MasukHer blood pumps out as she falls to the ground, snapping her neck in the process. I stare at her heart in my hand but it’s not enough. It doesn’t drown out the anger in my blood or the emptiness that I feel inside.Zephyra’s face flashes in my mind. I can see her smiling at me as I run my fingers in her hair. I can see her at the dining, arguing about why peanuts don’t taste good when eaten with bread and when I don’t agree with her, she calls me a king with no taste. All the memories I have of her run through my mind, making my chest squeeze when I realize again that she’s not here with me.Jareth’s voice is hoarse. “Theron…”I drop Camala’s heart to the floor and turn back to the Archive. My mate is in there. I am not leaving until I find her, regardless of the cost. If the Goddess thinks she can take what is mine, I will burn her heaven to the ground to get her back.My fists bang the doors as I try to open it but it doesn’t budge.“Theron you can’t go in there!” Anya shouts but ke
I don’t know what it is, but I can’t feel her presence anymore. She’s not responding to my calls and it feels like a knife just stabbed my heart. I’m hardly able to breathe and it’s even worse when I check our quarters and she’s nowhere to be found. Not even in any of the bathrooms or Jareth’s home, which she visits with Khaisha who is now on a visit to her parents’ home.Grimm is snarling nonstop. ‘She’s not here. I can’t connect to Scar. She can’t be gone!’I reach the archive lobby at a dead sprint. Anya and Jareth are already there. Jareth looks like he’s trying to hold back a storm, and Anya is white as a sheet, her fingers slapping her forehead out of frustration.“Where is she?” I roar, my voice more beast than man.“She was here,” Anya says the second she sees me. “She was right here. I left her for two minutes. Two fucking minutes and when I came back… the door was shut. Theron, I can feel a presence inside. Someone walked in.”Before she finishes speaking, I move to the doo
TheronI slam the door to the elder’s quarters so hard the hinges groan. Elder Fren looks up from his scrolls, icy blue eyes widening in panic as he tries to come up with every possible reason why I would be here. I haven’t stepped foot in this room in nearly five years. I never had a reason to. I thought I could trust them.Turns out I’ve been a blind fool. I throw the black book I got from Anya and some of the others she found from the main library on Fren’s table and he drops his pen, flinching.“Tell me why half the pages in every book about the Crimson-born are missing and don’t feed me the same bullshit the others have been giving me for weeks.”I’ve had my men question the elders that use the library the most and they weren’t able to get the information I needed so now I’m here to do things myself. You get answers faster when the main leader gets involved.“You were the Librarian of the Records before you were an Elder, Fren. Tell me why our history is missing its heart!”Fre
If we happen to not be cursed, would it even matter when most of my kind are already dead? Anya grins. “Hey, at least you’re not boring. Most of us are just regular trash. You get to be fancy, cursed trash.”I snort. “I don’t think I’m fancy. You poisoned me for months, remember?”“Yes, and you survived every single dose. That ended up being my first clue you weren’t normal.” She shrugs, but I catch the flash of regret in her eyes. “I was just a cast-out on an adventure, trying to survive. I thought helping Stoneheart was me doing the right thing. Turns out I was just another idiot following bad orders.”“I hated you,” I admit.“So you don’t hate me now?” Her voice sounds low. She looks at me with hope in her eyes.“Not as much.” I smile but it’s faint.“Fair enough.” She nods and starts walking past me toward the exit. “I should check on something in my ‘prison.’ Don’t get too close to that door while I’m gone. It likes broken girls with red in their hair.”She disappears down the c
I reach up to trace the mark I gave him on his neck. “Thank you for everything, Theron.” With him, I’ve been happier than I ever thought possible. No matter what Stoneheart tries to pull, I’m never going back there.Theron pulls me closer, burying his face in the crook of my neck. His warm breath sends little shivers across my skin. “I should be the one thanking you. I spent too many years looking for you in the faces of strangers,” he murmurs. “I thought I’d lost you forever. Now that you’re here, I’m not letting anyone take you away from me. You’re exactly where you’re meant to be, and I’ll stand beside you through every red strand in your hair, every tear, and every time you break another bed.”I laugh and twist around until I’m straddling his lap. The water splashes over the sides of the tub. “You really mean that?”“Every word.” His grey eyes are intense as they search mine. “Even the part about the beds. We can afford it.”I rest my forehead against his, breathing him in. For a
Zephyra The dream comes again. I’m running through that same impossible forest, the ground sucking at my feet like wet sand.The shadow waits ahead, taller and imposing than it was the last time, wrapped in the crimson moonlight I was born under.My body moves on its own, pulled toward him like a moth to flame. When his cold fingers brush my throat, I don’t scream. I already know it would only make him angry. Tilting my head, I bare my neck. When his mouth presses against my skin, the bite doesn’t hurt. It feels right. Like I’ve been waiting my whole life for this mark.I wake up gasping, my hand flying to my neck. There’s no wound there, only Theron’s mark pulsing warmly under my fingers. My heart is hammering so hard I can feel it in my teeth.‘Tell him,’ Scar snaps at me, pacing restlessly in the back of my mind.‘You’re letting that shadow mark us in our sleep while Theron thinks we’re safe. Tell him the truth before the shadow stops being just a dream.’I sit up in the middle o
Zephyra It still feels strange living in a house this big with only one other person inside it. Roxy says I could move somewhere better if I make a good name for myself, but this already feels like too much. It's too large and it feels empty.Moving slowly down the hallway, my steps soft against t
Zephyra King Theron places my hand on his chest, his larger hand resting over mine. My breath catches as I feel his heart beating beneath my palm wildly. It shows me he’s breathing, that he’s here. That he truly survived the attack, just like Roxy said he would.I’m not entirely sure what I’m fee
Zephyra My legs keep moving across the cold tiles of my bedroom, back and forth, everywhere and forth, all because I can’t stop thinking about a single thing. Everything that happened with the king replays in my head no matter how hard I try to push it away. I still see the arrow as it pierced hi
Theron She’s frozen. She’s not running, not listening. Just staring at what’s in front of us like her legs have forgotten how to move. She usually obeys without hesitation, but right now my voice isn’t reaching her. Her focus is locked somewhere else, whatever her instincts caught before mine did







