46
The maintenance shed trembled as if something massive moved beneath it, shifting the ground in slow, seismic breaths. Dust rained from the ceiling; rusted tools clattered across the concrete. The Reclaimer didn’t flinch. It simply lifted its hand higher, palm facing upward as though summoning something from the earth itself.
Benji shoved Sassy behind him. “Get OUT!” he shouted. “Everyone OUT, NOW!”
Levi barreled through the sagging doorway first, Colton close behind him. Wren grabbed Sassy’s arm, pulling her toward the exit as Benji aimed one last furious glare at the Reclaimer.
But before he followed the others, Benji barked, “Touch her and I swear—”
The Reclaimer lowered its hand.
The trembling stopped. The night went still. Then it spoke.
“She is already touched.”
A chill ran down Sassy’s spine so violently her teeth clicked. Benji didn’t hesitate again; he backed out, rifle still trained on the figure until the shed swallowed it from view.
Once outside, they scrambled behind a collapsed section of scaffolding. Gravel, broken stone, and rusted beams provided minimal cover, but it was enough for a momentary breath.
Benji crouched in front of Sassy, gripping her shoulders. “Did it hurt you? Did it touch you? Tell me.”
She shook her head, still clutching the bracelet. “No. But… Benji—Jimmy’s blood—”
“I know,” he said, voice cracking. “I know.”
Levi peered over the rubble toward the shed. “What the hell was that thing doing? The ground shouldn’t move like that.”
Wren answered quietly. “Reclaimers don’t control the ground. They signal the ones who do.”
Colton swore. “Meaning?”
Wren turned toward them, eyes wide and hollow. “Meaning the Garden is closer than we thought. The tunnels run under this quarry.”
Sassy felt her stomach hollow out. “So, they can come up anywhere?”
“Yes,” Wren said. “Anywhere.”
A sudden metallic clang echoed through the quarry—like a hatch slamming open. Everyone ducked instinctively. Torches flickered from a fissure in the stone far to the left, illuminating shifting shadows.
“They’re breaching!” Levi hissed.
“No,” Wren said, backing away. “That’s not a breach. That’s a summons.”
The word summons chilled Sassy more than the cold night air.
Benji tightened his grip on his rifle. “Summoning what, exactly?”
Wren swallowed, fear turning into dread. “Whoever’s still alive.”
Sassy’s pulse wavered. “Jimmy.”
Benji’s reaction was instantaneous. “Sassy—NO.”
“He could be in there. He could be trying to get out.” Her voice trembled so powerfully she could barely form the words. “Benji, you didn’t see his face. He didn’t look ready to die.”
Benji dragged a hand down his jaw, torn between reason and the one truth he couldn’t escape: Jimmy mattered to her. Maybe more than anything else ever had.
“The Reclaimer didn’t bring a body,” Sassy deciphered. “He brought a clue.”
“That’s not a clue,” Benji shot back. “That’s bait.”
“Bait is only bait if you’re not worth saving.”
“Sassy.” Benji’s voice wavered. “You ARE worth saving.”
A silence hung heavy between them.
Then a howl split the quarry.
Not an animal.
Not human.
Something guttural. Agonized. Echoing through the stone and out across the shattered beams.
Wren jerked, terror twisting her features. “That’s a Protector cry.”
Benji’s eyes widened. “Meaning?”
“It’s used when a Protector is… unmoored. In pain. Or searching.”
Sassy collapsed to her knees.
“No. No—Jimmy—Jimmy—”
Benji grabbed her face, forcing her eyes to his. “We don’t know that’s him.”
Wren said, “It’s him.”
Benji shot her a lethal look, but Wren held firm.
“I trained with them,” she said softly. “I know what that sound is. That’s a Protector calling for his Bloom.”
Sassy gasped, tears spilling. The bracelet dug into her palm.
Benji wrapped an arm around her as another howl tore through the quarry. This one sharper, rawer, a sound torn from the center of a soul.
Sassy flinched as if struck. “He’s hurt.”
Benji swallowed hard. “Or he’s being made to feel hurt.”
Levi repositioned beside them. “Guys, decision time. We either run deeper into the ruins or head for the ridge.”
Colton added, “Staying here is suicide. The quarry is full of choke points.”
Wren pointed toward the far edge of the ruins. “Ridge is safer. Harder for them to funnel us.”
Another howl shook the stones.
Sassy stiffened. “He’s close.”
Benji closed his eyes for a moment, his grip on her tightening.
“You’re not going to him.”
It wasn’t a command.
It was a plea.
Sassy wiped her face, trembling but resolute. “Then what? We just leave him?”
Benji exhaled shakily. “We survive. We regroup. We fight later. We don’t walk into a trap.”
“But what if he’s dying?” she asked but was really pleading for reassurance.
Benji’s throat bobbed; he couldn’t answer.
Wren touched Sassy’s hand gently. “Jimmy saved you. Twice. Let that matter. Let that be enough for tonight.”
Sassy stared at the bracelet in her fist.
Jimmy’s blood.
Jimmy’s last known trace.
Jimmy’s howl echoing across the quarry.
She closed her eyes—and made a decision.
“Take me to the ridge,” she said.
Benji sagged with relief. “Thank God.”
“But once we’re safe,” she added, voice steadying into something fierce and unmovable, “I’m going back for him.”
Benji opened his mouth but before he could respond the ground beneath them shifted again. Not the trembling from before. A deliberate rise as if something beneath the surface was pushing upward.
Levi shouted, “MOVE!”
The earth cracked open less than ten yards away.
Benji hauled Sassy to her feet, sprinting toward the ridge as the crack widened and shadowy figures began to emerge from the dark throat of the underground.
Wren screamed.
Colton fired.
Levi covered the rear.
Sassy glanced back for one last, desperate look and in the rising dust, she saw a silhouette.
Tall.
Unsteady.
Reaching as if trying to remember how arms move toward someone they love.
Her breath stopped.
“Jimmy—?”
The shape staggered forward—
47
The silhouette swayed in the rising dust—tall, disoriented, one arm lifted as though reaching for something only he could see. The moonlight caught fragments of him through the swirling debris, enough to paint him familiar in all the wrong ways.
Sassy stumbled to a halt.
“Jimmy?”
Benji grabbed her wrist. “Sassy—NO.”
But she didn’t move.
She couldn’t.
Something in her bones turned toward that figure like it belonged to him.
The dust parted and the figure stepped forward.
Jimmy.
Bruised, bloodied, barely upright—but Jimmy.
His shirt was torn, one sleeve soaked darker where blood had dried. His hair hung in damp strands across his forehead. His eyes…
His eyes were unfocused.
Searching.
Lost.
But not empty. Not hollow like before. Something flickered behind them—pain, desperation, something painfully human.
Sassy’s breath broke into a sob. “He’s alive—Benji, he’s alive!”
Benji’s grip tightened painfully. “Sass, I don’t know if that’s really him.”
Jimmy stumbled again, knees buckling before he caught himself on a piece of rusted scaffolding. His chest heaved as he dragged in air.
“Sass…” he whispered, voice cracked and raw.
That single word punched the air from her lungs. He took another step.
The Garden hunters emerging from the fissure froze at the sight of him. Some bowed their heads. Others stepped back in confusion.
Wren gasped. “They weren’t expecting him.”
Benji raised his rifle toward the approaching cult members. “Levi—Colton—cover!”
Jimmy staggered again. When he lifted his head, his gaze locked on Sassy.
“Don’t…” he choked. “Don’t run.”
Sassy shook her head, tears streaming. “I’m not running—I’m right here, Jimmy, I’m right here.”
Benji yelled, “Sassy, we have to MOVE!”
“No!” she cried. “He needs help—look at him!”
Jimmy’s fingers curled inward as if he were fighting something inside himself. His voice broke with strain. “Please… don’t let… don’t let them—”
A Garden hunter lunged forward to grab him.
Jimmy snapped.
With a feral strength that didn’t look human, he slammed his elbow into the hunter’s jaw, spinning him to the ground. Another cultist stepped forward—Jimmy shoved him aside like he weighed nothing.
Benji swore under his breath. “What the hell—”
Wren said, horrified and awed, “He’s resisting them. He shouldn’t be able to resist like that.”
Sassy took a shaky step forward. “Jimmy—come to me—please—”
He lifted his head, trembling.
“Go,” he rasped. “Please, Sass… you have to go.”
She froze.
“No! Not without you,” she demanded.
His eyes widened in terror—not for himself, but for her.
“Sassy—RUN!”
Benji seized her around the waist, hauling her back as the ground behind Jimmy erupted with more emerging silhouettes—five, six, maybe ten Garden hunters.
Jimmy turned toward them, face contorted with fury and defiance. He threw himself into them.
A blur of motion—fists, elbows, a brutal crack of bone on bone. One screamed. Another fell. Jimmy fought like someone with nothing left to lose except her.
Benji dragged Sassy backward. “He’s buying us time—SASSY, MOVE!”
“No!” she screamed, kicking at him. “Let go—LET GO! He needs help—Jimmy—JIMMY!”
Jimmy took a blow to the ribs but didn’t fall. He roared something unintelligible, swinging wildly, blood spraying onto the stone.
He wasn’t controlled.
He wasn’t calm.
He wasn’t empty.
He was fighting like a man who had broken through something terrible.
Wren pulled at Benji’s arm. “They’ll swarm him. He won’t survive this. We have to go!”
Sassy’s sobbing grew violent. “He’s alone—he’s ALONE—”
Jimmy staggered, collapsing briefly to one knee.
Her heart cracked open.
“JIMMY!”
He lifted his head at the sound of her voice, just for a second, and she saw him. Really saw him.
Not the Protector.
Not the indoctrinated.
Not the hollow vessel.
Jimmy. Her Jimmy. His lips formed a single shape.
Go.
Before she could scream, a Garden hunter slammed a baton across Jimmy’s back. He crumpled forward. Another grabbed him by the arms. Two more circled.
“No—NO—JIMMY!” Sassy screamed, fighting Benji’s grip like a wild animal.
Jimmy twisted once, twice, trying to break free, face contorted with anguish.
“Please…” he mouthed. “Sassy—go—”
Benji hauled her up the incline toward the ridge, shouting orders she couldn’t hear. Levi and Colton fired behind them, forcing the hunters to duck for cover.
Wren ran ahead, screaming directions. “This way—UP THE RIDGE—GO!”
Sassy’s sobs ripped out of her as Benji dragged her away.
Jimmy, still fighting—
Jimmy, being overwhelmed—
Jimmy, disappearing into the swarm of bodies—
Jimmy, screaming her name—
“SASSY!”
Her legs buckled, screaming back until her voice shredded.
“JIMMY—JIMMY—I’M HERE—JIMMY—”
But she wasn’t there. Not anymore.
Benji pulled her over the ridge’s edge.
The quarry vanished behind the rise.
The sounds of Jimmy’s struggle cut off all at once.
Silence.
The group frozen in the trees.
Sassy collapsed to the moss, empty, shaking, her breath gone. “I left him. Oh God, I left him—”
Benji knelt beside her, forehead pressed to her shoulder, trying to breathe through the pain etched on his face.
“You didn’t leave him,” he explained. “He saved you.”
Sassy clutched Jimmy’s bracelet so tightly it cut into her palm. “He’s alive. He was alive.”
Benji closed his eyes. “Yes.”
Wren’s voice broke behind them. “But for how long… we don’t know.”
Sassy stared into the dark, heart split open, determination rising like fire in her blood.
“I’m going back for him,” she vowed.
48
Night clung to the ridge like a second skin. The group moved through the dense trees in broken silence, Sassy leaning heavily against Benji as they followed an old deer path Wren insisted would buy them distance.
By the time they reached a shallow ravine sheltered by fallen logs and thick underbrush, Sassy could barely stand.
Levi signaled for a stop. “This is as good as we’ll get tonight.”
Benji eased Sassy down against a slanted trunk. She curled inward, clutching Jimmy’s bracelet to her chest, the metal charm warm from her grip.
Wren crouched nearby, scanning the dark. “The Garden won’t pursue over the ridge until they regain control of the Protector.”
The words sliced through the air.
Benji snapped, “Stop calling him that.”
Wren didn’t flinch. “It’s what they think he is. Not what he actually is. If he was truly theirs, he wouldn’t have fought them tonight.”
Sassy’s voice was barely a whisper. “And now… what will they do to him?”
Wren looked away. “They’ll restrain him. Or cleanse him. Or—”
“Don’t say cleanse,” Colton muttered sharply. “Not in front of her.”
Sassy’s breath came shallow, uneven. She wiped her face roughly, trying to pull herself back into focus.
Because she wasn’t done.
She wasn’t broken.
And she wasn’t giving up on Jimmy.
She lifted her head.
“We need a plan,” she said. “Something to get him out. Something they can’t predict.”
Benji stared at her, awe and terror warring in his eyes. “Sass… you barely survived tonight.”
“And he didn’t,” Sassy said, her voice splintering. “He didn’t, because he made sure I did.”
Colton looked toward the trees. “We don’t even know where they took him.”
“No,” Wren replied quietly, “but I know someone who does.”
The group stiffened.
Benji’s hand went to his rifle. “Who?”
Wren’s voice dropped to a tremor.
“The High Mother.”
Sassy’s heart dropped. “She wouldn’t talk to you.”
“No,” Wren agreed, “but she might talk to you.”
Benji scoffed. “Yeah? What part of ‘escaped sacrifice’ makes you think she’s open to conversation?”
Wren shook her head. “Because Sassy was never meant to be a sacrifice. She was meant to be an heir.”
The forest seemed to freeze.
Sassy felt her pulse stutter. “What are you talking about?”
Wren licked her lips, hesitant. “There were rumors—fragments—about a Bloom who wasn’t chosen but born. Someone the Garden watched from a distance. Someone they marked early.”
Sassy’s blood ran cold. “No—no, that’s not possible. I grew up nowhere near them. My mother—”
A branch snapped behind them. Everyone whipped around. A figure stepped out from the shadows.
A woman. Thin. Pale. Hair matted with rain. Eyes glinting with a terrible, familiar intelligence.
Benji’s rifle came up instantly. “DON’T MOVE!”
The woman smiled softly.
“Sassy,” she sneered. “Baby… did you miss me?”
Sassy’s world tilted violently.
Her “mother.”
The woman who raised her.
The woman who lied.
The woman who fled.
The woman who left her to be taken.
The woman who faked dementia.
Sassy stood on numb legs.
“Why are you here?” she breathed.
Her mother stepped closer, hands raised in a gentle, mockingly maternal gesture.
“To finish what I started.”
Benji lunged forward, placing himself between them. “You take one more step toward her, and—”
“Oh, Benji Fallon,” she cooed. “Still playing guard dog. How sweet. How utterly useless.”
Benji’s finger twitched on the trigger.
Wren grabbed his arm. “Don’t. Not yet.”
Sassy’s mother smiled at Wren. “Good girl. At least one of you remembers the rules.”
Sassy felt nausea rise in her throat. “You’re Garden. All along, you were—”
Her mother laughed softly. “No, sweetheart. Not Garden. I led Garden. Before your accident.”
Sassy staggered backward as if struck.
“My… accident?” she said. “You told me I fell. You told me the trauma… took my memories.”
Her mother’s eyes gleamed.
“Oh, you fell, Sassy. But not the way you think.”
Benji snarled, “Speak plainly, you witch.”
Her mother ignored him.
“You were born into the Garden’s line,” she said. “Born to replace me. Born to fulfill what I could not.”
Sassy clutched the bracelet, shaking. “I don’t believe you.”
“You don’t need to,” her mother said. “The Garden does. They always have.”
Colton stepped forward. “If you’re so important, why aren’t you down there with them instead of in the woods talking to us?”
Her smile turned sharp.
“Because I’m not the only one who came looking.”
A second figure emerged from the trees.
Taller.
Broader.
Moving slowly, limping slightly.
Benji tensed. “Who the hell—”
Wren went pale.
“Oh god. I know him.”
Sassy turned and her blood froze.
The man stepped into the moonlight.
Hard eyes.
Weathered face.
A small scar on his left jaw.
The same jawline as Jimmy.
“Hello, Sassy,” he said. “I wish we were meeting under better circumstances.”
Benji’s rifle tip drooped in disbelief. “No. Hell no.”
Colton muttered, “This can’t be real—”
But Sassy already knew. The resemblance was unmistakable.
“Jimmy’s father,” she said, the words barely leaving her mouth in disbelief.
He nodded slowly.
“Yes.”
Benji’s voice cracked with rage. “You’re Garden.”
Jimmy’s father inhaled deeply, sorrow flickering through his expression.
“I was,” he said quietly. “And I am. And I tried to keep Jimmy out of this. I tried my whole damn life.”
Sassy stepped back, trembling. “Where is he?”
Jimmy’s father’s jaw tightened.
“That’s why I’m here.”
He looked directly at her, eyes heavy with a truth she wasn’t ready for.
“Sassy… Jimmy survived. But he won’t survive long.”
Her stomach dropped. “Where is he?!”
Jimmy’s father exhaled.
“They’ve taken him to the Crucible.”
Wren gasped while the others looked on in disbelief.
Sassy’s mother smiled with chilling satisfaction.
“And that, my darling girl,” she said, “is where your choices finally begin.”
49
The woods held stillness like a breath sucked tight. Sassy stood between the two people she feared most—the woman who raised her and the man whose son she loved.
Her mother’s smile was delicate, predatory.
Jimmy’s father’s face was carved in grief.
Benji moved in front of Sassy, weapon raised, fury vibrating through every muscle. “Start talking. NOW.”
Jimmy’s father held up both hands, palms outward. “I didn’t come to fight.”
Benji’s voice was a growl. “That’s GOOD, because I’m a hair away from putting a bullet between your eyes.”
“No,” Sassy yelled, reaching forward instinctively. “Benji—wait.”
Benji’s jaw clenched. “Sass—”
“Let him speak.”
Benji lowered the rifle by inches, not conviction—just restraint.
Sassy’s mother stepped gracefully toward them. “Oh, darling, we don’t have time for this. The Crucible is already open.”
Sassy turned sharply. “What IS the Crucible?”
Her mother’s eyes glinted. “It’s where Protectors are either broken… or remade.”
Jimmy’s father shut his eyes, jaw tightening. “It’s a place they take boys they fear are slipping from indoctrination. A reconditioning chamber. A nightmare.”
Sassy felt herself sway.
“You mean they’re hurting him.”
Jimmy’s father swallowed hard. “Yes.”
Benji stepped forward again, rifle rising. “Then take us there.”
Jimmy’s father didn’t move. “I can’t.”
Benji exploded. “LIKE HELL YOU CAN’T—”
“Because if I take you straight to it, you’ll all die.”
The words hit the group like a shockwave.
Levi swore under his breath. Colton checked their perimeter again, nerves firing on all cylinders. Wren stepped forward, voice trembling.
“Why now? Why reveal yourself now?”
Jimmy’s father turned to her, eyes hollow.
“Because they think Jimmy is lost. And if the Garden decides that? They’ll finish the job.”
Sassy’s stomach knotted.
“No,” she said. “They can’t. He fought for me. He broke through something.”
Jimmy’s father nodded slowly. “Which is why they’re terrified.”
Sassy’s mother added, “He did something no Protector has managed in three generations—he chose emotion over duty.”
Her voice sharpened.
“And they will crush that out of him unless you intervene.”
Sassy’s breath caught fire.
“And you’re just TELLING me this?” she demanded. “Why help now?”
Her mother stepped closer, gaze soft and poisonous. “Because you are mine, Sassy. And you are Garden. You deserve the truth. And your Protector deserves your hand.”
Benji snarled. “She owes NONE of you anything.”
Jimmy’s father tilted his head, studying Benji with quiet contempt. “You’ve always been the problem. You and your family. Meddling in bloodlines that weren’t yours.”
Benji stiffened, stepping between Sassy and the man. “Say one more word about my family.”
Sassy’s mother laughed lightly. “Oh, Benjamin. You have no idea how deep your father’s debt to us runs.”
Benji’s face drained of color.
“What did you say?”
Sassy, breathless, pushed out the words. “Mom, STOP.”
“Oh, you didn’t know?” her mother cooed. “Your precious protector here—yes, this one—comes from a line that tried to steal from the Garden long before Jimmy ever did.”
Wren whispered, horrified, “Sassy, she’s goading him—don’t listen—”
Benji’s voice cracked as he turned to Sassy. “Don’t look at me like that. Don’t—”
“I’m not,” Sassy said, reaching for his sleeve. “Benji—I trust you.”
Her mother’s lips twists into a devious smirk. “Do you? How lovely. But trust won’t save Jimmy.”
Jimmy’s father stepped forward, urgency tightening his voice. “We’re wasting time. Sassy—the Crucible is a labyrinth. The Garden changes the walls. You can’t reach him without someone who knows the path.”
“Someone like you,” Sassy said.
He nodded once.
“And her,” he added, gesturing toward Sassy’s mother.
Benji barked a mirthless laugh. “Absolutely not. We’re not walking into a torture maze with two cult leaders.”
Jimmy’s father snapped. “We don’t have the luxury of principles. Every minute Jimmy spends in there; they’re TRYING to tear you out of him.”
Sassy’s heart stopped. Tear her out of him.
Erase Jimmy’s love.
Erase his memory.
Erase the part of him that was hers.
“No,” she yelled. “No—they can’t—he saved me—he—he CHOSE me—”
Jimmy’s father stepped closer, expression breaking. “And that’s why he’s suffering.”
Sassy’s legs gave out. Benji caught her under the arms before she hit the ground.
Then Jimmy’s father did something no one expected.
He dropped to his knees in front of her.
“Sassy,” he said quietly, “I failed my son. I couldn’t keep him out of the Garden. I couldn’t protect him from what he was destined for. But you—”
His voice cracked.
“You are the only one he ever loved. The only one he ever fought for. And now the Garden knows that too.”
Her mother added, voice soft as silk, “And THAT is why you’re the only one who can reach him in time.”
Sassy clutched Jimmy’s bracelet so tightly her knuckles turned white.
A choice loomed over her—massive, impossible, urgent.
Go with her mother.
Go with Jimmy’s father.
Or walk away and lose Jimmy forever.
Benji knelt beside her, taking her free hand.
“Sass,” he said, voice breaking, “whatever you choose… I’m with you.”
Her mother smirked again.
Jimmy’s father watched her like a man starving for redemption.
Wren looked terrified for all of them.
Levi and Colton braced for battle.
Sassy closed her eyes and made her decision. She lifted her chin.
“Take me to the Crucible.”
The forest seemed to inhale.
Jimmy’s mother—
Jimmy’s father—
both reacted at once.
But only one reached for her hand.
The other reached for a weapon.
50
The forest held its breath.
Sassy’s words— “Take me to the Crucible.” —hung in the air like a trigger half-pulled.
Jimmy’s father exhaled shakily and reached for her hand, his expression raw—pleading, terrified, almost reverent. As though touching her might bring him one step closer to saving the boy he once failed.
But her mother… Her mother’s smile sharpened into something serpent-thin.
She moved faster than anyone expected.
A flick of her wrist.
A flash of metal.
A slender ceremonial blade—blackened steel, sigils carved along the spine—slid into her hand like a lover returning home.
Benji reacted first, grabbing Sassy and pulling her behind him.
“DROP IT!” he roared, rifle locked on Sassy’s mother.
But she only laughed, tilting her head with eerie calm.
“Oh, Benji. You still don’t understand what’s at stake.”
Jimmy’s father surged to his feet, stepping between the blade and Sassy.
“Naomi—STOP.”
Sassy blinked.
Naomi.
Her mother’s real name.
Stripped of softness.
Hard as bone.
Naomi sneered. “Move, Elias. This isn’t your place.”
“It is when you’re threatening my son’s Bloom.” Elias’s voice cracked with decades of buried fury. “You want power, not salvation. You always did.”
“Power?” Naomi scoffed. “I WAS the Garden. Until you undermined me. Until he was born. Until she was chosen.”
She pointed the blade at Sassy, though her eyes remained fixed on Elias.
“You’d throw away our entire legacy for her? For a girl who doesn’t even know what she IS?”
Benji steadied his rifle. “You come another inch toward her, and I swear to God—”
“Oh, hush.” Naomi waved the blade dismissively. “The grown-ups are speaking.”
Benji stepped forward, teeth bared. “Try me.”
Colton and Levi raised their weapons behind him. Wren pressed herself against the nearest tree, eyes locked on the sigils etched into the blade with a tremor of recognition.
“That’s not a ceremonial knife,” Wren said locking eyes with Colton. “That’s a severance blade.”
Sassy’s skin prickled. “What does that mean?” she breathed.
Wren swallowed. “It’s used to cut the bond between a Bloom and her Protector.”
Sassy’s breath caught. “Cut it? As in—break it?”
Elias shook his head violently. “No. Severance means death. It kills the Protector.”
Sassy’s vision blurred.
Her mother—
this woman who raised her—
this woman who lied—
this woman who abandoned her—
was holding a weapon forged specifically to kill Jimmy.
“No,” Sassy stammered. “No, you wouldn’t—”
Naomi smiled sweetly.
Monstrously.
“Darling, you don’t understand what Jimmy is anymore.”
Sassy trembled. “He’s someone I love.”
“And THAT,” Naomi hissed, “is precisely the problem.”
With a sudden blur of motion, Naomi lunged.
Elias moved faster than Sassy had ever imagined he could.
He slammed into Naomi, knocking her sideways before the blade could reach its mark. Both crashed to the forest floor, rolling through leaves and dirt in a violent struggle.
Benji sprinted forward to drag Sassy back, but Wren grabbed his arm.
“NO!” Wren screamed. “Don’t interfere—she’ll kill you too!”
Naomi kicked Elias off her, rising with terrifying grace. She swung the blade in a sharp arc—aimed not at Elias now, but at Sassy—
“GET DOWN!” Benji roared.
Levi fired.
The gunshot echoed through the trees.
Birds exploded from the canopy.
Naomi staggered backward, the blade slipping from her fingers.
Jimmy’s father lunged, catching Naomi before she hit the ground. Blood seeped between Elias’s fingers as he lowered her gently, almost tenderly. Naomi laughed—a soft, rattling sound.
“Still loyal to the end,” she weakly snarled. “Always weak for me.”
Elias’s voice broke. “Why, Naomi? Why Jimmy? Why her?”
Naomi smiled faintly. “Because the Garden was never meant to be saved. It was meant to be reborn.”
Her gaze flicked to Sassy, sharp even through fading consciousness.
“And she—my beautiful girl—was meant to lead it.”
Sassy shook her head violently. “I don’t want it. I never wanted ANY of this.”
Naomi’s final whisper slipped out on a cold breath.
“Wanting doesn’t matter. Blood does.”
Her eyes dimmed. She was gone.
Sassy collapsed to her knees, shaking so violently she could barely breathe.
Levi holstered his gun with trembling hands. “Jesus… Jesus Christ…”
Colton muttered, “What the hell have we stepped into…”
Benji sank beside Sassy, pulling her against his chest. She didn’t resist—didn’t move—just clung to him, blind with grief and shock.
Elias stared at Naomi’s still form before lifting his gaze to Sassy.
And in that moment, he looked older than the woods.
“Tears later,” he rasped. “Jimmy doesn’t have that kind of time.”
Sassy wiped her face with shaking hands. “What now?”
Elias stood, picking up the severance blade and wrapping it in cloth.
“Now,” he said, turning toward the dark mouth of the valley where the Crucible tunnels waited beneath the earth, “we go into the Garden’s heart.”
Benji tightened his grip around Sassy’s shoulders. “Together.”
Sassy rose slowly, staring into the black.
“Jimmy,” she said, voice fierce through the tremor. “I’m coming.”