Killian’s RedemptionKillian’s POVI wasn’t always brave.Courage didn’t run through my veins the way it did in Nicholas or Azaria. Mine came in flashes, short, burning, and often too late.But this time, I chose to step forward before anyone asked.Because I owed her everything.Azaria.And if there was even a piece of her trapped inside that shadow—then I’d bring her back.Or die trying.“I’m going,” I told Nicholas as he tightened the straps on his armor.He paused. “Killian, no.”“I’m not asking for permission.”He turned to me fully, tension stiff in every line of his body. “She nearly killed me. She’s not just a puppet, she’s a weapon.”“And I’m not here to kill her.” I met his eyes. “I’m here to reach her.”Ashley stepped in behind him, arms crossed. “This isn’t some noble suicide mission.”"Then it is a selfish one.” I shrugged. “I cannot allow myself to continue standing on the sidelines as people whom I love become shadows. Even as long as she might have any corner of her so
The Last Promise Before WarNicholas’s POVI returned half-conscious, drenched in blood that was mostly mine.At the first gallop the camp gates were opened, and the gasps came like the swash of waves. Guards started to surround me and pounce on me as I slipped out of the saddle and my boots landed in the ground with an awful smack.I didn’t feel the pain anymore.That was the worst part.Pain would’ve meant I still cared what happened to me.But the numbness? That was dangerous.Because it meant I was slipping.And I couldn’t afford to slip—not when she was still out there.Not when Azaria was still fading.Ashley ran to me first.She shoved two guards aside, and grabbed hold of my arm, so that I pitched full length. I attempted to disengage myself, I could not be perceived in this manner but she clutched me all the more, and led the way into the tent of the healer with some secret urgency.“Gods, Nick,” she whispered. “What happened?”I did not answer till the healers began chopping
The Hollow BondAshley’s POVIt wasn’t the wound that scared me.It was the silence behind Nicholas’s eyes.He sat up now, stitched and somehow mended, but he hadn’t spoken in hour and a half. Since when he had spoken her name, brokenly, like a prayer to a death.I knew that look.Not of pain.Of loss.And I couldn’t take it anymore.I left the tent.Let the cold night wind slap my face.Let the trees hiss their warnings.I didn’t care.Because something was wrong deeply, spiritually wrong and no one else could fix it but me.---The healer had warned me not to try.“You’re not her mate,” they said. “You don’t have the tether.”They were right.But they also didn’t know the truth.Azaria wasn’t just some queen in my life. She wasn’t just divine, or powerful, or mated to my brother.She was my best friend.We'd shared our darkest days. We'd laughed in ruins. I'd pulled her from the edge once, and she’d done the same for me more than once.A bond like that?It may not be romantic.But i
The Puppet He FearsNicholas’s POVThe woods were too quiet.Not the silence of peace, but the silence before a storm.And every step I took along the northern ridge had my nerves crawling like ice over my skin. My senses shouted in my face to turn around, to re-group, to wait until tomorrow morning. But somehow I had been drawn to this place, something more than intuition.A pull. A whisper.Her.Azaria.I’d felt it in my sleep. A shift in the bond. Like her magic reached out in warning or in goodbye.And now I was chasing a shadow with my name on its blade.---The ambush was perfect.Steel sang through the trees without warning.Wolves came from the darkness, their eyes blazing with fouled magic, their armor imprinted with glyphs I had not seen for thousands of years. I did not have long to lift my blade before they came in, feral and fast.I fought without thinking.One down. Two more followed.Another went for my throat, but a silver tipped dagger sank into his chest before he co
Selene’s Blood PactSelene’s POVThe Red Moon had returned and with it, so had I.They thought I was gone. Just a whisper scorched into the ashes of the Temple. But I am no whisper.I am vengeance carved into the bones of the world.I stood alone at the heart of the fire valley, where the sky burned low and the land had forgotten how to breathe. This was where old things lived. Where gods came to die and darker things crawled back in their place.And here, I would begin again.They think I rose against Azaria because she was dangerous.But it was never about fear.It was about him.Nicholas.The only one I ever wanted.The one the stars denied me.---I loved him long before the stars cursed him with her.Before Azaria’s name was even spoken among the divine. Before her fire touched kingdoms. Before she bled for people who never deserved her.Nicholas was mine, once.Not by bond. Not by fate.But by choice.And choice meant everything until the stars chose her.I should have been his
The War PrinceNicholas’s POVI never thought I’d wear it.The ceremonial armor of the Alpha Regent of War.It gleamed like molten night, black steel forged from moonstone and star iron, passed down through generations and sealed beneath the palace centuries ago. A relic of kings. Of conquerors.Of men like my father.Not me.I had always walked a different path. The strategist. The protector. The shadow that moved behind the crown.But tonight, there were no shadows left to hide in.I stood before the mirror, hands rigid at my sides as the royal blacksmith buckled the last piece of armor into place across my chest. The sigil of the royal bloodline burned in silver over my heart, the crescent fang wrapped in flame.My reflection didn’t blink.A crownless king. A grieving mate. A soldier built from broken promises.Ashley stood to the side, watching me like she wasn’t sure whether to salute or scream. “You look like him,” she said finally.My jaw clenched. “Don’t say that.”“Then be b