MasukKEIRA’S POVZeke’s words settled over the sitting room like a cold weight. Corvin was not working alone. He had gathered others who dealt in the old dark ways. Their plan centered on me at the Lunar Archery Tournament. Every carefully built wall I had kept around my fear cracked at the edges. The old cycle rose in my mind without permission. We find each other in each lifetime, we fall in love, we love and live together for a time, we die and get reborn again to repeat the same circle over and over. I could feel the circle tightening, ready to close on this life before we ever held the child growing inside me. I wanted this time. I wanted the years, the ordinary mornings, the chance to raise the baby we had made. The wanting only made the fear sharper.I refused to let it show. I stood and faced Zeke. “Thank you for coming to us with what you know. I am grateful you risked the journey. Right now you need to find a way to stay alive. I cannot help you further.” Magnus’s head turned
MAGNUS’ POVThe council doors closed behind us with a heavy finality. The date for Alaric’s funeral was fixed three days out, close enough to the Lunar Archery Tournament that the two events would bleed into each other. I kept my hand at the small of Keira’s back as we walked the corridor. Every instinct told me to get her away from Iron Wood and back to Nightfall where the walls were mine and the guards answered only to me. The prophecy tied to the tournament had never felt closer. Attacks could come from any direction. No one knew the hour. Her powers made her the target and the child in her womb only raises the stakes. Her mother’s voice still rang from the hall we had left. She screamed the same accusations, insisting Keira had arranged Alaric’s death. Lyra stood at her side, one hand on the older woman’s arm, murmuring soft words that looked like comfort. I saw the manipulation, it was as clear as daylight. It was the same pattern from the fire incident weeks ago. Lyra had cla
KEIRA’S POVThe front doors slammed shut behind my mother and Lyra. The sound still echoed when I spun toward Magnus. My hands were shaking at my sides. “Never let that woman set foot near my house again,” I said to Magnus, my voice firm and clear. “Do you hear me? I am finished protecting her. If she wants to keep believing Lyra’s lies then let her. I will not waste another second trying to drag the truth into her skull.” Magnus met my eyes without flinching. “She will not cross into our home ever again. You have my word.” I turned and took the stairs two at a time. Inside the suite I shut the door hard and dropped onto the edge of the bed. The silence pressed in. My father was dead. The woman who had raised me still believes that I’m the devil that took him away from her. I have no idea what will come next. Daisy’s voice rose inside my head, steady and clear. “He failed you. That is true. But he was still the former Alpha of Iron Wood. Tradition demands a grand burial. That is
MAGNUS’ POVThe sound of her sobs against my chest kept a steady fire burning under my ribs the entire drive back. Those people had reduced my wife to this. Her mother and Lyra had stood in that hospital corridor and poured fresh poison over wounds that already ran deep. I kept one arm locked around Keira while the other stayed on the wheel. She cried until the tears slowed to quiet hitching breaths. By the time the house came into view the worst of the storm had passed, yet the anger in me only settled deeper. We walked inside together. I guided her toward the stairs that lead to our bedroom. “Chef,” I called out and he appeared at the end of the stairs almost immediately. “Please make something for the Luna to eat, something light. She must be hungry.” She shook her head immediately. “No, Magnus,” she said, her voice thin like a whisper. “I am not hungry. I just want to go to bed and sleep.” And with that she walked upstairs to our bedroom, leaving me standing there. I gestured
KEIRA’S POVI sat in the chair beside the hospital bed and stared at what remained of the man who had once been my father. Thick bandages wrapped most of his head and face. Dark bruises spread across every visible patch of skin. Tubes ran from his arms and throat to the machines that kept a faint, mechanical rhythm of life going. His chest rose only because the equipment forced it to. He did not move. He would never hear a word I said, yet this was the final chance I would ever have to speak them. I reached out and took his limp hand between both of mine. The skin felt cool and unfamiliar. Tears already burned at the edges of my eyes as I began. “I am sorry you lived such a pathetic life. I understand you were hurt after Keiran died. Everyone in that house was. You lost your heir. You lost the son you had pinned every hope on. I understand all of it. What I will never understand is how you and Mother could turn on me like I stopped belonging to the family the moment he was gone. You
MAGNUS’ POV “Keira,” I called out her name. She didn’t respond. The fork in her hand remained suspended halfway between her plate and her mouth as she stared past me, her expression slowly emptying of every trace of irritation she’d carried only moments ago. My chest tightened. “Keira,” I called out again. She didn’t reply. I walked closer to her and stopped beside her chair. “Sunflower,” I whispered. Her eyes finally snapped toward me. “Who did this?” she asked quietly. There was no tremor in her voice, there was no panic. And somehow that made the question worse. “It’s Corvin,” I replied. She flashed me a sad smile, her brows pulled together. “And Lyra?” she asked. “Was she involved?” I could see the colour drained from her face. I didn’t know how to tell her that there is a possibility that Lyra was involved in this operation. How would she react? Would she laugh? Or would she want revenge? For several seconds, she simply stared at me. “Magnus, did L







