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Clang, it chimed. Its enormous pendulum swung, and the ticking chipped away at my sanity.Tick-tock, time is running out, Valentine.
Clang. It shook the air, the walls, my chest.
It was too much. Everything was too much. The air pushed in, and the ticking clock ground me down.
I slid down the wall. There had to be a way out. There had to be….
The light faded, and darkness rushed closer. I heard the sounds of tape screeching from its roll, and the tick-tock of the enormous clock.
No, this wasn’t real. I wasn’t the broken boy beneath the stairs again. “Adair, let me go!”
Hush, Valentine. It will all be over soon.
ChapterTwenty-Nine
Devere
Rochefort Manor glowed on the hill like a gaudy crown on a black velvet cushion. The doorman greeted me with a smile that quickly died as I pushed by him.
“Where is he?”
“Sir, you cannot come in—”
“Where’s Rochefort? Where’s Valentine? Where are they!”
“Sir, I ask that you leave and return when you are calmer and better presented—”
“Better presented?” I looked down at the leaves and dirt I’d collected on my trek through the forest, then remembered that none of this mattered. “Never mind. I will find them myself. Adair!” I headed toward the reception and dining rooms. “Val!” I called. “Adair!”
They were here somewhere. I pushed on, wincing around aches and bruises. The rush through the forest had been hard on my beaten body, but I’d made it here in good time. Val would be all right, so long as I found him soon. He believed himself strong and righteous, and in many things, he was, but not against the preternatural charms of a fae. If he pushed too hard, we’d begin again.
I couldn’t lose him. We had to break the cycle somehow.
I burst into a dining room. A generous spread adorned the table. Candelabras flickered, and the fireplace roared. Adair was reclined in the chair at the head of the table, like a king on his throne.
Val wasn’t here.
“Where is he?”
He wasn’t smiling, not like he usually would be. He appeared troubled, and as I approached the table, he raised the small snow globe cradled in his fingers. Inside, a tiny model of the manor house shone, lit from within.
“What have you done?” I demanded.
“I do tire of your tone and of this whole charade.”
“Where is Val? What have you done with him?”
Adair’s glare cut to me. “You are interminablyungrateful. I do my best to maintain peace and control and you—”
I slammed both hands down onto the table, rattling the bowls and glasses. “Damn you, Adair. If you hurt him—”
“What? You’ll do what, exactly?” His eyes narrowed. “Be very careful, or I’ll be liable to begin again. Then where will you be, hmm? Where will Val be? Back out in the cold.”
This man—this creature—would never let us go. I’d known it, but I’d dared not think it for fear of losing all hope. But the world would never change. The game would begin again, and again, and again, like the hour and minute hands circling a clockface. Only, Val and I were those hands. Damn Adair. Damn all of this.
“What do I have to do to end this?” I asked.
Satisfaction gleamed in his eyes.
