I couldn’t breathe. He gripped my face. I could see the words in his head, what he wanted to say, but Beryl Crowne was only a few feet from us.
Watching.
“She’s free from me, from the Crowne world,” Beryl drolled. “I can’t promise what will happen when the police arrive and there’s no one to blame for her lover’s death.”
Grayson gritted his jaw, eyes flashing back to mine. “Go, Snitch.” He pulled me closer to the arched, ballroom entryway.
“Leave you?” I blinked as tears filled my eyes. “For how long? I told myself I would never leave you again. That I would never let us be separated again. It was a mistake the first time—”
He cut me off, gripping my face and dragging me closer. “What did you say, Story?”
I blinked, taking in large lungfuls of air. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“You said our fate isn’t forbidden. Our destiny is divided. We haven’t found the right path.”
“I was fucking wrong!” I screamed.
“I’ll destroy it,” he said, voice shaking. “We’ll destroy it. Crowne Hall isn’t safe. Not yet.” He dug his thumbs into my cheeks. “I will make it safe.”
The way he spoke, the deadly determination in his voice, I knew this wasn’t a promise for him to come back to me.
It was a goodbye.
“I see the pain in your neck and the weight on your shoulders, Grayson!”
“And I saw the rust on your heart, Story!”
My mouth parted. “It isn’t the same,” I whispered.
“You can’t take someone else’s struggle; sometimes people are destined for pain. Isn’t that what you said?”
“It isn’t the same.” Tears clogged my throat, my voice messy and ugly. “I can’t. I can’t leave you. I can’t—”
“I can’t leave, Snitch. I couldn’t make it perfect. I tried so fucking hard.” He held me tight, as if with a hug he could engrave me into his soul, then whispered, “Find Lottie. She’s in the tunnels getting help.”
No.
I can’t fucking leave him.
I knew we only had five minutes, but I couldn’t process anything. Not the advancing pain in my abdomen, letting me know that another, much more urgent clock was ticking down as well.
“Story!” Grayson gripped my cheeks. He lowered his voice, until only I could hear. “Go to the tunnels. Find Lottie.”
“Come with me, Atlas,” I begged.
Everything was foggy.
This wasn’t happening.
This couldn’t be happening.
We couldn’t have lost.
“You promised you wouldn’t miss the delivery. You promised.”
Grayson dropped to his knees, pressing his head to my stomach. A single second spanned a lifetime. “This was always how it was going to end,” he said.
Then he stood.