Evelyn POV
I bit Marcus's hand as hard as I could.
He yelped, and his grip relaxed just enough. I ripped my arm free and ran back the way we came, my feet beating on the stone steps. The secret tunnel was pitch black, but I didn't care. I had to get away. I had to catch Marcus before I made it ten steps. "Let me go!" I screamed, grabbing at his arms. "Marcus, please! Don't do this!"
He wrapped both arms around me and lifted me off my feet. I kicked and thrashed, but he was too strong. He'd always been too strong. "Stop fighting me!" His voice cracked. "Evie, please, just stop fighting!" "No!" I drove my arm into his ribs. He grunted but didn't let go. "You're going to kill me! Your own sister!" "I'm not going to kill you," he panted, dragging me back down the steps. "I'm saving you. Why can't you understand that?"
I screamed as loud as I could, hoping someone would hear. But we were too deep in the tunnels now. The stone walls swallowed my voice.
Marcus pulled me deeper into the tube system. The air grew colder with each step. I could hear water running somewhere below us. The sound made my gut twist with fear. "Where are you taking me?" I demanded, still fighting. "Marcus, answer me!"
He didn't reply. Just kept walking, kept pulling me forward like I weighed nothing. His face was wet with tears, but his jaw was set. Determined.
We turned down another tunnel. This one sloped downward sharply. The sound of running water grew louder. And then I smelled it, the sharp, cold scent of the river.
The Frozen Crossing.
Terror burst in my chest. "No. No, no, no! Marcus, not the river! Please, not the river!"
The Frozen Crossing was the most dangerous border in the land. The water ran fast and cold, fed by mountain ice. Every year, wolves that tried to cross it drowned or froze to death. Nobody survived the Frozen Crossing in winter.
Nobody. "Marcus, please!" I begged, my voice breaking. "If you put me in that water, I'll die! You know I'll die!" "Better that than what Draven will do to you." His voice was hollow. Empty. "At least this way it'll be quick."
My blood turned to ice. He really meant it. My brother, my only family, was actually going to kill me.
We exited from the tunnel into the freezing night air. Snow fell in soft flakes around us. The Frozen Crossing stretched out before us, black and dangerous. Ice crusted the edges, but the middle ran fast and violently, churning with white foam.
Marcus dragged me toward the riverbank. I dug my feet into the snow, fighting with everything I had left. "Please!" Tears streamed down my face. "Marcus, we're family! We're all each other has left!" "I know." His voice shook. "That's why I have to do this." "Mom and Dad wouldn't want this!" I grabbed his shirt, desperate. "They raised us better than this! They taught us to protect each other, not" Mom and Dad are dead!" Marcus shouted suddenly, his face twisted with pain and rage. "They've been dead for ten years, and they're not coming back!" He shoved me closer to the water's edge. "And I have to live without them. I have to keep living in this world, even if it's cruel and terrible and unfair." "Then survive with me!" I sobbed. "We can run away together! We can take the proof and go to another kingdom! We can" "There is no other country!" he yelled. "Draven has links everywhere! The moment we run, we're dead! Both of us!" He grabbed my shoulders and shook me. "Don't you get it? There's no winning here! There's only life!"
I looked into my brother's eyes and saw something that broke my heart. He wasn't just scared. He was broken. Completely and totally broken by years of serving a monster. "Marcus," I whispered. "It's not too late. We can still do the right thing. We can still say," The right thing gets you killed." He let go of my shoulders. His whole body sagged like someone had cut his strings. "I learned that the hard way."
Fresh tears rolled down his face. He pulled something from his pocket, my USB drive. The one with all the proof. All the proof of Draven's crimes.
He held it up, looking at it like it was a snake. "This thing," he said quietly. "This little piece of plastic. It's going to destroy everything." He looked at me. "Did you make copies?"
I couldn't lie. Not now. "No."
Something like relief crossed his face. He walked to the river's edge and threw the USB drive as far as he could. It went into the black water with a tiny splash. "No!" I lunged forward, but he grabbed me. "It's gone," he said. "The information is gone. And soon, everyone will think you ran away. Draven will be angry for a while, but he'll find another mate. Life will go on." His arms tightened around me. "And I'll be the only one who knows the truth." "Marcus, please." "I'm sorry, Evie." His voice broke completely. "I'm so, so sorry. But you should have just stayed quiet. You should have just married him and lived your life and stayed quiet."
He started dragging me toward the water.
I fought harder than I'd ever fought in my life. I screamed and kicked and bit and clawed. But Marcus was stronger. He'd always been bigger.
We reached the edge where the ice met the rushing water. The cold bit through my clothes quickly. I could see my breath in white clouds. "If they find your body in spring," Marcus said, his voice dead and mechanical, "they'll think you tried to run away and fell through the ice. It happens every year. No one will question it." "Marcus!" I grabbed his arms one last time. "I'm your sister! I'm your baby sister! How can you do this?"
He looked at me then, really looked at me, and I saw his heart breaking in real time. "Because if I don't," he whispered, "Draven will do worse. So much worse. And I can't watch that happen. I can't." He took a shaky breath. "I'd rather remember you like this. Fighting. Brave. Still believing in doing the right thing." "Then don't do this," I begged. "Please. I'm asking you. Don't"
He pushed me.
Time slowed down as I fell backward. I saw Marcus's face above me, twisted with sadness and horror at what he'd done. I saw the snow falling like stars. I saw the black sky.
Then I hit the water.
The cold was like being stabbed with a thousand knives all at once. Every nerve in my body screamed. I couldn't move. Couldn't think. Couldn't do anything but feel the terrible, bone-crushing cold.
The current grabbed me immediately and pulled me under.
I tried to run. Tried to fight my way back to the top. But my clothes were already soaked, pulling me down like anchors. The water filled my nose and mouth. I couldn't tell which way was up.
My lungs burned. My body went numb. The cold stole everything: my power, my hope, my will to fight.
Images flashed through my dying mind. Maya's bloody face. The list of lost wolves. Draven's smile. Marcus is throwing me into the river.
And the evidence, the proof I'd risked everything for, sinking to the bottom of the river, lost forever.
No one would ever know the truth. The lost wolves would never be found. Draven would keep hurting people. And my death would mean nothing.
Nothing at all.
The current pulled me deeper. Darkness closed in from all sides, not just in the water but inside my head. My body stopped fighting. Stopped fighting.
It would be so easy to just let go. To stop fighting the cold and the stream and just… sink.
My last clear thought was a strange one: I'm sorry, Maya. I tried.
Then the darkness took me completely.
And everything went black.