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I choke on a laugh. “You would be mad that you weren’t included.”

“Uh, yeah! I’m stuck inside Jinx. I’d much rather be having sex in a bathtub.”

I startle. “Did you say inside Jinx?”

She shrugs, and the last chunk of her sternum snaps in place. Her chest is whole again, her skin buttery smooth, but there is a thick, black line that runs down her body. It makes it look like she was ripped in half down the middle and glued back together. “She said my soul needs to heal from the damage and trauma of being imprisoned in the statue.”

She pauses, her eyes locking with mine. My heart pounds, her gaze shifting to something soft and sad. Her voice trembles. “I just want you to know… that is… Lucas… I…” She swallows and gasps, “I meant it. The thing I said after you and Jinx pulled my soul free. I meant every word.”

I suck in breath, my chest jolting with a painful joy. “I know.”

“Lucas—”

I shake my head. “Don’t say it while you’re in there. Tell me again once we get you out and I can hold you.”

Her laugh is broken, and she sniffles. “Okay. I will.”

We stay like that, hands pressed together as if a window merely separates us. A painful ache builds, and I swallow to try to ease the sensation. My thumb slides over hers, my gaze softening.

But something tugs at me, a thought that hasn’t quite taken form. Slowly, I tear my gaze from Tori to glance behind me. Valen is still the same, an unmoving statue of a man. His blue eyes are vacant as if he’s retreated deep within himself.

Dread fills me, a cold sweat clinging to my practically naked body. Bile presses against the back of my throat, nearly silencing me, but I can’t let it. I have to ask.

“V… did Vincentius come back today?”

Valen blinks, and my heart thuds against my ribs. Something changes in his gaze, but it’s such a tiny flicker of emotion that I can’t decipher it. He doesn’t look at me, and I count the seconds before he replies in a deadpan tone, “He did not, seeing as he’s dead in Astoria’s basement.”

My breath sucks in, my eyes flaring. Before I can register the pain that fills my chest with a haunting of my own lost loved ones, the heat against my hands disappears. I turn quickly back to Tori. She has stumbled back into the mist, her outline barely visible except for her glowing green eyes. They’re wide and move as if she heaves in breath. The line on her chest begins to weep.

I turn back to Valen, who stares at Astoria vacantly. Frost mists along the walls, and I shiver when the sweat on me begins to freeze. I whip back and forth between them, stuck between two difficult choices on who to comfort in this awful moment. Any second now, Tori is going to flee into the darkness, or be cleaved in half. I can practically feel her panic pulsing through the mirror. But Valen. I don’t know him well enough to figure out what he will do, and that terrifies me.

What I really need is for Astoria to say something, anything, that will help him. But she’s too lost in her terror.

These damn weavers and their inability to apologize are going to send me to an early grave. I turn back to Tori and stare at her with a building intensity. I tap a finger against the glass, and it snaps her wide, terrified gaze to me. My eyes flare meaningfully. Come on, Tor. You know what you need to do. Grow a pair and do it before the window to fix things between the three of us closes.

She’s trembling, and the mist shivers with it. She gasps for breath before she finally speaks in a small tone that softens my expression. “I… I…” My thumb strokes the glass, and she shifts a tiny step closer. “I was on my way to tell you about… everything. But Alasdair appeared before I got a chance.”

She takes a steadying breath and finally says, “I’m sorry, Valen. For all my wrong choices and for Vincentius. I know how much you loved him. I didn’t want him to die like that.”

My lips quirk in a small smile. That’s my Torment. Takes her a minute, but she eventually gets there. Tori’s gaze meets mine, and the fear that shines there sends prickles up my spine. Slowly, I turn away from her. Valen remains unmoved, but his chest is still, like he can’t breathe.

His voice is too controlled when he says, “You saw his ring.”

I frown, darting glances between the two of them. What ring? The mist nearly swallows her whole, but she manages a soft, “Yes.”

A vibration through Valen’s frame is my only clue to his rising temper before he snaps, “And yet you didn’t tell me immediately.”

Suddenly, the events from that terrible night click into place. My eyes close, my lips thinning. A small broken sound comes from Tori following my poorly hidden disappointment. I release my breath in a rush. My heart aches, but I try to bridge the expanding gap between them. “She was scared, V.”

Valen’s glowing eyes remain locked on Tori. “Scared of what?” My lips part, but Valen cuts me off. “I am not interested in your excuses for her. I’m asking Astoria. What were you afraid of?”

There’s no way Tor is going to stay and answer. She’s going to run, and everything will fall apart.

But she surprises me when her broken voice echoes. “The corruption from my curse is still within me. There are dark spots in my memory. At the time, I wasn’t sure if I’d killed Vincentius or if it was someone else.”

Valen is silent as he takes this in. I can practically see him comparing this information to the story I told him upon my arrival. His eyes narrow, his voice dangerously slow. “Were you afraid of your own mind, or of my reaction?”

I turn to Tori. Only her eyes are visible in the mirror. Finally, she admits, “Both.”