Radiating pain woke Dorothea up, and she came to her senses at a crawl. The lacerations that had been dragged along her body with a slow, deliberate blade seemed to crawl over her, the blood that had leaked from them itching and clinging as it dried.

It was freezing. The steely gray walls were closing in. The chill of a metal bar was pressing into her back, sticking to the gashes there and peeling at the wounds whenever she made the slightest movement.

“Rhys…?” Was he nearby? Could she help him somehow? When she tried to move her hands, the sharp song of metal scraping against metal rang in her ears. Both of her wrists were bound by locked chains to the bars so that her hands were trapped level to her head on either side of her. It was impossible for them to meet and thus impossible to use her magic.

“You’re awake.”

She’d never expected to fear the sound of Hollyhock’s voice like this, but she trembled. “How long…?”

“You were out for a whole day. Have a nice nap?”

Gren. She’d missed their meeting! If he gave up on peace talks because of this, they could all be doomed! “Hollyhock, you have to let me go! It’s for everyone’s good. Please, I know you don’t trust me, but—”

“Stop,” Hollyhock said tiredly. “You’re wasting your time pleading with me. Your little friend’s right here in the cell next to yours if you want to chat.”

Shock made her body lose its tension, and a soft cry of despair escaped her. “How—”

“Did we know? Because you told me, of course.”

“I would never…!” But her recollection of the time between being rendered unconscious and now was fuzzy.

“Really? Aren’t you overestimating yourself a little?”

She remembered being carved. And she’d been able to bear it, hadn’t she, until…

“Though I don’t blame you,” Hollyhock continued. “Women usually break when you threaten their breasts and other intimate areas, or so I’ve found. It’s a personal sort of thing. You couldn’t have just talked before I got your face and everywhere else, though? It’s totally gonna scar.”

She remembered. She’d screamed it out in frenzied desperation, where Gren would be and what they were meeting about. Looking down at herself now, her naked, marked body, she saw that the only damage to her breasts was indeed a shorter, more shallow cut on the curve of the left one. She’d talked. She’d betrayed Gren just when he’d put faith in her. “No…” And what about Shark, Cerid, and Ariana?

Before she could ask and likely get no answers, Hollyhock greeted a newcomer. “Iree! I thought you’d be here earlier.”

Dorothea trembled with fear and anger. “Iree…” Another memory came to her. While under duress, she’d been made to heal Iree’s injuries from her fight with Wesley and Gren. What hadn’t she done wrong?

Smiling, Iree reached through the bars to pat Dorothea’s head. “Hey. You look like you’re doing well.”

She struggled against her restraints to no avail. “Listen to me! The Wither Contract isn’t true!”

“Yeah. I know. Cinder told me ages ago.”

What? The room seemed to spin and turn upside down. “You know. You know that the original version of the contract called for both Wither and Thaw to be culled for the sake of peace. That the story about the origins of the epidemic is fabricated.”

“Obviously. Who cares? It doesn’t change the fact that the Ghurians are monsters and we needed to take the opportunity to get rid of them.”

Dorothea had still held a shred of hope for Iree to have humanity that could be appealed to. That had been one of her worst mistakes. Of course trying to fix things peacefully had been meaningless from the start. Look at what she’d done to the people around her. Useless. Worthless.

“It wasn’t his fault,” she still protested. “Gren didn’t want to do it. He was scared.”

“And that’s supposed to make things better all of a sudden? There’s no excuse for what that bastard did to everyone. Now. You’re going to do a few things for me, and then we can renegotiate some of our terms. ‘Kay?”

Not yet. Please don’t let it be over yet! “There’s a way, Iree, for all of us to coexist in peace. Please give me a chance to make that reality.”

Iree snickered. “You tried to come into our world playing by your rules, Atlin. As you can clearly see, that’s not going to work.”

Everything to this point had still been orchestrated to work out on Iree’s terms. She’d failed, maybe been doomed from the start. “What do you want?” she whispered.

“Give Rhys back to me.” Her voice took on a cruel edge. “Give me back who he was before you started manipulating him. Take his memory away.”

Was that what Iree had convinced herself of? “It won’t—” She cut off with a screech as Iree gripped her hair and yanked to bash the back of her head against the bars.

“That’s not the proper response. Try again.”

Rhys had told her that his doubts had really started long ago in the moment with Dale Holmfen. If she reversed his body to a time before that moment while still remaining in the present, his memories would be altered as well. The event fundamental to his current character would no longer exist for him.

But she couldn’t do that; it wasn’t right, erasing his will like that. “No.”

As expected, her head was once again jerked and bashed. “Don’t you get it? He wants to die! I’m trying to save his fucking life here!”

“He hates the world you people have created for yourselves! If you want to help him, if you want to help all of your people, then try to find a more peaceful conclusion!”

“You done?” Iree snarled. “You’re really forgetting who’s in control here. I wonder how Olyen and your little Ghurian friend will fare if you don’t comply.”

Threatening her with Gren wouldn’t work. It was obvious that Iree would never let him live now that he was in her hands. Shark, though… “You wouldn’t hurt Shark. They’re too valuable a soldier.”

“So that’s what you’ll hedge your bet on? The fact that you’re sitting here tells you that I don’t give a shit about someone’s supposed value, now doesn’t it?”

So there was really no choice? She wanted to rely on Shark being able to take care of themself, especially with Cerid’s support, but she couldn’t. “I… If that’s what Rhys wants… If he looks at me and tells me that that’s what he wants me to do, then fine. I’ll do it.” If he said no… Well, that would be the end of it and likely her. She couldn’t do it even to save herself if it meant thwarting his agency in such an abhorrent way.

Iree drew a set of keys from her skirt pocket. Before she could process, Dorothea had been freed. Iree held on to one of her arms while Hollyhock restrained the other, and they pushed her further into the Catacomb’s depths. Then they were there, in the room with the dolls and the frills. Stepping into it after the dank cell made Dorothea’s head spin.

Rhys stirred faintly but didn’t move otherwise when they entered.

“Visitor, Rhys,” Iree announced. “One you might want to take a good look at.”

He glanced over his shoulder and sat up with a jolt when it registered. He took in Dorothea’s condition with horror, and she didn’t have the energy to be embarrassed about her nudity. He was alive. Restrained relief and fear at what else could happen were the only emotions she could handle just then.

“Dorothea…” he breathed. His gaze, heated with fury, darted to Iree, then Hollyhock. The latter didn’t look at him, and Iree’s smile didn’t falter.

“Now,” Iree began, matter of fact as she forced Dorothea to her knees at the bedside. “Don’t think I haven’t done my research. Atlins fought with Sacer many times in the past, and there are records, so I know this much. You have to have both hands clasped to reverse time, but you can heal with just a touch. So you just use one hand, Atlin. Try anything, and your friend up there gets punishment. Got me?”

Dorothea nodded and looked up at Rhys. There were thousands of things she wanted to say, but she had to ask the last thing she wanted to. “Rhys… Do you want me to erase your memories of everything that’s hurt you in the past year? Do you want to go back to the person you were before?”

His eyes widened, but he bowed his head to hide behind his hair before she could read the mixed emotions behind them. She could barely think anyhow.

“I’m not patient, as you know,” Iree urged. “Come on, Rhys.”

“Dorothea,” he began.

She clung to his arm as helpless tears dripped down her chin.

“You forget too. Forget everything, every promise we made, understand?” His voice was steady and emotionless.

A sob ripped out of her. He’d be gone from her soon, and she wouldn’t exist to him. His words only made that reality more agonizing. “I love you,” she bawled. “I love you, I’m so sorry I wasn’t strong enough!”

He trembled beneath her touch.

“Shut up, both of you!” Iree snapped. “Rhys, your answer. Yes or no, right now, or I take her up for another round while you reconsider.”

“Yes,” he whispered. “Yes.”

Maybe it would be good for him. Maybe she’d just been part of his burdens after all and forgetting was what would save him. That was all she had the possibility to hope for.

The day they had met, going up to the top of the tower together. The night in the chapel that sealed their bond. Summer, all of the pain there. Coming together, hands intertwined, the pure light of being able to share the deepest pains without fear of judgement. Promises for the future, all unfulfilled. She was the only one who would still have these precious things.

His wounds were healed, and time pushed further against his body. Over a year was lifted from him, its burdens and heartaches vanishing. She drank in the sight of him even as he changed. Rhys. Oh, Rhys. There was so much more she had wanted to tell him.

In the end, he fell over unconscious, and Iree threw Dorothea to the floor while Hollyhock moved in to restrain their prisoner.

“What the fuck happened? Why is he..?!” Iree shook him, calming somewhat when she realized he was still breathing.

“His mind was just altered heavily. He needs time to recover. After some rest…” Dorothea spoke in a small, defeated voice. “He’ll wake up with no memory of anything that’s happened. Before Dale Holmfen died, before that incident… That’s who he is now.” Numbness. That’s all there was in her now.

“Incident?” Iree echoed before shaking her head. “Whatever. Doesn’t matter. You’ve done what I needed you to do. Back to your cell.”

Dorothea didn’t struggle or protest as she was returned to the position that signified her total defeat. What good would it do? Even if she somehow freed herself, what point in history was there to go back to where everything could be saved?

It was over.