Chapter 44 #2
“I… I followed the dagger,” I stammered, caught off guard by the venom in his voice. “I discovered the Sun Dagger.”
His eyes narrowed. “It doesn’t matter. I no longer care about the dagger.”
He began to shut the door, but I shoved my foot forward, jamming it in the frame. The pain shot up my leg, but I held firm.
“Please, Malik,” I pleaded, breath hitching. “Don’t cast me aside so easily. I left Balthazar long ago.”
“Don’t you dare say that monster’s name in my presence!” he spat, storming out and slamming the door behind him.
My chest ached. “What happened to you, Malik? Why this hatred? The last time we spoke… we were still friends.”
He turned, voice quiet and deadly.
“The last time you saw me,” he said, each word a dagger drawn across my skin, “I was chained to a wall—starved, beaten, bleeding beneath the whip of your master. And you? You stood there. You watched. Then I watched her die—my true love—while you and Balthazar laughed like it was a fucking game.”
“It wasn’t like that. I swear!” The words crumbled in my throat, landing between us like rotting leaves.
My hands trembled as I reached into my coat and pulled out my journal. I clutched it against my chest, a shield of paper and ink, then forced myself to hold it out to him.
“Take it,” I said, voice shaking but still firm. “It’s everything. Everything I’ve survived. Everything I’ve done.”
Malik threw up his hands in disgust. “Why the hell would I want that? What am I supposed to do with it? I don’t give a damn about your sob story.”
“Read it,” I snapped, the desperation spilling out now. “Please, just read it. It holds the truth. My truths. I want you to protect it.”
I flipped it open with shaking fingers and pulled out the worn photograph—Olivia, beaming behind a small cake, candles flickering.
“This is my daughter,” I said, shoving the image toward him. “She’s a Timeborne. And she’s in danger. Balthazar will kill her without hesitation. You have to protect her.”
His face twisted. His breath caught.
“Isabelle…” he whispered, his voice suddenly small. Haunted.
“What?” I blinked. “No. That’s Olivia.”
His face contorted with rage. Without warning, he slammed me back against the stone wall, the breath knocked from my lungs.
“Why are you doing this to me?” he snarled. “Why can’t you just leave me alone?”
“We’re allies, Malik!” I shouted, tears burning in my eyes. “You’re the one who told me to find John James. You wanted me to search for the daggers. And I did! I’m not your enemy—I care about you.”
Even as I said the words, I wasn’t sure if I was trying to convince him… or myself.
Then a cry cut through the night—a baby’s wail, echoing inside the house. We both turned toward the open window, breath frozen.
“Malik… is that a child?”
He didn’t answer. His face turned cold. Cruel.
“I want you gone,” he said, each syllable precise and venomous. “I am a man barely holding on. If you stay, I will ensure you don’t leave this place alive.”
The child’s wailing grew louder, shriller, unbearable.
I stepped closer. “I’m sorry, Malik, for all of it. But please… keep the journal. If you won’t help me, then at least help her. Don’t let Balthazar get to Olivia.”
His jaw clenched. His eyes were wet with fury, or grief, or both.
“After I escaped Balthazar, I swore I’d disappear,” he growled. “No more wars. No more daggers. No more death. I wanted peace. And now you’ve brought everything I tried to forget to my doorstep. I’ve already lost two people I loved—I won’t lose anyone else. Especially not because of you.”
The infant’s wails rose into a deafening crescendo as I sprinted through the front door, my heart pounding. I burst into the nursery and froze.
A tiny baby girl lay screaming in her crib, her face blotched with tears, her small fists clenched in agony. My stomach dropped.
A glint of silver caught my eye.
Around her fragile neck hung a Timebound necklace.
Before I could move, Malik shoved past me and scooped her into his arms. He held her close, whispering until her cries faded. His face was a mask of fierce devotion, carved in stone. When he looked back at me, his eyes were ice.
“Leave,” he said, his voice low and lethal. “Don’t ever come back here.”
But I stood my ground, even as the air thickened with threat.
“Do you believe you can protect her forever?” I asked, voice steady despite the fear rising in my chest. “One day, she’ll be old enough to see the monster beneath your skin. And when she does, she’ll recoil in disgust.”
The shadows shifted with the blaze of fury that lit in his eyes. He looked feral—like a wolf cornered and ready to kill.
My pulse quickened. I instinctively stepped back.
“You knew what Balthazar was,” he growled. “You knew what he could do and stayed by his side anyway. Don’t lecture me about darkness.”
He clutched the baby tighter. “I will never let anyone hurt her. I’ll fight with every breath in my body to keep her safe. And if I have to give my life to protect hers, I will. Without hesitation.”
He raised his arm and thrust it toward me like a blade, cutting through the final thread between us.
I stood in the doorway, panting, my chest rising and falling as I took in the nursery around me.
The walls were draped in lavish tapestries—idyllic countrysides and serene skies—lies stitched into silk.
The bedding was trimmed in delicate lace and silver-thread embroidery.
Rich, dark wood furniture gleamed under the faint glow of the lantern, and beneath my feet, a Persian rug muffled the tension crackling in the air.
In the center of the room stood an ornate cradle, draped in a blanket woven with feathers and strands of gold.
Stuffed animals ringed its base like silent sentries.
A row of painted wooden blocks sat untouched on the windowsill, frozen in perfect stillness.
It was the portrait of peace.
But inside me, there was only chaos.
“All I ask,” I whispered, barely able to speak through the tightness in my throat, “is that you protect my daughter.”
Malik’s face twisted, his eyes flashing like storm light. “I will not protect your daughter! I have my own to protect!”
His fury throbbed through the room like a pulse, daring me to push him further.
Then came the sneer. The dagger disguised as words.
“Admit it,” he said, voice dripping venom, “you still burn for Balthazar. You can’t stand the thought of your daughter meeting him, of being claimed by him. You’re terrified he’ll love her more than he ever loved you. He’ll see in her what he never truly saw in you.”
He stepped closer, eyes locked on mine. “Your fear is so consuming, you’d kill your child to keep her from him. That’s what makes you weak, Alina. You don’t want to protect her—you want to own her. Just like he owned you.”
His words landed like a slap, and I staggered back, breath caught in my throat. How could he know the one thing I had never dared say aloud?
“You’re wrong, Malik,” I gasped. “I love my daughter. That’s why I came here. That’s why I brought you this.” I held out the journal. “You’re the only one I trust to keep her safe. If anything happens to me… I need you to protect her from him.”
Malik gently laid the sleeping child into her cradle, brushing a tender hand over her brow. Then he turned to me, advancing with slow, deliberate steps, forcing me back with every inch of his presence. His voice rumbled low, like distant thunder rolling across a darkened sky.
“You always run, Alina. You carry within you the power to teach your daughter how to end Balthazar’s reign—but instead, you twist, manipulate, and use the people around you. You take, and take, and take.”
My rage erupted like wildfire.
“No. You’re the coward, Malik. You hide behind your fantasy of peace while the rest of us bleed. You had a chance to stop him and chose comfort over courage. You want a quiet life while the world burns? Fine. But don’t pretend you’re innocent while our children are slaughtered!”
He flinched, exhaled, shoulders sagging with the weight of something heavier than guilt.
“Go find someone else to save you,” he muttered. “I’m done.”
I stared at him for one last beat, then spun on my heel, fury pulsing hot through my veins. At the threshold, I turned my head just enough to speak.
“We’ll see each other again, Malik. Dead or alive.”
Hot tears blurred my vision as I walked away, but I didn’t let them fall until the forest swallowed me. I found cover in the nearby woods, heart thudding, breath shallow, watching his home give way to silence and shadow.
With the last light snuffed out, I crept back. Careful. Quiet.
I slid my journal through the baby’s open window, tucking it beneath her blanket like a prayer, a final plea.
It wasn’t the ending I wanted. But it was the only one I had.
My mission was complete.
Broken-hearted and filled with dread, I turned and disappeared into the night—back to Jack and Olivia, back to whatever fate was waiting for me next.