Chapter 18

"Start from the beginning. Tell me everything you saw."

Darius sat behind his desk, hands steepled under his chin. Blake stood at his right. Orion leaned against the wall by the window, arms crossed, his whole body coiled like a spring.

Aria stood in the center of the room. It was the first time all five of them—her, both kings, Blake, and now Cade, who hovered by the door—had been in the same room.

"Knox met with three figures outside the castle walls," Cade said. "Gray cloaks. No pack insignia. No markings at all. I couldn't see their faces."

"When?" Darius asked.

"Eight days ago. Around midnight. He left through the service entrance near the kitchens."

"And you're only telling us now?" Orion asked, an edge in his voice.

Cade stiffened. "I told Aria. I assumed she'd pass it along."

All eyes turned to Aria. She kept her chin up.

"I passed it to Blake the next day. He's been monitoring the situation."

Blake nodded. "I have. And I've confirmed it wasn't a one-time meeting. Knox has left the castle grounds three times in the last two weeks. Always late at night. Always through the same entrance."

"And the people he's meeting?" Darius asked.

"Unknown. But I sent a tracker after the third meeting. She followed them to the edge of the Thornwood Forest. They entered and she lost them—some kind of ward or barrier prevented her from following."

"Thornwood." Orion pushed off the wall. "That's where the sacred circle is. Where the curse was cast."

The room went quiet.

Darius broke the silence. "Morgana's followers."

"That's what I believe," Blake said. "The old coven. They've been dormant for generations, but if the First Luna's bloodline has resurfaced—"

"They'd want to know," Darius finished.

Aria felt sick. "What would they want with me? If they're Morgana's followers, shouldn't they want the curse to continue? The curse punishes the royal bloodline. Wouldn't breaking it be the opposite of what they want?"

Darius's eyes met hers. "That depends on what Morgana actually wanted."

"What do you mean?"

"The curse destroys the kings if they claim their mate. But what if there's more to it? What if the curse's true purpose was never just punishment?" He leaned forward. "What if Morgana designed it so that, eventually, a descendant of her bloodline—the First Luna's bloodline—would be drawn to the kings? Not to break the curse, but to complete it."

The words landed like blows.

"Complete it?" Aria whispered.

"If you die breaking the curse, your power doesn't just vanish. It goes somewhere." Darius's voice was measured, clinical almost, but his eyes betrayed him. "Seraphina said your soul would be bound forever. Bound to what? The curse itself. Your power, feeding the curse for eternity."

Orion shoved off the wall. "You're saying the curse is designed to trap her."

"I'm saying it's possible. And if Morgana's followers know that—"

"Then they're not trying to stop us," Aria said, understanding hitting her like cold water. "They're trying to make sure I go through with it. They want me at the sacred circle. They want me to sacrifice myself."

"Because it would make the curse permanent," Blake said. "Powered by the last of the First Luna's blood. Unbreakable."

Cade spoke from the door, his voice tight. "So what do we do?"

Everyone looked at Darius. He sat perfectly still for a long moment. Then he stood.

"We gather information. Blake, I want eyes on every entrance to Thornwood Forest. If Knox or anyone else goes near it, I want to know."

"Done."

"Cade." Darius turned to him. "You're Aria's step-brother. You have legitimate reason to be near her. From now on, you're part of her security."

Cade straightened. "Understood."

"And Aria." Darius held her gaze. "You continue the competition as if nothing has changed. You smile, you train, you compete. Give them nothing."

She nodded. "What about Knox?"

"Leave Knox to me."

There was something in his voice when he said it—something quiet and lethal that made the hair on Aria's arms stand up. She'd seen Darius the strategist, Darius the lover, Darius the king. But this was Darius the predator. And Knox was his prey.

The meeting ended. Blake and Cade left first, slipping out through different doors. Orion lingered, his jaw working like he wanted to say something but couldn't find the words.

"Brother," Darius said. "Go."

Orion looked at Aria one more time. Something raw passed between them. Then he left.

Alone with Darius, Aria felt the tension shift. The political discussion fell away, and what remained was just the two of them and the terrifying weight of what they'd just discussed.

"You're scared," she said.

"I'm always scared. I just don't show it." He moved around the desk and stood in front of her. Close. Close enough that she could smell him—winter air and old books. "Aria, I need you to understand something."

"What?"

"If it comes down to a choice between breaking the curse and keeping you alive, I will choose you. Every time. Without hesitation."

"Even if it means losing the kingdom?"

"Kingdoms can be rebuilt. You can't."

She reached up and touched his face. His skin was cool under her fingers. "When did you become a romantic?"

"I'm not. I'm a realist. And the reality is that my brother and I have survived without a mate for twenty-three years. We can survive without a kingdom. We cannot survive without you."

He kissed her. Slow and certain. The kind of kiss that was a promise written in silence.

When they parted, his forehead rested against hers.

"Go," he whispered. "Before someone notices you're missing."

She went. Back through the passage, through the dark, through the hidden door behind her bookshelf. Into her room, where the moonlight made silver patterns on the floor.

She sat on her bed and pressed her hands to her face.

The curse wasn't just a threat. It was a trap. Designed centuries ago to catch someone exactly like her and use her death to fuel an eternal punishment.

And the people trying to spring that trap were already inside the castle walls.

She lay back and stared at the ceiling.

There had to be another way. Darius was right. There was always a loophole. Morgana was powerful, but she was human. And humans made mistakes.

She just had to find the mistake before it was too late.

Her wolf stirred inside her, restless and alert.

"I know, girl," Aria murmured. "I feel it too."

She walked to the window and pressed her palm against the cold glass. Below, the courtyard was empty. But beyond the castle walls, past the manicured gardens and the training grounds, the dark line of Thornwood Forest sat against the horizon like a bruise.

That was where the sacred circle was. Where the curse was cast three hundred years ago. Where Knox's gray-cloaked friends disappeared behind wards that even Blake's tracker couldn't follow.

It was strange. A week ago, the idea of going to that forest would have filled her with dread. But tonight, standing alone in the moonlight, she felt something different. A pull. Faint but real, like a thread tied around her ribs, tugging her toward those dark trees.

The First Luna had stood in that circle once. Had screamed at the sky while Morgana's curse took root in the royal blood. Had watched her world shatter and done the only thing she could—hidden her bloodline, scattered her children like seeds in the wind, and prayed that one day, one of them would come back strong enough to fix what had been broken.

Three hundred years. And now it came down to Aria. A girl who couldn't even shift until two weeks ago.

"No pressure," she muttered.

Her wolf huffed. It sounded almost like a laugh.

Something was building. Like a storm on the horizon, still too far to see clearly but close enough to feel the pressure change. It was in the air, in the walls, in the ground beneath the castle.

And at the center of it all, pulling every thread, was a dead witch's rage and a living girl's blood.

The question wasn't whether the storm would break.

It was whether any of them would survive it when it did.