I look up just as Liam comes into view. When he sees me, as his eyes widen and he rushes to my cell door, my heart—wounded and exhausted as it is—swells and beats a little stronger.
But no. Liam cannot be here. The image flashes behind my eyes of Roan, trembling with Caro’s knife to his throat; and then Roan on the ground, wide-eyed and lifeless with his blood spreading around him. If she discovered Liam was helping me, she’d do the same to him—or worse.
“What are you doing?” My voice is hoarse from lack of use. I get shakily to my feet as he wraps his hands around the bars. He looks terrible, his face drawn and paler than normal, throwing the dark circles beneath his eyes into sharp relief.
“Jules,” he says softly. “Are you all right?”
“You can’t be down here,” I snap, trying to hide my fear. “Caro will—”
“I know what Caro will do,” he cuts in. His voice is heavy with grief; I remember that his brother is dead. “I should have seen what she was. If I had—” He breaks off, looking down and away, and I think I can see the glimmer of tears in his eyes.
“I’m sorry about Roan,” I say, as gently as I can. Even if the brothers didn’t get along, I can’t imagine what it would be like to see my sibling cut down like that, for no reason other than cruelty.
My fists clench, thinking of Ina. I push my fear away.
“Roan is just the beginning,” Liam says thickly. “While Ina prepares to take the throne, Caro has the estate locked down. She’s rounding up everyone with any connection to you and questioning them.”
My blood turns to ice. Lora. Hinton. “She has to break my heart,” I say, half to myself. “She’s looking for anyone I love.”
Liam finishes my thought for me. “You have to get out. Before she starts killing them.” His hands tighten around the bars, his scarred knuckles whitening. “We have to go. We only have a few minutes.”
I squeeze my eyes shut, trying to calm my racing mind enough to think. Images of the people I love float through my mind, a silent chorus. Swallowing down my terror at the thought of more falling victim to Caro’s wrath, I meet Liam’s gaze and approach him.
When I put my hands over Liam’s, he shivers at the touch but doesn’t move. His skin is warm, the only warmth I’ve felt in days, and I savor it. “Close your eyes,” I tell him. I close mine, too, and call on the power inside me, willing the current of time around us to stop.
The cell and the hall outside it are so bare that when I open my eyes, I’m not sure if it’s worked. Then I notice the sound of dripping water has stopped and the torch behind Liam is frozen midflicker.
But Liam is with me, breathing heavily though everything else has stilled. My body trembles with weakness; with little food and sleep, I feel the weight of time in my limbs. Still, I manage to squeeze Liam’s hands in mine. In response to the pressure, he opens his eyes. He blinks slowly, in wonder, as he realizes what’s happened.
I take my hands from his—ignoring the regret that seeps through me—and point down the hall. “The guards are down there. They have keys.”
Liam understands immediately. He steps back, pausing for an instant to gape at the still flame of the torch, and then he’s off, striding with sure footsteps down the hall. My hands shake with fear for him.
But in a few minutes, he’s back, the key clenched in his fist. He fiddles with the lock, and I wait, my heart racing. The door comes open faster than I expect, and I stumble forward, unused to standing on my own. Liam catches me against him, and for a moment we stay like that, with his arm around my shoulders and my cheek pressed against his chest. Warmth surrounds me, and for a moment I feel almost safe. But I know we can’t stay like this. Time is frozen down here in the dungeons, but upstairs—for Caro, for Ina, for everyone I love—the seconds tick on.
Liam steps back first, dropping one of his hands to enfold mine. “I know a back way out,” he says, his voice low and urgent. “Follow me.”
He tugs me along down the hall, careful not to outpace me, though I can tell he’s itching to run. Liam leads me down narrower and narrower hallways, the air cold and heavy and smelling like water. At first, I count down the seconds until the moment we’ll be pursued—but soon, it’s all I can do to keep putting one foot in front of the other, between my weak body and concentrating on holding the time freeze for as long as I can. Before long I have to let it go or collapse.
Eventually, we reach a narrow, spiraling staircase that seems to rise and rise. But finally we do come to the end, and emerge into a small hut lit with an oil lantern. I glance out the window and see the lake, and the castle beyond that—we must be in one of the guards’ warming huts by the northern wall. There’s a cot and a table cluttered with supplies, and a door across from us, edged in gray twilight.
I let go of Liam’s hand and sink onto the cot, drawing in as much fresh, aboveground air as I can fit into my lungs. All my limbs feel weak, watery. I watch Liam as he gathers the supplies on the table, thrusting them into two knapsacks, then turning and holding one out to me.
“Addie can hide us tonight,” he says. “Then tomorrow we’ll get as far away from the estate as we can.”
His face shines with earnestness, and looking up at him makes my body ache. He’s risking his life for me at this moment, and about to give up everything he’s known.
I can’t let it continue.
“Caro killed Roan because she thought I loved him,” I say.
Liam’s eyes flicker. “But you didn’t.”
A needle of pain stabs through my chest. “Maybe not. Maybe just not enough. That’s not the point.” I stare straight into Liam’s eyes, willing him to understand, to feel the danger swirling around us. “You can’t come with me, Liam. It’ll only get you killed.”
His mouth twists. I wait for him to argue back, but he just stares at me for a long moment and then, finally, nods. A mix of relief and disappointment floods me.
“If I had trusted you sooner . . .” he says at length. His voice splinters, and he takes a deep breath before going on. “If I had told you what I knew, none of this would have happened.” The words he leaves unspoken hang between us. The Queen would still be alive. Roan would still be alive.
“And none of this would have happened if I’d gone to Ambergris like you asked,” I counter softly. “We can blame ourselves all we want, but that doesn’t help stop Caro now.” My voice catches on her name.