登入Bella’s POVThe radio went dead before Thor could say anything else, static swallowing his voice whole, and I sat frozen for one full second, staring at the man beside me who wore Gordon’s face like it belonged to him.My mind went back to everything he said since we left the hallway. I thought about all the things that seemed normal and safe. I was trying to find the moment when he was not himself anymore. I just did not notice.Then his hands changed. They changed fast. The fingers on the steering wheel got longer. The skin looked different. The whole thing that looked like Gordon was. I saw someone I did not know. It was a woman with features and cold eyes."You should have looked at my hands closer " she said. Her voice was not like Gordons voice all. It was smooth and calm even though everything was crazy. "Faces are easy to fake. Hands are what give people away if you know what to look for " she said.I tried to open the door. She was too fast. She let go of the wheel with one h
Bella’s POV“We need to move. Now.”Draven was already pulling me upright before I’d fully processed what Ronan’s father had just said, his grip firm around my arm, urgency radiating off him in a way that cut straight through my own creeping shock.My legs still hadn’t fully recovered from the shift, and I stumbled once before finding my footing, Draven’s hand steadying me without either of us breaking stride.“Collect me.” My voice came out thinner than I wanted it to.“He said collect me. Like I’m cargo.”I thought about the way Ronan’s father had said it, the strange, hollowed-out certainty in his voice even as whatever had been taken from him left him barely able to string a full sentence together. Whoever had done that to him hadn’t bothered lying about what came next. That honesty scared me more than a threat would have.“I heard him.” Draven’s jaw had gone tight, every line of him coiled toward action. “Which means whoever’s behind this isn’t finished with today. The presentatio
Bella’s POV “Split up. Cover the exits.”Draven’s voice carried the particular authority that made circuit guards actually listen despite the chaos still rippling through the crowd, and within minutes we had people moving through every gate, every corridor beneath the stands, searching for a man who’d apparently decided winning his own tournament mattered less than disappearing the moment it ended.I stayed close to Draven my legs still wobbly from the shift my body carrying the specific tiredness of someone who had used muscles for the first time that morning which most people never thought about. Every step felt heavier than it should have like my body was still trying to figure out the shape I had chosen to come to."Why would he run " I asked. "He won. Publicly. In front of everyone. That should have been what he wanted.""Unless winning was never actually the point." Dravens eyes watched the crowd, looking. "Whoever is really in charge might have needed him for one reason making
Draven’s POVThe bike felt wrong under me before I’d even cleared the first turn.Every muscle was struggling with the wolfsbane still in my body slow when it should have been quick slow when I needed it to be fast. I had been hurt before while racing. I had never raced like this before not with much depending on staying on my feet for the whole race.I kept my grip loose even though every part of me wanted to hold on tighter remembering from a time ago a lesson from when I still had everything before I was sent away before all of this became my life. Fighting the bike uses energy than fighting the poison ever will. Let the bike do what it was made to do and save your energy for the real fight.Sweat had already soaked my shirt by the straight part of the track and every breeze blowing against the wound, on my side reminded me just how little space I had left to work with today.Ronan’s father took the lead on the turn his bike passing mine with a smoothness that told me exactly how m
Bella’s POV“Clear the grid.”The order came from the officials’ box, sharp and clipped, and I watched circuit guards move fast toward the starting line, hands hovering near weapons none of them had needed until sixty seconds ago.My body still felt like it was someone it was really weird in ways I was still trying to figure out. My muscles hurt in places that had never hurt before and I was still feeling the excitement from before it was not going away.Draven got to me before anyone else did.He ran to me not paying attention to the guards or the people talking he just looked at me at the four- animal I had become in front of all those people. When he got to me he did not stop he just went down on one knee in front of me close that I could feel how tense he was."You are okay " he said, so only I could hear him even though a lot of people were still looking at us. "No matter what they are planning you did this your way. Remember this."I could not talk to him not like this not as a
Bella’s POVThe stands were full by the time they walked me out.Every level of that circuit was packed tight groups from places I had never even heard of all of them leaning forward the second the speaker said Draven’s name wanting to see something they didn’t know the real meaning of.My legs moved on their own some part of my brain back in that guest room with the elder’s weak breathing with Draven’s blood on my hands with a night that had left almost all of us not fully rested for this morning that mattered so much.I was standing where the tournament people had told me to stand, off the starting line exactly where the new rule said I had to be. It felt like thousands of eyes were on me like a weight.Draven was looking at me from across the line. He was pale in the morning light even though Gordon had tried his best to help him all night.. Draven was still standing up straight not letting the poison show except for a little shake in his jaw when he thought no one was looking clos
Draven’s POVI dragged my jacket on, the stitches pulling with every move. I felt a few tear open but I ignored it, striding towards the door.Thor was waiting outside with the look he got when he had already decided something was a bad idea and had also already accepted that it was going to happen
Bella's POV I have waited patiently for days, waiting for Draven to come and visit me as he promised, but I haven't seen him since then. I was too curious to know the reason he would rather not fulfill his promise. “Today has been the fourth day since I last saw Draven. He promised that he would c
Bella's POV I slowly opened my eyes. I couldn't see the environment clearly because I was just waking up; I needed to get myself first. As I turned and faced up, at first it was blurred from my view, but as I gently opened my eyes, well, it was as if magic happened. “What's good here?” I muttered
Draven's POV:“Were you not informed by Thor how busy I am today?” I asked immediately as she walked inside my study room.I sat behind the table, a book swapped on it. My hands kept scanning a particular paper, looking for a particular information but I got distracted now that Clara was standing i







