There were no second chances this time. There was no coming back from this.
I bowed my head. My shadows fell. The world was still.
I didn’t care anymore.
I was ready to take the blade.
Then—Thorne was there.
He threw himself between us, blades drawn, stance wide, shielding me with his entire body.
Before I could speak, dark tethers of magic slipped into my mind—familiar and impossibly gentle.
Get to the boat.
Behind me, voices were screaming—Jasper, Leo, maybe even Maddie—but I couldn’t hear them.
I couldn’t think.
My mind wasgone. And my body began to move—because Thorne had made me.
Because he had used the last of his power… to save me.
And I realized—too late—what he planned to do.
He wasn’t just stalling. He was staying behind to die.
“No,” I whispered, the word breaking against the wind. “No—”
The compulsion broke. I spun back around.
“Thorne!” I screamed, trying to turn back.
Strong arms wrapped around me, iron-tight, dragging me away.
I fought. I clawed. Kicked. Bit. Shadows surged from me in a storm of panic—but it didn’t matter.
Leo’s arms held firm. “I’m sorry, Elle,” he said against my ear, voice shaking. “I’m so damn sorry.”
He was pulling me onto the boat, hauling me away from the dock as it began to drift.
“Thorne!” I screamed again, wild, broken, drowning in it.
But he never turned.
He was already facing Vasquez.
Already bracing for the end.
And I—
I couldn’t stop it.
I didn’t scream words anymore. Just sound. Just pain. Just noise that tore my throat raw and meant nothing, because he was still back there.
Thorne was still back there.
Chapter 49
