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I stopped walking. “Garrick.”

He raised his hands in mock surrender, but his smirk didn’t fade. “Fine, fine. Keep your secrets. But I know you, August. You never flinch. You never hesitate. And today. . .” He tilted his head, studying me. “Today, you did.”

I clenched my jaw, staring past him, past the Spire, past everything. “I did what I was meant to do.”

“You did what your father ordered you to do,” Garrick corrected. “Not the same thing.”

Something in my chest tightened, but I shoved it down.

“I don’t have time for this,” I muttered, moving again.

Garrick followed, of course.

“What was it?” he asked, as if I hadn’t just tried to shut him out. “The Weaver? The way they didn’t fight? Or is this about your little redhead?”

I opened my mouth to deny it—but her voice echoed in my head, threaded with confusion instead of malice. Instead, I shot him a warning look, but he just grinned.

“Ah. So, it is about her.”

“This has nothing to do with her.”

“Doesn’t it?” Garrick pressed. “Because I think she’s under your skin.”

“She’s a prisoner.”

“She’s something,” he agreed, shrugging. “I just don’t think you know what yet.”

I exhaled sharply, rolling my shoulders. “What do you want, Garrick?”

His grin faded just slightly, and for once, he looked serious. “I want to know what’s going on in the head of my friend before someone else starts asking the same questions. Someone with a lot less patience than me.”

I knew what he meant.

Elias.

I rubbed at my temple, feeling the weight of it all pressing in. “I did my duty.”

Garrick studied me for a long moment before sighing. “Yeah. You did.”

But something inside me kept pulling loose. Quiet. Constant. Impossible to ignore.

CHAPTER 21

LILY

The wind banged the door shut behind me. I doubled over, lungs burning, heartbeat rattling like a fist on iron. Lorien was still out there—bound, helpless—and I had run.

Coward.

I sucked in a sharp breath, forcing the word down. There had been nothing I could do. Even if I had powers to stop someone from being unraveled, like Ysella said, I didn’t know how to do it. If I had stayed, I would have been next. I would have been unraveled before I ever had the chance to understand what I was.

I barely had time to gather my thoughts before I realized I wasn’t alone.

A sleeve whispered in the drawing room. Adeline.

She stood there, arms crossed, leaning against the doorway with a look that was far too perceptive for my liking. Her sharp brown eyes took me in, really took me in. The tangled mess of my hair, the dirt and leaves on my skirts, the wild look in my eyes that I couldn’t quite shake.

I must’ve looked like hell.