Jack

V ines slammed into the hallway floor behind us, the stone groaning as it cracked beneath their weight. The air was thick with pollen and spores, and the walls seemed to breathe with Sage’s fury.

Ahead, Hazel bounded for the exit. Beside me, Sav sprinted faster than I’d ever seen her move.

“Hurry,” Sav shouted as she darted past us.

“Wait! Sav!”

Kaspar’s massive black teeth snapped at my outstretched hand, and I tucked it back, gaping at the woman running at breakneck speed. I wrapped my fingers into the roping seaweed hair on the prince’s nape as he galloped and I stared in awe as Sav moved, hair streaming at her back.

“Lookout!” I shouted as blooms burst open along the walls, firing darts like arrows.

He picked up speed. We caught up with Sav and I reached down, wrapping an arm around her waist and swinging her up into my lap.

My arm tightened around her and she glanced over her shoulder, a look of feral delight in her eyes.

I squeezed her tightly to me, blocking her from the arsenal of flowers firing at us. “I’ll keep you safe,” I breathed in her ear.

Her arms locked around me. She was trusting me— finally , fully—and I swore in that moment, I’d take anything this realm threw at me if it meant keeping her safe.

A sting lanced my shoulder. Then the cold came—ice spreading beneath my skin. But almost as quickly, heat flared to life in my veins. The pain evaporated.

I should’ve been afraid of whatever I’d just done. But in that moment, all I could feel was alive .

Sav’s hair blew behind her, blocking my view, but I didn’t care, lost in her scent and the warmth of her body pressed against mine.

I held on tighter, never wanting to let her go.

I would shield her from any danger that came for her, but even as warmth spread through my middle, a cold stone settled in my stomach.

That moment my cage burned. It hadn’t been fury. It had been power. Freedom. And I’d liked it.

That terrified me more than the poison.

Because I didn’t know what I was becoming.

And I didn’t know if the thing Sav needed protection from was… me.