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T he guards shoved me forward. My knees struck the marble, pain jolting through my body like lightning. My side gaped, bleeding steadily. It would not kill me, but the blood loss left me so lightheaded and disoriented, I could barely take in my surroundings.

Black marble. The dais. A throne, with Dante lounging in it. We were back in the Sanctum. I recognized the obsidian columns, the flickering torchlight, the towering throne at the center where Dante lounged.

I forced myself to meet Dante’s gaze. His silver eyes burned into me, his expression a mask of ruthless indifference.

I knew that indifference was just a lie.

The silence between us felt like a second blade, this one poised at my heart.

When he finally spoke, it was in a terrifying hush.

“Tell me,” he said. “Did you think I wouldn’t know? ”

I swallowed against the raw feeling in my throat. “I?—”

“You think I didn’t feel it?” He looked down at me like I was something filthy beneath his boot. “You think I didn’t know the second you were gone, what you had done? ”

My chest tightened. Something unreadable shifted in his expression, restless. I knew he was hiding a storm, and his restraint was fading.

“Did you think I wouldn’t come for you?” I had never heard his voice like this, like something was fraying at the edges.

I held my ground, gritting my teeth against the pain. “Let me go, Dante.” I was right. The pull, the connection I felt, the kiss. It was meaningless. Dante’s soul was too far divided to remember any of his humanity.

His expression wavered. He motioned for the guards to bring me closer, and I slumped at the foot of his throne. He leant down, inches from my face. Then, so quietly I could barely hear it—“I thought we understood each other.”

The ground wavered beneath my feet. Dante sighed, tipping his head back. When he looked at me again, the mask was back. The lying game.

The doors groaned open behind me. I turned just as the guards dragged someone inside.

Dorian . He was fighting the guards, his face battered, blood smeared across his cheek.

His uniform was shredded, barely hanging onto his body, his violet eyes lit with fury.

I choked back a sob. The sight of him here hurt worse than my wound.

I knew what they would do to him, what he would do to him.

Verrine would never allow it, but it was clear she was no longer in charge.

“Dorian,” I choked.

He wrenched himself forward, teeth bared. “Get your hands off of her.” The guards yanked him back, but Dante held up a hand, motioning for them to relax. They released him. Dorian staggered, chest heaving.

“This isn’t you,” Dorian pleaded, hoarse. “You don’t have to be like him. Like your father. ”

Dante went very, very still, his lip curling. Then he turned back to me. “Tell me why,” he said, and the softness in his tone was more terrifying than his anger as he nodded toward Dorian. “Tell me why you stole from me, and I might let him go.”

I swallowed. The edges of my vision had started to blur. I was still bleeding, the Lumen unable to stitch me back together as quickly as it normally did. “You know why,” I managed, the words scraping raw.

“Say it.”

“Because I want to end this.” The words hung between us, heavy as stone. I thought he might strike me, he looked like he wanted to. “Because I lied.”

He didn’t move. He only closed his eyes. When he opened them again, they flickered, glossy. Like he’d buried whatever humanity was left of him, and taken something of mine with it, too.

“Take her,” Dante commanded, gesturing to me. “Lock her in her room until the Rift.”

“And the boy?” The guard said, seizing Dorian. “The High King arrives tomorrow morning. Leave him to decide?”

“No.” Dante stood, stepping over me like I wasn’t even there. He surveyed Dorian for a moment, then said cruelly, “He’s of no use to us. One of the unexceptional. Kill him now or let the Rift do it.” He waved a hand. “It’s all the same to me.”

The guards grabbed me. Dorian lunged. “No?—”

Dante raised his hand, and the air cracked. Magic surged forward, slamming Dorian to the ground. He groaned, straining against the invisible force pinning him. “See?” Dante smirked. “ Unexceptional , like I said. We have enough of that around here.”

“Dante!” I screamed, staggering to my feet. “Please, I’ll do anything. Anything you want. Don’t hurt him,” I begged .

He paused for a moment, considering it. Then, a wide smile stretched across his face. He was like a cat toying with a mouse, unable to resist the game of it all. He motioned for the guards to stop with a flick of his wrist. “I don’t want anything from you anymore, Arabella.”