should’ve let that thing pardon you,” Grey blurted. “I’m not fucking worth it, Noel. I’m not fucking worth anything.”
“Shhh…”
Another heaving sob tumbled out through Noel’s cooing and consoling whispers.
“You are the gentlest person I’ve ever met. I wanted to protect you after we escaped, and you offered me something for my trade. I started to fall for every little kind gesture and rare smile?—”
Grey’s tears slipped out faster with another wracking sob as he shook his head and the words tumbled out with increasing malice. “You deserve someone who isn’t a useless, deformed, blood-rending?—”
Chains clinked, as if Noel was teetering on the edge of his seat. “An adorable, brilliant, multi-talented healer that I’d love nothing more than to give my love to because you deserve it.”
Grey sniffed and bowed his head, letting whatever tears he had left fall free.
“I understand if you don’t feel the same way about me, but?—”
A quiet, bitter laugh interrupted his sulking, accompanied by another sniffle. “You probably had every macharomancer flocking to you back home. There’s not much about you not to like.”
“But do you?” Noel asked, that careful, prodding question needling at Grey.
