Obb may have cursed—it was muffled as the hole peeled open wider. The white-bearded man’s entire face pushed through, hovering like a balloon. Zane was wide-eyed and frozen at the room’s wall.

“What is it now, girl? Don’t you know I have things to do?” Obb’s bushy brows tilted in.

“I know you serve Elowin even if you can’t admit it,” I said. “Elowin’s last Carrier is about to be executed in the Green Kingdom, and the Volumes of Wisdom, wiped out.”

Obb’s face soured. “I’ll not get involved either way,” he promised.

“Then Nightflesh will win, even after I’ve warned you.”

Obb blinked impatiently. “It’s not possible to make a door to Winter inside of Winter. And even if I could do it, I wouldn’t.”

“Then how are you doing it now?” I challenged, climbing to my knees.

“This is not a door!” His face reddened. “It’s a peephole! And I’m breaking the rules by talking to you through it. Be gone now, girl.” Obb’s white beard pulled back through the opening.

“Don’t leave!” I couldn’t get the words out before the hole plugged and every trace of the man in the navy tent vanished.

I slumped back against the wall, kicking my legs out. My stinging eyes slid shut.

“What are you doing?” Zane’s tone was accusatory.

And after all my months and efforts of trying to restore everything, I lost it.

“Why is it so easy for you to ask that question?!” I shoved myself up and Zane shuffled back. “You asked me to stay in Winter, but when I suggested you come to the Trite world, you laughed.”

“Helen, I—”

“Do you want to know why I looked like garbage when we met in Waterloo? That’s why!” I growled. “Because everyone’s making me choose. Even you aren’t willing to help me find a door!” I was almost screaming now, sure even Lucas and Kaley could hear.

I realized my face was wet. I blinked through the blur, trying to slow the blood pumping through my veins.

Zane was dead-still for a heartbeat. He finally dropped his gaze to the snow, jaw tight. “Well, it’s about bloody time you admitted what’s wrong,” he murmured.

Snow descended on a chilly current, piling up in our cell.

“I can’t keep being separated from this place. From you. From all of it,” I said.

When Zane lifted his graying, dismal eyes, I thought he would explode. “So, I’m part of the problem? Because of our bond?”

I glanced off, throat dry. “It doesn’t matter anymore. We’re in this mess because I made an irrational plan that’s going to get us killed.”