Henrik didn't respond right away. Instead, he stared uselessly at her as he took slow, heavy breaths that rattled his thin frame. His fingers twitched against the gun barrels mounted on his chest, a nervous habit Rhett had never seen before.
The words hung there, heavier than the frost-laced air. His posture stiffened—not in defiance, but in guilt. The gun barrels on his chest clicked faintly as his muscles tensed, then released, then tensed again like a heartbeat. Rhett, still groggy and barely standing, turned his head slowly to look at Henrik's face.
He had never seen the boy look so human. So breakable.
A distance away, in the tunnels where they had run from, the battle with the Ice Queen and BeastMaster raged on. The Colossus that had been dominating with ear-splitting roars and growls were now turning to shrill screeches and low moans of pain. Each cry echoed through the tunnels like a death knell.
