​Chapter 13: Embers of the Mind-Link

Burning oil dripped from the rusted bars of my brother’s cage, hissing as each black droplet struck the frost-covered flagstones below.

​Up on the shattered gallery, Celeste tilted the blazing torch an inch closer to Marcus’s oil-soaked rags. The sweet, helpless healer who had stolen my life in Silvercrest was gone; in her place stood a cold-blooded puppeteer wearing a victorious sneer.

​"Strip off the Lycan King’s cloak and sever his mark right now, Aria," Celeste called down, her voice ringing above the snarls of the battle outside. "Walk out those gates in chains, or watch the last of the Sterling bloodline burn alive."

​Beside me, Alpha Julian stared up at the woman he had betrayed me for, his face pale with disbelief. "Celeste, what are you doing?" he choked out. "You swore you didn't know anything about the cells beneath the packhouse!"

​"Shut up, Julian," Celeste laughed cruelly, not even sparing him a glance. "You were useful while I needed an Alpha’s seal to move silver across the border. Once Aria ruined your trade routes, you became dead weight."

​Humiliation twisted Julian’s features into blind fury, but my eyes never left the iron cage suspended over the gallery edge.

​Inside the bars, Marcus lifted his bruised, bearded face. Despite the silver chains searing his wrists, his dark eyes locked onto mine and his cracked lips formed two silent words—a childhood hunting signal our father had taught us in the woods.

​Windward. High.

​He wasn't telling me to surrender. He was telling me the wind blowing through the shattered stained-glass window was pushing the flame backward—giving us a three-second blind spot on Celeste’s right flank.

​Before I could whisper a word to Damian, the Shadow Alpha’s mark on my collarbone flared with a sudden, scorching heat.

​"I see it, little queen," Damian’s deep, velvety baritone echoed directly inside my skull, sending a fierce shiver down my spine. Our mate bond had just snapped into a full telepathic link under the surge of adrenaline. "Hold her gaze for three heartbeats. When I strike the chain, aim for the wrist holding the torch."

​My pulse thundered in my ears, syncing with the predatory rhythm of Damian’s heart. Slowly, I raised my left hand to the silver clasp of my cloak, letting my fingers tremble as if I were breaking.

​"Let him out of the cage first, Celeste!" I shouted, taking two measured steps into the center of the hall to pull her focus away from the shadowed pillars on her right. "If the fire catches that oil, you won't even have a hostage left to bargain with!"

​"Do I look like a fool, Aria?" Celeste sneered, leaning over the railing as her monstrous white wolf bared its fangs beside her. "Drop the dagger on the floor—now!"

​In the periphery of my vision, Damian blurred into pure shadow, scaling the fractured marble column in complete silence.

​At the exact same second, Julian roared in rage and lunged up the gallery staircase, desperate to reclaim his pride. Celeste’s white wolf whipped its head toward the charging Alpha, breaking its guard.

​Now.

​I didn't drop my blade. Raising my arm in a single fluid motion, I hurled the balanced silver dagger straight upward through the swirling snow.

​Steel flashed in the torchlight and buried itself hilt-deep into Celeste’s forearm.

​She shrieked as her fingers spasmed, sending the lit torch spinning through the air toward the oil-soaked cage. Before the flame could kiss the iron bars, Damian erupted over the gallery ledge like a dark god of war. With one brutal swipe of his obsidian claws, he deflected the falling torch into the snowdrift below and seized the heavy silver chain with his bare hand, wrenching Marcus’s cage backward onto solid stone.

​Smoke curled from Damian’s palm as the silver burned his flesh, yet he didn't even flinch. With a savage wrench, he tore the rusted padlock off the cage door.

​Up on the roof beam, a bleeding Celeste vaulted onto the back of her white wolf, vanishing through the shattered window into the howling blizzard before the guards could reach the stairs.

​I sprinted up the stone steps two at a time, dropping to my knees beside the broken cage just as Damian pulled my brother free.

​"Marcus!" I gasped, wrapping my arms around his trembling, skeletal frame.

​Instead of hugging me back, Marcus seized my wrist with terrifying strength. His wide, bloodshot eyes fixed on the glowing mark of the Shadow Alpha on my neck, and a cold tremor violently shook his body.

​"Aria, get away from him," Marcus rasped, coughing blood onto my cloak as he stared up at Damian in sheer horror. "Kael didn't capture me two winters ago... it was Damian Thorne’s royal enforcers who locked me in that silver cell!"