Page 86 of Savage Crown

Not because I fear him.

But because I have no choice.

If I want to live—if I want to see this through—I must stay with him.

I must endure.

By the time we reach the surface again, my body aches.

The tunnels spill us into the outskirts of the city, where the air reeks of sewage and smoldering ash.

The attack on the Den still lingers in the distance—smoke curling against the night sky, the faint sound of screams carried by the wind.

Rylan doesn’t even look back.

He simply keeps moving.

And I follow.

I have nowhere else to go.

We get out of the tunnel, and arrived on the outskirts.

“Fortunately, I prepared a place for this kind of emergencies,” he murmurs as we stand outside a house.

The safe house is small, built from black stone and shadow.

Rylan shoves the door open, dragging me inside.

I barely have time to breathe before he’s pushing me against the nearest wall, his hands braced beside my head, caging me in.

“Start talking.” His voice is low, dangerous, a whisper edged with steel.

I lift my chin. “I already told you?—”

His hand moves. Fast.

Not to strike me.

But to grab the dagger at his hip and press the cold steel against my throat.

My breath catches.

He leans in, his emerald eyes dark and seething with suspicion.

“Do not lie to me, Seraphina,” he murmurs. “Not after what you’ve just cost me.”

I swallow against the blade.

The way he says my name—it feels like a curse.

Like something he’ll tear from my lips and crush beneath his boot.

I could lie.

I could keep twisting the truth, keep burying my secrets beneath carefully chosen words.

But he’s too close.

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