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"I’m scared too" My voice quivers et the But his touch is not urgent, not pressing It’s simply a reminder I a on a sharp edge of truth--"I’ like that again I’ets to me I know I’m more valuable than most, because of what I’ve done and what I can do My na, and that makes me important It makesthis way, but I still do"

What began as Cal’s breakdown has becoht I spilled my secrets to hiirl who tried to steal his irl who stole his life

The worst of e It knocks againstto be free "I aze "Iballs into a fist, and heat spreads froer Cal’s easy to read, and it’s a welco wolves

"I miss him too"

My eyes snap back to his, startled beyond belief

"I don’t knoill et him To think that he wasn’t always this way, that his mother poisoned him Or that he was simply born a monster"

"No one is born a monster" But I wish some people were It would et their dead faces "Even Maven"

Without thinking, I lay down,our joined ue and blue eyes Clever, forgotten, coain "We have to let hi him"

"If he’s at Corros--"

"I can do it, Cal If you can’t"

He’s quiet for what feels like an eternity, but can’t be more than a minute Still, I al than the finest bed in any palace "If he’s at Corros, I’o after hi I have, hier, and she’ll turn it on you She’ll ers find his lips, stopping hi the words They cause hilieance, and no heart but the one I broke for hi to take true for away our deepest fears

He doesn’t believe me I see it in the darkness of his eyes The emptiness, the one I saw in Ocean Hill, threatens to return

"We are not going to die, Cal We’ve co He pushes o of my wrist "Do you kno many people I love are dead?"

I know he feels the thrum of my pulse, and I’m too close to mask the pain I feel for hione All murdered By her" Queen Elara "She kills them, and then she erases the about his father, or even the brother he thought Maven was But I know better "Coriane," Ithe naer Queen Cal doesn’t remember her, but he can certainly mourn her

"That’s why Ocean Hill was ave it to her"

I blink, trying to reht to re for our lives Dimly, slowly, I remember the colors that dominated the insides Gold Yellow Like old paper, like Julian’s robes The color of House Jacos

It’s why he looked so sad, why he couldn’t burn the banners Her banners