Julian looked back at her.
His eyes softened the moment they landed on her. Then his expression sharpened.
"We can’t stay here. It’s dangerous."
He grabbed her wrist. Bianca was too stunned to protest.
A moment later, his trapdoor spider familiar emerged and spun a thick canopy of silk above them. Julian guided her beneath it, shielding them from the falling debris as they hurried toward the thick stretch of trees.
Bianca looked down at his hand around her wrist.
It was the same hand. The same warmth.
Julian had been one of the very few people who had ever treated her like a human being.
She got engaged to him at eighteen, after he saved her life. They were supposed to marry when she turned twenty.
Back then, Julian had taken her out in public without shame. He never cared who stared or what people whispered. When everyone else made her feel like something defective, he had made her feel normal.
Well...
Julian and... Louis.
Her lips curved faintly at the thought of Louis. He had always brought her sweet treats, his kind blue eyes lighting up whenever she smiled.
She hadn’t seen Louis in five years.
What was he doing now?
Bianca only pulled her wrist free once they reached the trees. She took several steps away from Julian.
The shame and helplessness that had consumed her moments ago were replaced by something she couldn’t name.
Her heart pounded so hard that her ears rang. The chaos beyond the trees faded from her awareness.
She could only see Julian.
He was looking at her as though three years had never passed, as though nothing between them had changed.
"Are you happy, Bianca?"
Her lips parted.
What kind of question was that?
She, who always had a retort ready for every insult, suddenly couldn’t find a single word.
Happy? What did that word even mean anymore? And what right did this man have to ask her?
"Is Duke Valois making you happy?"
Right.
The question snapped her back to reality.
Bianca immediately glanced around. She knew exactly what people would say if they saw her alone with Julian. She was already leaving. She wouldn’t give them another reason to talk.
And then she saw her... Genevieve stood among the crowd, watching them. A knowing smirk curved across her lips.
Bianca’s stomach dropped. She straightened.
"Do not speak his name," she said coldly.
Then she turned to leave. She needed to get away before Genevieve could turn this into another spectacle.
But Julian caught her hand. "Louis returned too. Did you hear?"
Bianca stopped. Her heart skipped.
Louis.
Hearing that name from Julian’s lips stirred something painfully warm inside her. She tried to move. Her feet wouldn’t obey.
"Bee," Julian said quietly. "I have to talk to you."
Bianca remained still. "What excuse do you have for that day, Julian?"
She couldn’t bring herself to look at him. She had spent years trying not to think about that day, about standing at the altar while everyone watched her humiliation unfold, about the fact that Julian had been the man she trusted most.
"Bee..." His voice cracked. "Will you look at me?"
Bianca clenched her fists. Then she walked away.
The Rogue’s roar had disappeared. The trembling had stopped. The danger was over. She had no reason to remain here.
"Peregrine—"
Julian’s voice followed her. Bianca stopped.
But before he could finish, the earth trembled beneath her feet. Her eyes widened. A deep fissure split open directly beneath her. The ground rose violently, lifting several feet into the air. Trees toppled sideways.
"Bianca!"
Julian’s scream tore through the garden.
Bianca dropped to her knees, desperately gripping the broken earth. Then she looked down. Two enormous mandibles pushed through the opening beneath her.
Her blood ran cold.
Another Rogue had appeared, and it was directly beneath her. Its enormous jaws opened, revealing rows of jagged teeth.
Bianca scrambled backward.
Julian’s spider familiar tried to climb toward her, but the ground kept rolling beneath its legs. Gravel and soil poured down the slope.
Bianca pushed herself forward and slid down the rubble. She wasn’t going to become food for some Rogue. Her hands struck the ground. Pain shot through her palms. Her knees scraped against the stone, but she kept moving.
People in the distance had spotted the second Rogue and were rushing toward them.
Julian’s familiar shot silk toward her, wrapping it around Bianca’s waist and trying to pull her away.
Then the earth split again.
The silk snapped.
More of the centipede-like Rogue emerged from beneath the ground, its countless legs clawing their way through the rubble.
Bianca tried to stand. She couldn’t. Her legs were trapped beneath the broken earth. She struggled harder, but the rubble only tightened around them.
The others were attacking. Bianca ducked instinctively. She could be hurt by them just as easily as the Rogue.
She had never felt this helpless.
Her eyes searched desperately through the chaos. Then she saw Julian. He was running. His spider familiar was beside him.
Bianca stared.
The Rogue’s enormous tail slammed into the ground behind him, sending trees crashing down. He didn’t turn back.
For a moment, Bianca couldn’t understand what she was seeing.
Then something inside her went painfully quiet.
Of course. Why would he stay? Why would anyone stay?
She had spent her entire life being the person people left behind.
Bianca lowered her gaze.
Her dress was torn. Dirt covered her skin. Blood trickled from the scrapes on her hands and knees.
She looked up.
The Rogue was staring directly at her. Its many eyes seemed to fix upon her alone, as though it had chosen its prey. Its mandibles opened.
A sharp gust of air tore past her. Bianca threw up her arms. The attack sliced through her sleeves, leaving thin cuts across the fabric.
Another spell followed. Flames burst against the Rogue’s armored body. Heat washed over Bianca’s face. Her skin burned.
The Rogue barely reacted. It kept coming... Closer... Closer.
Its jaws opened wide enough to swallow her whole.
Bianca’s breath caught.
This is it.
She squeezed her eyes shut.
This is where I die.
A name tore from her chest. "Peregrine!"
Her voice broke. She covered her face as the Rogue lunged.
"Peregrine!"
The name came again, raw and desperate.
The name of the man she had spent days convincing herself she could leave. The man she had convinced herself didn’t want her. The man whose ring she had just returned.
Peregrine.
And now, when she thought she was surely going to die, he was the only person she wanted.
I don’t want to die like this.
Bianca waited for the impact.
It never came.
Instead, something changed.
A heavy, suffocating pressure settled inside her. It wasn’t around her. It was inside her.
Something impossibly powerful seemed to sink through her body, spreading through her veins while, at the same time, an identical presence radiated outward from her.
Bianca’s breath caught.
What... is this?
She opened her eyes.
The world had changed.
Everything looked dull and distorted, as though she were seeing it through a thick sheet of glass. The edges of the trees wavered. The people around her looked blurred and strangely distant.
And yet... She could feel them... Every movement, every familiar, every tremor running beneath the earth...
It all came to her at once.
Too much.
Bianca squeezed her eyes shut.
Then something heavy descended. The entire garden seemed to buckle beneath it. Familiars staggered. Some collapsed completely.
Even the strongest summoners struggled to remain standing as that crushing presence spread through the air.
The Rogue froze. Its countless legs trembled against the broken earth.
Bianca slowly opened her eyes again.
What is happening?
She raised a trembling hand to her face and rubbed her eyes.
But the strange, distorted world remained.