“Atlas killed Drex and Syran and has escaped. We have to find him.”

“We’ll leave immediately,” Jareth says.

“Just us,” I say. “Any more, and he’ll sense us coming.”

“You can’t leave,” Erevan says to me. “We need you here.” His gaze slides to Tyr, who sits in a chair staring straight ahead into nothing. Gods, he’s right. I can’t leave him alone like this after what I’ve done. I run a hand down my face.

“Then you go,” I say to my brothers. The more of us there are together, the less effective Atlas’s magic is against us. They’ll be only seven without Drex and Syran, but it will have to be enough.

“What about the king?” Rhyle asks, and it takes me several seconds to realize he’s talking about Tyr.

“I’ll protect him.” There’s a certainty in my words, and I know they don’t doubt me, but these are perilous times.

“Okay,” Jareth says, though I can tell he doesn’t like the idea of leaving Tyr’s side. We exchange another look and then they turn to leave, but I call out. “Wait.”

Approaching Tyr, I drop to one knee. He stares at me, his ashen hair hanging in his eyes as I carefully lift one of his hands, touching the arcturite cuff that circles his brittle wrist. Reaching under my collar, I pull out a thin gold chain dangling with a small pin. Inserting it into a small hole on the side of the cuff, I press down, and it pops off. Then I open the second cuff, followed by the one around his throat. As I stare at Tyr’s pale, bared skin, my ribs expand with relief from this burden I’ve been carrying for a century.

His eyes widen as I pull the chain from around my neck and gather the cuffs in my hands.

“Never again,” I declare. “I will never let these things touch you again.”

He nods, his expression vacant, and I hope that’s a promise I can keep. I walk over to Jareth and hand him the cuffs and the key.

“Put these on Atlas when you find him.”

Our gazes lock together. This breaks every vow we ever swore to protect the Sun King. It goes against everything we were bred and trained to do. But Atlas has never been the Sun King, and we’ve all been living nothing but a lie.

It was Atlas who first broke the king’s vow to protect us, and the old rules have no meaning here anymore.

“Go,” I say. “Before he gets any further.”

Jareth tips his head, and the remaining warders leave the room. A moment later, a knock comes at the door and a palace guard enters, carrying a bag in his hand.