Chapter 268

AURELIA’S POV The smallest, most dangerous thing in me—hope—resented him for giving me that choice. I had spent everyday memorizing how to be small so I would not be noticed, and now he offered me a way out that required admitting I could not do it alone. I gripped the knife tighter and tried to make my voice a stone. “No,” I said. It came out flat, practiced. “I don’t want—” My throat closed. Darius’s eyes flicked, not unkindly, to the window. He knew. He had known before I did that my fingers would find the metal; he had seen the set of my shoulders the instant I crossed the threshold of despair. He had seen me unravel the way only the very nearest did. “You don’t have to say ‘please,’” he murmured. “You don’t have to beg me. Just—tell me you don’t want to do this alone.” A breath. “We’ll carry it with you. Two days. Two days and the pack will tire of the story. Two days and the men who feed rumors will be turned away. I’ll make it stop.” I was incredulous that he offered it so clean