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She could face monsters and death and betrayal, but not this.
Hawthorn sighed, shaking his head, as if this was all he could expect. “I just wanted you to know.”
He vanished in the blink of an eye.
“Hawthorn!” she screamed, finally finding her voice. Because how dare he leave, how dare he go before she could—
They had so little time left—
No.She wouldn’t let it end that way. She seized her tunic, looped it over her head, and followed thattug,that hard pull that snapped her back towards the palace. She landed somewhere that gave the vague sensation of being cold and hard: the throne room, she suspected.
It was hard to tell. Darkness swamped the room. She was almost blind.
“Hawthorn!” she called out.
He didn’t answer.
It occurred to her she didn’t need to worry about bumping into things. She was non-corporeal. She ran, straight through tables, through sleeping bodies, through walls and rooms, screaming his name.
Where are you, where are you, where are you?
He didn’t answer.
She kept going, kept searching, out of the palace, into the streets, the town, the gardens. Into a vast, palpable darkness where nothing existed but the sound of his name.
And still no reply.
Her pendant felt cold, a hard rock against her chest.
He didn’t want to be found.
Julianatrudgedthroughtheforest alongside the Autumn Road, covered just enough from the sight of any prying eyes. Acanthia loomed in the distance, great and grey.
“If I die today before I get the chance to kick your ass, I’m going to be so mad at you,” she murmured under her breath.
His words from last night rose in voiceless response.
I love you, Jules, in case that wasn’t clear. I fear I may always love you.
For a year. She remembered that part correctly, right? He’d said he’d been hiding it from her for ayear.Her own recent struggles paled in comparison to that. Why hadn’t he said anything?
You didn’t say anything either.
You didn’t know!
She thought about telling him she loved him now, just in case he was listening, but she didn’t. Partly because she wanted to see his reaction and partly because she was furious.
Plus she didn’t want to utter the words out loud to thin air. She felt ridiculous.
“I really did prefer hating you,” she muttered instead, unsure of the truth of her words.It was much, much easier to hate you.
At last, the end of the Autumn Road appeared in sight. Knowing it would be dangerous to approach directly, Juliana scoured the forest for a tree that towered over the rest, and climbed as high as she could go. As she suspected, the gate was heavily guarded. Two minotaurs and a stout ogre patrolled the gate itself, with a series of archers up on the battlements. No sluaghs or anything else airborne.
Juliana calculated her next move. With the element of surprise, she couldpossiblytake on the minotaurs and the ogre—providing her first attack took one of them out and only left her with two foes to deal with. She had the benefit of speed, but that wouldn’t help her a great deal if she was hit by an arrow, and who knew what else might be alerted if, by some miracle, she managed to make it past the gate? Speed would only protect her for so long, and dragging Serena up the stairs would be impossible without stealth.
No, getting in through the gate was not the best option.
Scaling the wall would be safer. It was so thick with vines that it wouldn’t be hard to climb, although time-consuming. Not to mention she had no idea what awaited her on the other side.
