“You need to lie down,” I say. “You’ve been unconscious for over an hour.”

“Where are my weapons?” His voice is still thready.

“In the kitchen. I’ll get them.”

“The last thing he needs is weapons,” Jake mutters.

Grey’s stance stiffens.

“Stop!” I say. “Jake. Oh my god. Do something useful. Why don’t you get him a T-shirt?” I consider the bloodstained trousers hanging on Grey’s hips. “Maybe a clean pair of pants.”

“Go,” says Noah to Jake. His soothing doctor voice is back, and he begins picking up the supplies that must have scattered when Grey woke up. “We’ll be all right.”

Jake heads out of the room.

“Sit,” I say to Grey. “Please. You’re going to drop in a second.”

He slowly eases onto the side of the bed. “I was unsure I would be able to find you.”

“You did.” I sit down beside him. My head is burning with questions about Rhen, about Emberfall, but he looks like a breeze would send him crashing to the ground, so I hold my tongue.

“Can I get your blood pressure?” says Noah. He already has a stethoscope plugged into his ears, the cuff ready in his hands.

Grey glances at me. When he blinks, it’s too slow.

“He’s a doctor,” I tell him. “He stitched up your wounds. He won’t hurt you.”

He gives a nod. Noah shifts forward and reclaims his chair. He slides the Velcro cuff around Grey’s arm and begins inflating it. We all sit in silence and listen to the whoosh of air.

Finally, I can’t take it. “Was it … was it the monster?” I ask Grey. I can’t bear to say Rhen. “Is that what did this to you?”

He nods slowly.

“I thought he had a plan. A plan to protect his people.”

“Too late.”

Noah deflates the cuff. “Ninety-five over fifty. Still way too low.” A pause. “But I can see why you didn’t want to take him to the hospital.”

I’m still stuck on what Grey said. “Too late?”

He shakes his head again, then has to take a long breath. “He tried to jump from the ramparts. He changed midair. He has wings … this time. He can attack from … from above.”

“I’d really feel better if you could get him to lie down again,” Noah says, his voice low.

He tried to jump from the ramparts.

Rhen tried to sacrifice himself to protect his people.

Even in his last effort to beat Lilith at something, he failed.

CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT

HARPER

Grey refuses to lie down.

I can barely get him to stay seated, though his injuries are helping. Jake’s presence seems to make him anxious. I don’t know if this has to do with Jake’s history or the fact that Grey’s in no condition to defend himself, but he watches my brother like he doesn’t trust him.

Jake doesn’t help this effort, because he’s watching Grey exactly the same way.

Earlier, Noah taped bandages over the stitches on Grey’s chest and arm, then put a wide layer of ACE wrap over top of it all. He put three tablets of ibuprofen in front of the swordsman and said, “That should take the edge off. If you want something stronger, you’re going to have to go to the hospital.”

Grey took the tablets and said, “You have my thanks, healer.” Before I could get him a glass of water, he crunched them like candy—then grimaced.

That made Noah look at him sideways, a musing expression on his face. It made Jake scowl.

Now we’re all at the kitchen table, sipping the coffee Jake brought. Grey still looks shaky, but his color is a little better. Maybe the caffeine is helping. The borrowed green T-shirt is snug across his chest and arms, but the loose black pants fit him well enough. His dagger sits on the table beside his cup, but aside from the weapon, he looks like a college athlete with a hangover. I don’t think I’ve ever seen his bare forearms. It’s so hard to reconcile this figure with the strict, duty-bound guardsman I knew in Emberfall.

Jake sits directly across from him, his arms folded over his chest. Noah sits beside him, and his expression is more inquisitive. He’s looking at Grey like he’s someone he can’t quite figure out.

I feel so stupid. I should have put it all together earlier. “Why didn’t Rhen tell me?”

“What would that have changed?”

I don’t know. I might have stayed.

Then I think of what Jake was facing. I wouldn’t have been able to leave Jake or my mother. Rhen knew that. He was protecting me, even in the end.

Grey says, his voice low and rough, “You have heard stories of the damage the creature has caused. The lives lost. I believe he is ashamed.” A pause. “Was ashamed.”

The note in his voice makes me snap my had up. “Was?”

He nods. “He has no knowledge of himself when he is in this form.” Grey shifts in his chair again, then puts a hand over his ribs as if he needs to hold himself together. “He has attacked the girls before. Some have not survived. I have learned to draw him away, to the less-populated areas of the kingdom, but …” A wince. “The castle is full of people now. They have taken shelter, but Rhen’s creature is strong. He is pulling Ironrose apart brick by brick.”

I think of Freya and the children. I think of Jamison. Zo. Everyone I’ve come to know and care for. “Has anyone died?”

“Yes.” His voice is grave. “We are doing our best to lure him away from the castle. But he can fly and we cannot. Arrows do not pierce his skin. He has claws that grip and tear. He pulled me right off a horse. I put my sword through his wing and he fell, but it barely stopped him. He would have torn me apart.”

“Would have?” says Jake. “What did you do?”

Grey glances at him. “I crossed over.” A pause. “I came here.”

“Why?” Jake’s tone is demanding and I don’t fully understand why.

“Because.” Grey turns back to me. “We have no other hope.”

“You want me to come back,” I breathe.

“No,” snaps Jake. “No.”

We all look at him.

Jake presses his hands against the table. “Even if I believe all this—and I’m not saying I do—there is no way in hell I’m letting you go back with him, Harper. This guy literally fell through our door two hours ago. If Noah hadn’t been here, he’d be dead right now. Did you listen to his story about being dragged off a horse and torn to shreds?”

Like I didn’t see Grey collapse on the carpeting with my own two eyes. “Yeah, but—”

“But nothing. Are you listening to yourself? Are you listening to him?” He turns those furious eyes to the guardsman. “If you can’t stop this thing, what makes you think she can?”

“You speak as though I seek assistance in battle. I do not.”

“I don’t care. It doesn’t matter. He’s a monster. She’s not going to fall in love with him now. She’s been through enough. She can’t help you.”

Nothing here has changed. I love Jake, but he’ll never see me as anything more than little Harper who needs to be shoved into a back room and protected.

Perhaps he has a point. If Rhen is a monster, I don’t know if there’s any hope left at all. I can’t fall in love with a murderous creature. “What about Karis Luran?”

“The queen came to the castle. The morning after you left. She was not fooled. She spoke of secrets known only to her and the King of Emberfall, then gave Rhen a week to have his people evacuate before her soldiers would begin to take Emberfall by force.”

“But now the people are hiding from the monster.”

“Yes, my lady.”

“What about Lilith?”

“The enchantress,” Noah says softly. He looks awed by this whole exchange. I’m not sure he believes any of it, either. But for all his talk of science and reason, he looks like he wants to.

“Lady Lilith fled. In this form, Rhen is a creature of magic and he can harm her.”

That sounds like it should be an advantage—but if Rhen is determined to kill everything in sight, maybe not. “Do we still have an army? How many people have been killed?”

“So far the losses have been few. Several soldiers who were standing guard the night he changed. The people do not know the prince is the monster. Many fear he is dead.” He pauses, and his voice is grim. “Many guards heard the queen’s words. Rumors have spread that there is no alliance. That Disi has no assistance to provide.”

All of our carefully laid plans have been unraveled in a few days.

“What do you expect Harper to do?” Jake snaps. “Ride in and play princess?”

“Yes,” Grey says simply. His eyes are on me. “I would ask that you return to reassure your people.”

My people. I stare back at him. He’s still pale, but his gaze is clear.

I turn to Noah. “How quickly can Grey fight again?”

The doctor looks startled. “Fight? Not for weeks. He shouldn’t even be sitting up in a chair.”

“I can walk,” says Grey. “I can fight.”