Page 90 of The Shadow Sanctum

“How will you offer up your father if it’s your name on the documents?”

I look up. There’s that dread again. It sinks the pretty blue of his irises until they’ve found the ocean’s depths, wide pupils swallowing the sky blue.

Without him spelling it out, I understand.

I can’t offer up my father. Not when it’s me who’s guilty.

Breaking from his eyes, I try to take a breath. But the cave feels empty, all the oxygen sucked up by tension.

“Then you need to leave. Before they drag you down with us.”

“No.”

I face him.

Sawyer’s expression hardens. He doesn’t even blink.

My heart stutters. “What do you mean, no?”

“I mean, unless you’ve evolved into a woman who isn’t so goddamn stubborn to leave with me, I’m not going anywhere.”

I laugh. Though not a single thing is funny. “Don’t be stupid. The FBI is looking for you too. What are you going to do? Hold my hand in the back of the cop car?”

“Maybe,” he says simply, like it doesn’t matter.

My nails dig into my palms, the air strangling tight in my chest. “Why?”

His lips press thin. He hesitates two seconds too long. “Because.”

“Because?” My voice rises. “That isn’t an answer, Sawyer. Because why?”

He exhales like he’s been holding his breath for years. His gaze pins me, sharp and unrelenting, but underneath—something softer. Something dangerous.

“Because I love you.”

The cave holds the confession like it’s alive. Bouncing it off stone walls, sinking it into the air between us. For a moment, I can’t breathe.

I should’ve seen this coming. After all, I feel the same.

But it steals my breath.

My lips part, but no sound comes out. The thump of my heart drowns everything else.

He doesn’t move closer. Doesn’t reach for me this time. He just lets it sit there, raw and real, his chest rising and falling in heavy rhythm. Like a man who’s finally surrendered his last weapon.

And all I can do is stare at him, every wall inside me trembling under the weight of it.

I love you too, my heart coos while my mouth stays silent. I don’t know why I don’t say it back, but eventually, hurt crosses his expression, and I know it’s too late.

It isn’t the right time for this, the logical side of my brain assures me. Sawyer’s right. We need to act.

It’s only a question of how.

Even if I agreed with Sawyer… Even if I chose to turn against my people, against everything I’ve ever believed…

How would I get the medicine?

“Just come with me to the Hearth.” Sawyer takes my hands. “Let’s just see how bad it is… Then we can go from there… Okay?”