WHAT THE MOON DOESN’T KNOWAzaria’s POVI couldn’t sleep.When I shut my eyes the word of my dream was scratched all over the back of my eyelids, like silver ink.Vaeloria.I copied and copied it in the pages of my journal, and I covered page after page with my round, slow writing. I did not understand what it was at the time, but I could sense it promising me something now, something that I could possibly have recognized as being the truth but that it needed magic and mania to emerge.It did not seem like a dream.It felt like a memory.A forgotten whisper from blood I didn’t understand.I sat on my bed, knees drawn up, my candle flickering. My hand paused over the last repetition of the word.What was Vaeloria?A person? A place?Or something... worse?My magic pulsed again, a soft thrum beneath my skin, like it was urging me to move. To seek. Why are there so many things that were just randomly popping into my life? I never signed up for this, I just wanted to live a normal life a
OF BLOOD AND LEGENDSAzaria’s POVThe moon light had gone down on my body and piled on my flesh like a secret.I was crouched up under the arch of my balcony, with my knees drawn up to my breast, the wind playing with the links of my hair. Below, the forest whispered. Above, the stars blinked with the kind of ancient knowing that made me feel both seen and utterly small.Everything inside me was spiraling.The pulse in my palms. The sparks in my blood. The burned flower. The prophecy in Nicholas’ eyes when he told me he saw my magic that day in the cafeteria—as if that moment rewrote everything he believed about fate and us.I should have felt empowered.Instead, I felt like a ticking time bomb.And time… it was running out.---By morning, I knew what I had to do.I discovered my father in the garden of the courtyard-after training he always came here. By this time the old stone bench under the willow tree had almost grown to fit his body.I came near him, whereupon he arose and look
THE ALPHA HEIR’S DILEMMANicholas’ POVThe throne room wasn’t built for warmth.It was made of obsidian and marble, soaked in power and legacy. The sunshine never really entered this far, coming in through stained windows, all twisted around in red and gold patterns more like warning signs than decoration.I was walking across the hall in my boots which made an echo on the stone step by step and made my chest feel tighter and tighter.He was seated already.My father—the king—was never early, never late. He existed in his own time. His crown heavy, as ever, sitting on his head of silver.My voice was steady, "You summoned me.""You are late," he said, without raising his head.Right. Of course.I was standing at the foot of the dais, clasping my hands behind my back, in waiting. Again there was thirty seconds of silence broken only by the drumming of his fingers before he rolled away the scroll and looked up at me at last.“Well?” he said. “Report.”I exhaled slowly. “There’s unrest i
SNAKES AND THORNSNicholas’ POVThere was never something that air left in the presence of Azaria-an air that was left like wildfire just after storm. I could still feel it burning though me though she had walked off.I had no cash to pursue that fire.Not now.I had gone out of the courtyard, my jaws set, my mind rambling. The pieces were too disarranged: there were too many shadows between truth and illusion.I needed answers.I needed control.And so, when I returned to the alpha palace, I didn’t bother with niceties. I went straight to the lower council chamber, where only the trusted few were allowed.I pressed my palm to the sigil-locked door.It opened with a hiss.Inside, stone walls wrapped around glowing maps and magical tracking orbs. This wasn’t the usual war room—it was the covert one. Where silent moves were made without noise or banners.“Commander,” the sentinel at the helm greeted, straightening when he saw me. “Your orders?”“Activate the outer ring,” I said, voice s
THE WITCH IN A WOLF’S SKINAzaria’s POVThe night was quiet.Too quiet.Not even the wind dared to breath.I paced along home, my boots scrunching on the wet street. The academy lights dimmed behind me and they were exchanged by the eerie silence of eternal quietude.But the silence wasn’t empty.It pulsed.At each step the hairs stood up on my neck. I got the feeling, the feeling that somebody was watching me. Shadows moved just a second too late. I appeared to be going slowly with reference to my movements in the window of a shop in which I was reflected, slower than I travelled.And then the buzz.It wasn't physical, not all the way anyway, but it was buzzing down my back, a twinge of knowledge that would not subside. The strongest of my power, which of late had become volatile, pranced beneath my skin like a warning on the verge of being ignited.I was not by myself.But on my third turn the street was deserted.I grumbled, "just keep walking. Don’t show fear.”That’s what Killian
THE TRUTH IN HIS EYESAzaria’s POVThe next day, the sky was restless and gray. There was a lot of buzzing of lips and exclamations of wonder down the hallways, but my own mind was finally clear in weeks.I didn’t flinch when I passed people anymore. I didn’t jump in the shadows.I knew what to hunt. I knew it was coming. But now, it would find I was no longer prey.As I reached my locker, a hand slammed shut the door beside mine.I turned.Nicholas.His eyes locked on mine, fierce and worried.“We need to talk.”“I’m not in the mood—”“Azaria, listen. Someone’s coming after you.”I froze.He leaned in closer. “And I think it’s someone we both know.”My heart thudded. “Who?”His jaw clenched. “Not here.”I didn’t move.The part of me still bitter with betrayal screamed to walk away.But the other part wanted to talk, "Then let us go where they cannot hear."---The court was long abandoned.The paths, broken rocks, wound under the untamed ivy, and benches were gathered in rusty corner