“What’s going on?” I asked, softer now.
Thorne clutched at his head, fingers digging into his hair.
“I keep hearing things… in my head…”
“What things?”
“Words. Memories. Are they—” He stopped, eyes darting around the room like he couldn’t find the thread.
“Thorne.” I moved closer, slower this time. “Talk to me.”
He looked up at me like I was a nightmare he couldn’t quite wake from.
“One thing that keeps appearing is—you.” His voice cracked. “But you’re a traitor.”
The words landed like a slap.
I froze. “Is that what they told you?”
“No,” he whispered. “That’s whatItold me.”
He backed away, stumbling slightly.
“I—I see you and I feel—everything. All at once. I don’t know if I’m supposed to stop you or protect you or—”
His voice cracked further.
“—or fall apart.”
My throat tightened. “You’re not well.”
“I’m broken,” he said, and it wasn’t angry. Just… hollow.
“You can be fixed,” I whispered. “I know you can—”
He laughed.
Not cold. Not cruel.
Just wrong.
“What doyouknow?” he snapped, voice sharp with hysteria. “You don’t know anything. Ashton said—he said if I didn’t obey, he’d bring her out again— he would hurt her!”
His breath hitched.
His hands were shaking.
“I had to listen,” he choked. “Ihadto go in that room. I didn’t have a choice.”
My blood ran cold. “Who, Thorne? Who did he bring out?”
He looked at me then—reallylooked at me. And I saw it. The flicker of shame. Ofknowing.
His mouth moved, but no sound came out.
Then finally, broken and raw: “Allison.”
My heart cracked.
