"You let me walk blind into this curse!" Celeste hurled the diary at his chest.
He caught it effortlessly. "I hoped you'd run."
"From what? A dusty self-help book for the damned?"
"From me." His voice dropped to a rasp. "From what I'll have to do if you stay."
The admission hung between them, raw as a nerve.
Celeste exhaled. "Maybe I would've run. But something in that place…" She touched the wall, where the glyph still shimmered. "It felt like me."
Alaric's breath hitched. For the first time, he looked unmade.