Page 139 of Saints & Sinners

“When you’d sneak off, telling us you were training. It wasn’t true, was it?”

He tried reaching me, but I pulled my hands back as if his touch would burn me.

“When you came back, beaten, making us think it was the Riftkeeper’s... it wasn’t really them, was it?”

He didn’t deny it.

And that was the worst part.

“Ah,” Eden chuckled. “Is that what he made you all think? That it was the Riftkeeper’s? Oh, Hunter, we both know those times were only for your lack of work. The demons don’t like it when you waste their time.”

Betrayal pounded against my chest.

Hunter could only look at me with sorrow and pain flashing across his face.

But I didn’t care in that moment. I didn’t care because I was officially broken.

“Andyou.” Eden turned to Joe with a vicious smile plastered on her lips. “You know what I’m going to say.” Her gaze drifted towards me and her smile grew. “But maybe Grace, should hearit come from you first.”

I froze but there was only silence for those few seconds before the faint sound of a weapon unsheathing clashed in the distance, and I turned to see as Joe lunged toward Eden before she could say anything else.

She was faster, already drawing out a weapon of her own as the boys reacted, rushing to intercept her, but it was Marnie who was closest to Eden.

She threw herself between the boys and Eden, her hands glowing as she tried to blind Eden.

Yet Eden’s blade sank into her abdomen, and time seemed to freeze.

“No!” The scream tore from my throat as she crumpled to the ground. My legs nearly buckled beneath me as I dove forward, catching her before she could collapse completely.

Blood. So much of it.

My shaking hands pressed against the wound at her abdomen, desperately, frantically.

“Marnie—” My voice trembled. “You’re going to be okay. Just—just heal yourself. You can heal yourself.”

I grabbed her hand and pressed it over the wound, waiting and pleading for the familiar golden glow to bloom beneath her fingertips.

Nothing happened.

Her breath shuddered in her chest. “Grace...” She coughed, red staining her lips. “I can’t—it won’t—it won’t heal—”

“No, no, no, that’s not true—just try again, okay? Just concentrate.” My vision blurred, tears welling and slipping past my lashes. “You always fix things. You always fixme.”

I glanced back at the boys. My voice cracked as I choked out, “Go get help!”

They hesitated.

“Please!” I screamed, barely recognizing the sound of my ownvoice. “Somebody—just get someone! Please!”

At my urgency, Brandon and Silas ran, leaving Hunter behind. I heard their hurried footsteps disappear into the wreckage of Celestia and somewhere in the distance, Eden’s retreating heels clicked against the stone. Joe’s voice shouted after her, but it all faded into nothing.

Because Marnie was looking at me like she already knew.

She gripped my wrist, her fingers sticky with her own blood. “I don’t want to go,” she rasped. “Please don’t let me—don’t—”

“You’re not going anywhere. Just breathe in and out, yeah? You’re okay; you’re going to be okay—”

She gasped one final time, her hand falling limp as the sigil stones tumbled from her grip, clattering softly against the cold floor.

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