I pressed my face into his shoulder, fighting the burn behind my own eyes. “It’s not your job to save me, Finn. You never should’ve risked yourself.”
“I’ve been so lonely,” he whispered, the words choked and shaking. “So godsdamned lonely without you.”
“I know,” I said, holding him tighter. “But I’m here now. We’re together.”
His hands clung to me, clawlike and desperate. “You can’t be here. He’ll come back. He talks to me—about you.”
I pulled back just enough to see his face. “Who?”
His eyes darted to the shadows. When he looked at me again, they were wide, wild.
“It’s my fault,” he said. “I should never have taken you. I thought I was protecting you, but he’s found you now. He knows you’re here. And he wants you back.”
I froze. “Finn… who’s coming?”
“I’ve seen him,” he whispered. “In my dreams. In the dark. He’s always watching. Always waiting. And now that you’re here—he’ll come.”
“Finn,” I said carefully, trying to hold him in the moment. “You’re not making sense. What happened to you here?”
“They hurt me,” he spat, voice low and raw. “Every day. Sometimes with fists. Sometimes with lies. Sometimes with magic. They make me see things that aren’t real—make me doubt what is. They break you here, Elle. For fun.”
My heart was a lead weight.
“You need to leave,” he said suddenly, clutching at me. “You have to go back to the Shades. To the Keep. He can’t reach you there. At least... not yet.”
I grabbed his face in my hands, forcing him to look at me. “Who is he, Finn?”
“The monster. The one with the red eyes.”
My stomach dropped. My heart stopped. I gasped.
Before I could press him further, the door slammed open behind me.
Two guards stepped into the cell, weapons drawn—not aimed, but firm enough to make their message clear.
“Time’s up,” one of them barked.
I didn’t move. “I’m not finished.”
They didn’t blink. “Mother said that was the deal. One visit.”
I turned back to Finn. He was trembling, still clinging to my hands like if he held on tightly enough, none of this would be real.
“Don’t leave me here,” he whispered.
“I’ll be back,” I promised. “I swear it.”
One of the guards stepped forward and grabbed my arm. I yanked it free, rising to my feet with shadow already flickering across my skin.
“Don’t touch me.”
That gave them pause. But not for long.
Felix appeared in the doorway then, more composed than the rest, but his face was tight. “Come with me, Elira.”
Reluctantly, I nodded. I pressed one last touch to Finn’s shoulder before I turned and followed him out, the cell door slamming shut behind me like a tomb.
We walked in silence—back through the twisted halls of the Pit, the sounds of the arena distant now. Muffled. Like the roar of a world I no longer heard.
