My stomach drops.
Levi leans dramatically over the cards, eyes narrowed. “Hmm…It says allthatin the cards?”
I shoot to my feet, chair screeching, shadows lashing before I can call them in.
“I need air,” I snap.
“Hayden—” Levi starts, reaching for me.
“Don’t,” I say, too fast, too loud.
Behind me, Constance offers a final gift.
“You can strip the title, shed the crown, turn from the throne. But even in mortal skin, you’ll always be him.”
It lands like a blow.
I don’t turn around. I move. Fast. Out the door. Into the night. The cold doesn’t chill me. I brace against the porch railing, air burning my lungs like ash.
Inside, Levi is still staring at the table, the place where I sat.
I don’t know what he’s thinking.
But I’m afraid he’s finally starting to see me.
And beneath the hum of my pulse, one thought won’t settle:She shouldn’t have said that.
Not here.
Not like that.
And certainly not in front of him.
I don’t know if I fear more what Levi heard…or why Constance wanted him to. I should have known better. After all, gods don’t get futures.
Only shadows. And I’ll never outrun mine.
10
Levi
“You need togo after him,” Elijah says, voice professor serious as he swirls the last sip of his cocktail. His glasses slide down his nose, the universal sign he’s about to be…correct.
Dominic nods vigorously, stabbing a piece of prosciutto with the passion of a man who has been waiting all night for a plot twist. “Seconded. And not just because I want the tea. Though I do. Whatever just happened”—he gestures toward the front door where Hayden vanished earlier—“was the kind of peak old-money-with-a-dark-secret drama Ilivefor.”
I bite the inside of my cheek, glancing at the window. It’s still freezing out, the snow blowing sideways. The kind of cold that settles under your skin. And suddenly, all I can think about is Hayden walking home alone, coat pulled tight, shoulders carrying something too heavy, it would appear.
“I’m sure he’s fine,” I lie, while every nerve pings in alarm.
Elijah softens, which is somehow worse than when he’s stern. “Maybe he is. But are you?”
I inhale sharply and look between them, my best friends and constants, the people who know when I’m about to spiral before Ido. “I need to know that he got home in one piece,” I finally say, heart hammering.
Dominic’s face lights up like a Christmas tree plugged into a power plant. “There he is.” He stands abruptly, pointing at me like an overenthusiastic casting director. “Go get your brooding funeral director, Levi.”
Elijah nods, pushing my coat toward me. “If you don’t, you’re going to sit here all night torturing yourself with hypotheticals.”
“But,” Dominic adds, “I refuse to watch that. It gives me wrinkles.”
