Chapter 86: The Call That Shook the Silence

Alara’s POV

I didn’t ask Ronan right away.

I carried the knowledge of what I had to do like a jagged shard tucked beneath my skin, one that was utterly impossible to ignore. Every time Artemis stirred restlessly in her sleep, her tiny frame shivering as if she were lost in a blizzard only she could feel, the shard twisted deeper.

Xavier…

His name lived in my chest again, no longer a bittersweet memory of a life I had been forced to abandon, but a cold, hard necessity. It was the cruelest irony of my existence: the man who had nearly broken me was the only one in the world with the power and the bloodline to help me save our daughter.

I watched the dusk bleed into a bruised night. The wind was restless, tossing the silvergrass at the edge of the property in frantic waves.

Behind me, in the soft amber glow of the hearth, Artemis was asleep. She looked so small, her skin almost translucent against the dark sheets.

Lucian had climbed into her bed earlier, refusing to leave her side. He