ログインLUCIANThe light hit my face like a blade. It was morning. I didn’t remember falling asleep. I remembered Caelan’s arms around me, the fire dying down, Jace’s voice saying something about taking first watch. I remembered the stone under my back and the way the bond still felt like a missing tooth—empty, aching, wrong. Then nothing. Then this. Sunlight. Thin and cold, cutting through the trees and straight into my eyes. We were moving. The carriage rocked under me. The wheels were on road now, not dirt. Real road. Smooth. That meant we were close. The shame was still there. The pain was still there. But they’d dulled overnight, wrapped in exhaustion and something that felt almost like clarity. Almost. I pushed myself up. My ribs screamed. My leg was a solid block of pain. I bit it down. The carriage door was open. Outside, the world was green and gold and moving. We were on the main road to the academy. I knew the trees. I knew the turn up ahead. I stepped out. The wind hit
LUCIANThe fire wasn’t warm. It burned, but the heat didn’t reach me. Nothing did. Not since the island went under. Not since the bond went dark. I sat with my back against the tree, my leg stretched out, my ribs wrapped tight with whatever Jace had torn from his shirt, and all I could feel was the hole. The shame was a stone, but now it had edges. It cut every time I moved. Every time I breathed. She was gone. My mate. My Isla. I’d had her in my arms. I’d told her it was over. And then the light took her. “What if we’re late?” The words came out before I knew I was going to say them. My voice was rough. Broken. I hadn’t meant to speak. But once it started, I couldn’t stop. “What if we get there late and Darius had already killed her?” I said. I pushed up straighter. Pain lanced through my ribs. I didn’t care. “What if he doesn’t wait for the red blood moon? What if he decides six days is too long? What if he looks at her and decides he’s done waiting?” Jace stopped pacing. He’
LUCIANThe shame was like a stone in my heart. Not a sharp one. A smooth, heavy one that sat right behind my ribs and made it hard to breathe. Every time the carriage hit a rut, the stone shifted, and the pain flared white-hot behind my eyes. But the shame was worse than the pain. The pain was mine. I’d earned it. The shame belonged to her. To Isla. Because I’d promised. I’d looked her in the eye, my mark on her skin, and told her I’d never let anyone take her again. And then I watched the ocean take her. I was scared not scared of the fight one bit. I was only scared of this, of the quiet after, of the way the bond felt like a severed limb. I was scared of the fact that I couldn’t feel her. Not her fear, not her anger, not even her heartbeat. Just… nothing. A blank space where the most important part of me used to be. The carriage reeked of blood and sweat and wet leather. Jace had found it half a mile from the shore, tucked behind a stand of black trees that the tide hadn’t cl
ISLAMy feet moved. That was the worst part. They moved and I didn’t tell them to. The cave floor was wet stone, slick with something that had never seen sunlight, and my toes curled against it for balance without asking me. My arms hung at my sides. Loose. Wrong. Like they belonged to someone else and I was just borrowing them. Darius walked ahead of me. His back was to me. His right arm was bent wrong, the bone pressing against skin, but he didn’t cradle it. He didn’t limp. He wouldn’t give me that. Each step had to be agony. He didn’t show it. The cave breathed. It wasn’t wind. Wind was outside. This was deeper. It came from the walls, from the black water that ran in thin streams along the floor and vanished into cracks. It smelled like iron and old salt and something else. Something that had been waiting. “Keep up,” Darius said. He didn’t turn around. My legs obeyed. I was scared not scared of the dark one bit. I was only scared of me, and how quiet I was inside my own hea
DARIUSThe water didn’t touch us. It should have. The ocean was there, black and endless, but every time the wolf’s paws came down, the surface went solid. Not ice. Not stone. Something older. The kind of law that existed before oceans learned how to drown things. She ran and the sea bent for her, and I rode on her shoulder with one hand fisted in fur that burned my palm. I was done for. An hour ago, I was on my back in a crater, my ribs caved in, my arm bent backwards, Lucian’s fist turning my face to pulp. I could still taste my own blood. Could still feel where my teeth were missing. My left eye was swollen shut. My lungs were wet. Every breath was a gamble. I should have been dead. Now I was here. On the back of a god. The red blood moon was six days away. Six days to hide. Six days to heal. Six days until I could tear the omega blood out of her and finally finish what Elara never started. The wolf ran for hours. Across water. Over islands that weren’t on any map. Through
LUCIANThe first thing I felt was the wall. Not stone. Not air. Force. It hit me in the chest and took my breath with it. One second I had Isla in my arms, her face buried in my neck, her tears hot on my skin. The next I was airborne. I hit the crater wall twenty feet up. My shoulder took it first. Something tore. I heard it. A wet, ripping sound that belonged to meat, not to me. I slid down, rock scraping my back raw, and hit the ground on my knees. “Isla!” I shouted. Or tried to. My throat was full of dust and blood and her name came out broken. She was standing. No. It wasn’t her. The wolf in the center of the crater was twelve feet tall, maybe thirteen. Fur like hammered silver. Eyes that weren’t eyes. They were white fire. The mark I’d put on her shoulder was gone. Burned away like it had never been. She threw her head back and howled. The sound wasn’t sound. It was a command. The ocean answered it. The whole island shuddered. Darius moved. He shouldn’t have been able to
Caelan's eyes narrowed, his gaze piercing as he asked, "Did you feel the wolf bond?"I tried to play it cool, pretending not to know what he was talking about. "Feel what?" I asked, trying to sound nonchalant.Caelan's expression didn't change, but his voice took on a deeper tone. "My wolf just tol
Eya nodded, seeming to accept the conversation's direction. "I should head to class," she said, glancing at the time. "Are you coming, Isla?"I shook my head, feeling a bit preoccupied. "I'll come later," I said, waving her off.Eya smiled and waved back, and Ruby did the same. "See you guys later,
I waved goodbye to Ruby, feeling a mix of emotions as I watched her walk away. As I turned to leave, I couldn't shake off the feeling of discomfort that lingered within me. Ruby knew about the kiss between Lucian and me, and it felt like my private moment had been exposed.I thought to myself, "No
I raised my head, expecting to see Professor Lucian standing at the front of the class. But instead, it was a different teacher, one I hadn't seen before.The teacher smiled and introduced himself. "Hello, students. I'm Professor Orion, and I'll be teaching you this semester. Professor Lucian won't







