“Leo—help Slade!I’ll get Elira!” I heard Thorne yell.
The lion roared and charged, barrelling through two Sentinels before bounding toward Slade. He slammed into him from the side, knocking another attacker off balance. Slade staggered, and Leo dropped to his belly just long enough for him to climb onto his back.
Slade clung tight, barely upright, his hand fisted in Leo’s mane.
I turned and grabbed Finn’s hand.
“Come on!Run!Get on the boat!”
From across the chaos, I felt it—Vasquez, cutting his way toward me like death incarnate, his sword black with blood and fire in his eyes.
Thorne was still fighting to reach me—but he wouldn’t get here in time.
“I’m going to help him!” I said, already pulling away.
But Finn caught my wrist.
His grip wasn’t rough. Just... final.
“No,” he said, breath catching. “You need to go.”
“Finn—”
His eyes were full of something I didn’t want to see.
“I crossed a line,” he whispered. “This is the only thing I can do to make it right.”
He leaned in and pressed a kiss to my forehead—long, lingering, gentle in a way that shattered me. Like he already knew it was goodbye. “I love you,” he whispered.
Then he shoved me hard—
And ran.
Straight for Vasquez.
His sword was raised high, like he could still change everything in one final, desperate rush.
“Finn, NO!”I screamed, my voice ripping through the chaos, through the blood in my throat, through the air that had already started to die around me.
But he’d always been fast. Faster than me.
As Vasquez raised his blade, aiming for my heart and Finn leapt between us.
The sword struck.
Time cracked.
I didn’t hear the impact. Only the silence that followed.
Everything else—screams, steel, the sea—all of it vanished beneath the sound of nothing.
For a moment, Finn just stood there. Still.
Like maybe he’d outrun it.
Like maybe he’d live.
And then—
