روايات بقلم Blacktides

Ashton’s POVThe halls to the east wing were quiet. Every guard who saw me dipped his head and looked away. Xander had ordered them not to stop me. Let him make his mistakes. I hated that it worked. I kept my hands in my coat pockets and walked until the stone turned to dirt and the palace turned to tents. Zeth and his men were camped just outside the palace walls. The moment I stepped into the camp, the boy saw me. He was sitting by the fire with a piece of bread in his hand. He dropped it and ran. “Uncle Ash!” He hit me at the waist and threw his arms around me. He smelled like smoke and pine. I knelt and hugged him back. “Hey,” I said. My voice cracked. “I missed you.” Zeth stood from where he had been sharpening a blade. He didn’t smile. He just looked relieved.“Ashton,” he said. He came closer and reached out without thinking. His hand went for my stomach. I caught his wrist before he could touch me. His eyes flicked up to mine. For a second we just stood there like

Ashton’s POVThe floor was still cold under my palms. I stayed there for a long time after Xander left. Not because I couldn’t move. Because moving meant I had to face what I had just done.I pushed myself up slowly. My body felt heavier than it should. The baby was showing and already it was making every choice feel like it cost something.My chest tightened like a stone. Regret tasted bitter in my tongue. I had lied. Not with words, but with silence. With the way I kept looking toward the door every time Zeth’s name came up.I couldn’t stay in that room. The air was thick with everything I hadn’t said.So I left.The palace gardens were empty. Snow had fallen and now it was melting into the grass in thin patches. The air smelled like wet earth and pine.It was the kind of cold that cleared your head if you let it.I walked the stone path without thinking. My hands kept drifting to my stomach. Not to protect it. I had to remind myself that it was real, and there was still something g

Lord Void’s POVThe blood on the stone had gone cold an hour ago.Twelve men stood in a circle around me with their heads bowed and their breath coming out in white clouds that vanished into the dark.We were deep in the catacombs beneath my keep where no light reached except the black fire burning in the iron bowl at the center of the room.“Look at me,” I told them.They lifted their eyes. Fear was better than faith, and I saw plenty of it.I raised both hands and the air turned heavy.Shadow peeled away from the walls like skin and pooled in my palms until it was thick enough to hold. It pulsed against my skin and wanted to be fed.“Dark Shadow God,” I called. My voice did not echo. The stone swallowed it. “Come through me. Come through them.”I began the incantation. The words were old and they cut my tongue as I spoke them, but that was part of the price.The shadow in my hands split into twelve threads and shot forward. Each one forced itself between the lips of the men standing

Brenda’s POVLord Merrick had been whining for the last hour.We were standing in the snow half a mile from the cottage and he had not stopped talking since we gave up the search.“I told you we should have gone the other way,” he said. “You told me your intel was good. Your source is always good until it is not.”“I am not wrong,” I told him without looking at him.“My sources do not fail. Ashton was here. We were minutes behind him.”I turned and started walking back toward the tree line. “Then we go back and we finish this.”“Finish what,” Merrick said. “We lost him. The snow covered everything.”I did not answer him. Men like Merrick needed someone to blame when they felt powerless. Let him talk.Then I saw movement ahead. A figure in a blue cloak moving through the trees toward us.When the person reached us they kept their head down. I already knew who it was. "Did you find him?""If we had, you wouldn't be asking." I snapped. "Your information was wrong," Lord Merrick said.

The Empty BedXander’s POVI walked out of the war room exhausted. There had been too many meetings, too many maps spread across the table, and too many voices telling me where the Crescent wolves had been seen and where they had not.I had not spoken to Zeth in any of them. He sat across from me and kept his mouth closed, and I let him. It pleased me to watch him silent. When he stepped out, it felt like a weight was taken off my heart.I moved through the corridors toward my chamber with my steps even and my hands steady.Then I saw them. Both guards asleep on the floor outside my door.I did not say anything. I stepped over their bodies and pushed the door open.The room was empty. The fire had burned down to red coals, and the bed was cold.I walked the perimeter once. The window was closed. His black cloak was gone. There was no sign of Ashton.Something in me went very still. I turned and went back into the hall. I reached down and took the first guard by the front of his coat a

Ashton’s POVThe trees were not thick enough to hide in, but they were all I had. I pulled the child down behind the trunk and pressed us both to the bark, my arms locked around him because if he made a sound we would not make it out of these woods.His small body shook against me, and the snow soaked through my cloak and into my knees.The footsteps were close. They cut through the quiet like knives, and each one landed in my chest.Behind us, the door of the cottage slammed open.I did not turn. I already knew who it was.“Where did he go,” Brenda said. Her voice carried over the snow, sharp and annoyed.Lord Merrick answered her. “We wasted time coming here. You should have listened to me.”“My intel never fails,” Brenda said. “I know Ashton was out here. Check around.”The child in my arms made a broken sound. I covered his mouth with my hand before he could cry, and I shook my head against his hair. He understood. He nodded once, tears hot on my palm.The footsteps moved closer.

Kale’s POV beThe hot water from the bathroom sink was running over my hands but it wasn’t helping.I kept scrubbing with rough paper towels until my skin felt raw, like if I went hard enough I could take whatever was sitting under it off too. It didn’t work. The mess was gone but the guilt stayed, thick and sour in my stomach, sitting there like I’d swallowed something I couldn’t digest.I pulled my sweatpants up with shaking fingers. Fixed my shirt and looked up at the mirror because I had to see what I looked like.My bloodshot eyes, flushed cheeks, and faint red marks on my wrists that hadn’t been there this morning.If Molly saw me like this she’d know immediately. She’d call me a mess, a fuck-up, maybe worse. And she wouldn’t be wrong to. The thought of her face twisting in disgust made my throat close up.I bit down on the inside of my cheek and forced the tears back. Breathed in, out, until my hands stopped shaking so much. Then I unlocked the door and stepped into the hall.E

Kale’sPOVHis lips were hot and hard against mine. I froze as Noah deepened the kiss, forcing his tongue past my teeth without asking.My head was spinning. If Jace found out about the search file, I was dead. My career would be buried.The strange, toxic love I was starting to feel for Jace would burn to ashes.Tears gathered at the corners of my eyes, hot and stinging. If I ever told Molly about this, she would think I was a complete whore and a fuck boy.She would look at me with so much disgust.I hated myself. I hated how trapped I was, and I hated the sick truth that my body was responding to Noah's broad frame.Noah pulled his mouth back an inch, his heavy breath fanning across my wet lips. "Decision time, star boy," he whispered, his grip on my neck tightening until I whimpered. "Do I walk out that door to Jace, or do you stay here and take what you want?"A tear escaped, sliding down my cheek and hitting his thumb. "Don't tell him," I choked out, my voice breaking into a desp

Kale’s POV"What??"The word tore out of my mouth before my brain could even process what he had just said."What do you mean, you? Are you out of your mind or crazy, huh?"Noah didn't answer right away. He just stood there with that same dark, infuriating smirk plastered across his face. He slowly let go of the door handle and took a step back toward me. His shoes made a quiet, heavy sound against the floorboards as he closed the distance between us."I mean exactly what I said, Kale," Noah murmured softly. His voice was smooth and completely unbothered. "It’s the only way this search history stays between us."My back was flat against the cold edge of the desk, and I felt completely trapped as he kept coming toward me. As he stepped in closer, a sudden, unwanted memory flashed through my mind like a violent shock.I remembered that afternoon in the campus stalls—watching Noah pressed up against someone else, hearing his deep gasps and seeing how broad and flawless his body looked un

Kale’s POvI turned around.My back hit the smooth edge of the desk. Standing right there in the doorway, framed by the low amber lights of the hall, was Noah.I froze.The air left my lungs all at once. I hadn't seen him around the studio floor all morning, and seeing him pop up out of nowhere sent a sharp jolt of panic straight down my spine.He was dressed in a neat corporate shirt, looking completely put together, but the expression on his face was stone cold."What are you doing in here, Kale?" Noah asked.His voice dropped into a quiet, heavy tone as he stepped inside. He shut the door behind him with a soft click. "And what are you looking for on this computer?"I swallowed hard, trying to force my face into something neutral while my chest slammed against my ribs.I shifted my weight, trying to block his view of the monitor. My fingers crept behind my back, searching for the mouse to close the page."It's none of your business," I said. I tried to make my voice sound steady, t

Kale's POVI had to get out. My chest felt too tight. My brain was running laps and my phone was still burning a hole in my pocket with that fucking message. "you’re already getting comfortable. That’s his way to seduce you and I’m sure he has already claimed you."Claimed. Like I was a goddamn jacket. Jace was still talking with Peter and Bri about drum layers and release dates like nothing was wrong. Like I wasn’t sitting here spiraling. “Toilet,” I muttered, pushing back from the desk. Jace glanced up. “You good?” “Yeah,” I lied. “Just… piss. I'll be back shortly.” He nodded once, not suspicious. Not yet. The second I was out the door I exhaled. The hall was quieter. Air conditioning humming, lights too white, posters of JMC artists lining the walls like they were in a museum. My own face wasn’t on any of them. Not yet. I wasn’t actually going to the toilet. I was scared, and curious. That message didn’t come from nowhere. Someone in this building knew something. S

Kale's POVMy phone was screaming, vibrating off the nightstand. I blinked against the light, brain still foggy, body still warm, and reached for it without thinking. MOLLY. What the hell. Molly? It was 9:02. "Fuck." “Pick it up,” Jace said beside me, voice low and unbothered. He was already sitting up, bare shoulders, sheets pooled at his waist. “You look like you’re about to have a panic attack. Answer it.”I stared at the screen. Three missed calls. Two texts. WHERE THE FUCK ARE YOU LECTURER DID A TEST YOU DUMBASS “I can’t,” I muttered. “She’s gonna lose her shit...”“Answer it,” he repeated. Not mean, just final. I swiped. “KALE!” Molly exploded before I could even say hello. “Are you fucking serious right now? Do you have any idea what time it is? FYI... you missed the test. Again. Mr. Ralph literally asked if you’d been kidnapped. I said yeah, probably by your own stupidity.”I sat up too fast and regretted it. My head spun and my waist ached. “I’m... I overslep