Chapter 241: The lines between Light and Shadow
Natalie~
The teleportation pulled at my bones like invisible threads being yanked by unseen hands. The dungeon walls dissolved into pure light, and in the next breath, we landed—hard.
I stumbled forward, my shoes meeting the polished wooden floor of Michael Blackthorn’s living room. The shift in atmosphere was jarring—no longer the cold, metallic scent of damp stone and rotting secrets, but the warm musk of leather, dust, and fireplace embers.
Griffin dropped to his knees beside me, chest heaving, face as pale as ash.
"Well..." he panted, offering me a crooked, exhausted smile. "That was... exhilarating."
I didn’t laugh. I didn’t smile. My hand was still clenched in Zane’s. His grip didn’t loosen, and neither did mine.
Griffin looked up at me then, and for a split second, something unguarded—something painfully human—flashed in his eyes. "Thank you," he said, voice calm in a way that didn’t match the tremble beneath it. "For letting me talk to Darius. For giving me the chance to say what I needed to say before..."
He hesitated, the words catching like thorns in his throat.
"Before I die from—"
"No." The word came out sharp and fast, puncturing through his sentence like a bullet.
He blinked, startled by the suddenness of it.