Page 169 of Evermore

“You would if I asked,” she argued back. “Now, don’t distract me. I need to concentrate on my big finale.”

She spun one more time, core tight as she moved to complete her dance with a small curtsy.

Minerva clapped. “Well done. You’ve been practicing.”

Perhaps she means to take your crown one day.

“She can have it,” I hissed back.

I froze as all eyes turned toward me. The words had slipped out by accident. Somewhere in my mind, a woman’s laughter echoed, low and thrumming with satisfaction at my slip. I felt Levanya then, coiling in that quiet space. She meant to pull me in, to protect me from them all, but I no longer knew the path to that corner. They’d been keeping me far away from her.

Such a fragile shell for all that power.

“I—” I stood abruptly, the wine glass slipping from my fingers and shattering on the stone path. The sound was too sharp, too loud in the sudden silence. “I need to go.”

I turned to leave, desperate to escape the concerned stares, but Archer was there before I could take two steps, blocking my path with his unnatural speed.

“Hey, no,” he said softly, his blue eyes steady on mine. “Not this time.”

“Archer, please. I can’t do this here.”

Run. Hide. Then break. Or break him.

“I’m not sure where you’re going,” he said, and before I could protest further, he pulled me into his arms. The embrace was firm, grounding, his heartbeat steady against my ear. “But you’re not doing it alone.”

I stiffened, then gradually relaxed against him, letting his warmth seep into the cold spaces the voices had carved inside me. His hand moved in slow circles on my back, the way I’d seen him comfort Quill a hundred times before.

“I hate this,” I admitted. “I hate being weak.”

“Weak?” He pulled back to look at me, genuine confusion crossing his features. “Paesha, you’re the strongest person I know. You fight battles inside your mind that would break anyone else.”

He lies. He fears you.

“The voices tell me otherwise,” I said, trying for a smile that felt more like a grimace.

Archer’s expression hardened. “Then the voices are fucking liars.” He glanced over at Quill and winced. “Sorry, kid.”

“I’ve heard worse.” Quill shrugged, moving closer to us. “Especially from you.”

A small, genuine laugh escaped me at that, and Archer’s face brightened at the sound.

“There she is,” he said softly. He kept one arm around my shoulders as he guided me back to the bench. “Listen to me. You’re going to come out the other side of this darkness. I don’t know how or when, but I know it with absolute certainty because I’ve been there too. After Harlow died, there were days I couldn’t see a way forward. But you never let me give up. You dragged me back into the light, kicking and screaming sometimes.” His grip on my shoulder tightened. “So I’m going to return the favor, even if I have to stand between you and those voices every damn day until they learn to shut up.”

“I’ll help too,” Quill declared, squeezing into the small space between Archer and me. “I’m pretty good at being loud when necessary.”

“It’s true,” Thea confirmed, joining our growing circle. “But we’ve all had to live with her, so you already know that.”

The tightness in my chest eased slightly as they gathered around me, a living barrier against the shadows in my mind. But the relief was short-lived.

They will all fall. And you with them.

I pressed the heels of my hands against my temples. “It feels like a pit of destruction constantly pulling me under and I don’t know why. I used to have control over them, but now…”

Minerva cleared her throat. Her piercing gaze saw straight through me. “Are you being serious right now?”

“Of course I am,” I snapped, frustration edging my voice. “It’s debilitating. Some days I can barely function through the noise.”

Minerva and Tuck exchanged a long look.