AmaraPain makes you honest.My knees buckled as her blade caught me in the ribs, the edge sharp with something more than steel. It sliced through skin and memory. I gasped, vision doubling for a second. The blood running down my side felt colder than it should’ve.Fracture-blades didn’t just cut the body. They cut the soul.She smirked as I staggered. “You thought love would shield you?”“No,” I panted, straightening. “I thought I didn’t need to be shielded anymore.”She attacked again. I ducked, then drove my shoulder into hers, forcing her backward. Our bodies clashed like echoes fighting to become truth.Kael moved along the edge of the clearing, eyes narrowed, tense—but not interfering.He couldn’t help. This was my fight.The fracture pulsed with energy, responding to our struggle. The trees of bone creaked, leaves made of whispers falling silently around us. I could feel the line between us blurring—me and her. The longer the fight dragged, the more her voice sounded like mine.
AmaraNot everything lost is dead.Liam stood before me, flesh and breath and shadow, and yet I couldn’t convince myself he was real. His face bore the same angles, the same quiet intensity, but his eyes... they were wrong. Not cruel. Not broken. Just older. Weathered by something darker than death.“You should be ashes,” I said, voice low.He tilted his head slightly. “I was.”Kael’s absence was still a roar in my blood, but I steadied myself. “Where have you been?”“Inside the fracture. Between what is and what should have never been.”“You’re speaking in riddles.”He stepped closer, each movement careful. “Do you remember the day you first bled?”The question hit like a slap.I swallowed hard. “Yes.”“That’s when they noticed you. Not Magnus. Not Derrick. Them.”“The Sleepers.”Liam nodded. “They feed on power. Not the kind you use in battle—but the kind tied to identity, legacy, soul.”“They took Kael.”“They did what they always do when someone threatens to rewrite the order. The
AmaraI had seen death.I had wielded it, survived it, stood with my hands drenched in it.But whatever was inside Trina now—this was something else.She convulsed on the stone floor, her mouth open in a soundless scream as black smoke poured from her eyes and fingertips. The shadows recoiled. Even the Forgotten kept their distance. This wasn’t possession. This wasn’t magic.It was infestation.Kael stood protectively in front of me, but I stepped around him, heart pounding.“We can’t let her turn,” I said.“She already has,” the crowned woman whispered.Trina's body twisted unnaturally, bones snapping as her spine arched high off the ground. Her skin peeled in strips, revealing something underneath—dark, sinewed, slick with blood and smoke. Not a wolf. Not a beast. A vessel.Her head jerked violently and locked on me.“Daughter of Hollow Vale,” she hissed, voice layered and broken. “Your father's seal weakens.”Kael moved forward, claws bared. “What are you?”“Not what,” it said. “Wh
KaelHer voice didn’t belong to her.It shattered the silence, deep and unfamiliar, echoing with memory and age. I cradled Amara’s body as the glow from the sigil behind her dimmed, but the words still echoed in the chamber like a command carved into stone.“Find me before he does.”Her lips moved again, slower this time. “The moon will not rise twice before it begins.”Then silence.Just her breath, shallow and uneven. Just my pulse, hammering behind my ears.“Amara,” I whispered, brushing her cheek.She didn’t respond.The sigil on the wall flickered once and vanished like it had never been there.Behind me, the remnants of the Forgotten approached carefully, their footsteps quiet, cautious.“She’s been marked,” the crowned woman said. “A piece of her father’s power lives inside her now.”I looked up. “How? He’s alive. That was his voice.”“He’s alive, but fading,” she said. “His spirit searches for anchors. She is the strongest.”Amara stirred slightly, brow twitching as if struggl
Kael's POV I never imagined I’d see him again.Alpha Derrick stood beneath the fractured ceiling, wrapped in a cloak of silver and arrogance, his presence just as suffocating as I remembered. He hadn’t aged a day—same cold eyes, same smug grin that used to make me feel like I was nothing more than a legacy he regretted.Only this time, I wasn’t that boy anymore.Amara stepped in front of me without hesitation, the blade of Selene flashing in the firelight. She didn’t flinch. She didn’t ask questions. She read my silence, my frozen breath, and knew exactly who stood before us.“You’re supposed to be dead,” I said, my voice like gravel in my throat.Derrick tilted his head. “And you were supposed to be an obedient heir. We all disappoint sometimes.”Amara’s voice was ice. “What do you want?”“I came for what’s mine,” he said, eyes sliding over her like a claim he hadn’t earned. “And clearly, you’ve stolen something that doesn’t belong to you.”She didn’t move. “Try to take me.”Derrick
Amara's POV I wasn’t ready to be queen.The shadows that knelt before me weren’t just remnants of lost wolves or forgotten spirits—they were survivors, bound by centuries of betrayal and blood. I looked at each one and saw a reflection of my own history—stolen, rewritten, buried beneath power plays disguised as tradition.But they weren’t begging. They weren’t pleading.They were waiting.“For what?” I asked the crowned woman.“For you to take your place,” she said.Kael stirred in my lap, groaning softly. I cradled his head, brushing a blood-matted curl from his temple.“He needs help.”“Then you shall have it,” the woman said, turning to gesture at a pair of robed figures. They emerged from the shadows and knelt beside us. One placed his palm to Kael’s chest while the other whispered something in a language I didn’t recognize. The air shimmered around them.I watched as Kael’s breathing deepened, color returning to his lips.Tears pricked my eyes again, but I didn’t let them fall.