Kai POVI stood with my arms crossed as Adela fidgeted under the scrutiny of my gaze. We were gathered in the courtyard now, everyone waiting as she prepared to spill every detail she had about Councilman Baylor.“Start from the beginning,” I ordered her, my voice sharp.Adela swallowed hard. “On the first day I approached him, I was carrying a tray of tea. I pretended to stumble and spilled it all over him. He got angry at first, but I insisted I could help him clean it up. He tried to dismiss me, said he had his maid to attend to him, but I… I pushed.”Rowan scoffed from beside me, but I raised a hand to silence him.Adela continued, wringing her fingers nervously. “He eventually agreed. I followed him to his chambers and while we were there, I, as Lady Mira instructed, tried to… seduce him.”Mira stood to the side, her face stoic, giving no indication of any guilt. I admired that about her.Adela’s cheeks flushed. “He grabbed me almost immediately, but I scolded him, made a sce
Kai POV (Flash back)It was dark and quiet. The torches along the courtyard walls barely lit the stones beneath my small feet. I remembered standing there years ago, my young hands gripping the folds of my tunic as I watched my father speaking with important visitors. I didn’t know it then, but those moments would be some of the last happy memories I would ever have of our family together.I stood beside him proudly, listening as he discussed matters of the clan’s future. The way the visitors nodded at his words, the admiration in their eyes, I wanted that too. I wanted to rule Blackwood one day and have everyone look at me with the same respect they gave my father.I remembered how the captain of the guards had arrived mid-meeting, dragging along a younger Rowan by the shoulder. He announced Rowan’s latest victory in sword combat, boasting about how quickly he was mastering the art. My father and his guests praised him openly, offering him kind words and applause. Rowan had g
Damien POV I returned to my chambers with heavy steps, my mind still clouded with irritation. I hated the way Kai thought about our mother. It gnawed at my insides like a slow poison. He always kept himself distant from her, treating her like she was some stranger who had dared to give birth to him. Even as children, while Rowan, Lucian and I clung to her skirts, Kai stood apart, his arms folded, his face emotionless. Like he had already decided he didn’t need her.I clenched my fists as I entered the secret passage that led to my private archives. Only I knew about it, and I intended to keep it that way. It was the place where I had gathered every piece of classified parchment, scrolls, and forbidden books over the years. A treasury of knowledge that even the regular castle archives couldn’t boast of.I needed answers. I needed to know why Councilman Benard Sawyer had once been part of Blackwood clan and now existed in Darkfire clan like he belonged there. If there was any c
Mira POV I couldn’t sleep.No matter how much I tossed and turned, the thoughts refused to leave me alone. They kept coming in waves, pressing down on me harder with each passing minute. I had come to Blackwood Castle to destroy the lycan kings. That had been my mission. I was supposed to tear them apart from within, make them hate each other, make them weak—and when the time came, avenge my mother’s death.But now… I was helping them.How had it come to this?I sat on the edge of my bed, hugging my knees as the memories of my childhood came flooding back. My father’s cold eyes. His harsh words. The way the villagers looked at me like I was a mistake. Even as Chief, he had never acknowledged me as his daughter the way he did with the other children in the village. I had always been treated like an outsider because I was human. Because my mother… was a human and not werewolf.He used to say she tricked him into marriage. Claimed she never told him what she was. That she cursed
Mira POV I stood in the courtyard, surrounded by the soft murmurs of the guards and the quiet tension that buzzed in the air like a taut string waiting to snap. Everyone was waiting for Adela to return. The amulet swap needed to happen perfectly, silently. One wrong move and Councilman Baylor would vanish into the shadows like smoke. We had one chance to use his connection to the witches to find them, and I couldn’t shake the anxiety tightening around my chest.Adela was brave, no doubt, but this was different. Dangerous. I tried to keep a calm expression as I stood beside Kai, Damien, and Rowan, but my thoughts were far from steady. My mind kept drifting back to the voice I heard last night. The moon goddess. Her words still echoed in my head like a steady drumbeat.You were born for this.The weight of her voice still lingered in my chest. Heavier than armor. More binding than any promise.If I was truly the bridge between the three factions, then I had to start walking that
Mira’s POVI couldn’t believe what I’d just seen.Lucian. My mate. Lying unconscious on a bed hidden in the shrine. All this time, they’d kept it from me—every single one of them. Even Damien, who I’d come to trust more than I thought I would. The sight of Lucian’s motionless body sent something cold and aching straight through my chest. And then to hear them… Damien and the disciple, talking like I was never supposed to know. Like I wasn’t even part of this.The betrayal tasted like ash in my mouth.I stormed out of the room, my vision blurring with tears. I could hear Damien calling after me, his boots slapping the stone floors of the shrine, but I didn’t stop. I couldn’t. If I turned back, if I let him catch up to me, I might break completely.“Mira! Please, just listen!”“Don’t!” I snapped, spinning on my heel just as I reached the carriage. “Don’t you dare speak to me!”He stopped short, his chest rising and falling with effort. The look in his eyes was soft—regretful. But
Mira POV I wiped my face quickly, my fingers trembling. I had cried enough. I knew now—there was no running from what the moon goddess had given me. My destiny wasn’t about revenge. It wasn’t about the hatred I carried or the love I feared. It was bigger than me. And no amount of heartbreak could be allowed to break me.I took a deep breath and stood up. My legs felt weak, but I forced them to move. No more hiding. No more letting my pain trap me. If I was truly meant to bridge the worlds—to heal what had been broken—I had to be stronger than this.When I stepped out of my chamber, the sunlight almost blinded me. It felt foreign against my skin, like I had been locked away in the darkness for too long. I shielded my eyes and headed straight to the courtyard, the place where everyone seemed to gather when something important happened.As I approached, I noticed Kai. He was standing there, as if waiting for me, his arms folded stiffly across his chest. His eyes softened when he
Damien POV I stood in my workshop, watching Adela as she sat nervously on the chair placed directly in front of the table. She looked lost, confused, and so much younger than her years. Rowan leaned against the wall by the door, arms crossed, watching with scepticism written all over his face.“I still think this is a waste of time,” Rowan muttered for the tenth time.“And I think you’re not helping,” I shot back without looking at him. I couldn’t afford distractions. Adela needed to remember, and fast.We had no idea what Councilman Baylor had done to her — only that her memories of the amulet, of everything she had learned, were gone. But I had a theory. If magic could block her mind, then science could trigger it back.“Alright, Adela,” I said softly, pulling a few paintings from the nearby cabinet. “Let’s start simple. Do you recognize these?”I spread portraits of the councilmen across the table. Some old, some new. Among them was Baylor’s.Adela leaned forward, squinting at
Mira POV When I arrived at the shrine, I immediately knew something was different.The courtyard was crowded, more than I’d ever seen it. People were pouring in through the arched gates, their footsteps fast yet quiet, their heads bowed as though afraid to lift their eyes. Some clutched prayer beads, others held burning candles. A few sobbed quietly as they moved toward the inner sanctum.I stepped aside as a woman passed me, dragging two small children behind her. One of them looked up at me, his eyes swollen from crying. My heart twisted painfully.I made my way inside and found the head priestess, her wrinkled face lined even deeper than usual.“What’s going on?” I asked softly, trying not to let the heavy tension around us suffocate my voice.She turned to me with a tired expression. “The people are afraid,” she said, clasping her hands together. “Since the massacre… the castle guards, the bloodshed… word has spread.”I frowned. “Word?”The priestess nodded. “About the wit
Mira POV Two days later…I woke up before the sun had risen, the castle still blanketed in silence. For once, I didn’t wait for Adela or any of the handmaids to come in. I slipped out of bed, walked barefoot to the bath chamber, and poured myself a cold shower. The icy water hit my skin like a slap, but I welcomed it. I needed the numbness. My mind had been anything but still for the past two days.I couldn’t stop thinking about the massacre—the way the blood had soaked into the stone floors, the way the guards’ lifeless bodies had been carried away one by one. And the families… Gods, the families. They had gathered outside the castle gates yesterday, their wails cutting through the air like blades. Some had thrown stones, others had just fallen to their knees, begging for answers. Begging for justice.I stayed in the shower longer than necessary, hoping the water would wash away the unease churning inside me. It didn’t. When I stepped out, I dried myself quickly and dressed
Mira POVI sat quietly in the carriage beside Damien, the steady rhythm of the wheels rolling over the rugged trail doing little to ease the storm brewing inside me. The sun was still rising in the sky, casting golden beams through the trees, but my heart felt too heavy to appreciate any of it. We were heading to the place where Benard Sawyer was meant to be executed years ago. Damien sat across from me, flipping through an old parchment from the archives, but I knew we were both thinking about more than just the past.The silence stretched between us until I finally broke it.“How’s Lucian doing?” I asked, not looking at him. I didn’t know why I needed to know so badly. Maybe because the thought of losing him clawed painfully at the inside of my chest.Damien looked up at me, his expression shifting to something solemn. “He’s hanging on,” he said softly.“But not for long. The disciple told me the only thing that could really save him is complete faith—from the three of us.”I
Kai POVThe air was tense as we stormed toward Councilman Baylor’s chambers. I walked beside Rowan with six guards behind us, all alert and on edge. Damien and Mira had taken off earlier to the execution site where Benard Sawyer was once meant to die. I hoped they’d find something useful. But right now, our focus was Councilman Baylor.Rowan kept glancing at me as we moved through the corridor. “What if he’s already done it?” he asked, low but urgent. “What if he’s already summoned them?”I didn’t need to ask who he meant. “Then we’ll be too late,” I said. “But we can’t think like that. We have to act before they arrive.”Rowan didn’t speak again, but his jaw tightened. He knew as well as I did that there was no defense against witches—not unless we were prepared. And we weren’t. Not yet.When we arrived at Baylor’s chambers, they were eerily quiet. The guards took position at the doors while Rowan and I pushed inside. The room was dim, the curtains drawn, the fire out. It felt li
Mira POV I shifted another stack of scrolls and sighed. Damien’s secret archive was packed from floor to ceiling with books, dusty records, and ancient parchments. I could barely breathe from all the dust in the air, but I wasn’t going to stop. Kai and I had been digging through everything for nearly an hour now, trying to find anything about Councilman Benard Sawyer’s execution—the date, the place, even a small mention of it would be something. The deeper we dug, the more suspicious everything became.I glanced at Kai as he skimmed through a thick record book. “You really don’t know the date?” I teased, a half-smirk curling my lips. “Didn’t you grow up as your father’s little pet? Always at his feet, watching him rule?”Kai looked up sharply. “I wasn’t his pet,” he said, a bit defensive. “I did more than attend his meetings and parties. I trained with Rowan, built things with Damien… I even tried my hand at hunting once.”“Except Lucian,” I said quietly, flipping through a b
Damien POV I stood in my workshop, watching Adela as she sat nervously on the chair placed directly in front of the table. She looked lost, confused, and so much younger than her years. Rowan leaned against the wall by the door, arms crossed, watching with scepticism written all over his face.“I still think this is a waste of time,” Rowan muttered for the tenth time.“And I think you’re not helping,” I shot back without looking at him. I couldn’t afford distractions. Adela needed to remember, and fast.We had no idea what Councilman Baylor had done to her — only that her memories of the amulet, of everything she had learned, were gone. But I had a theory. If magic could block her mind, then science could trigger it back.“Alright, Adela,” I said softly, pulling a few paintings from the nearby cabinet. “Let’s start simple. Do you recognize these?”I spread portraits of the councilmen across the table. Some old, some new. Among them was Baylor’s.Adela leaned forward, squinting at
Mira POV I wiped my face quickly, my fingers trembling. I had cried enough. I knew now—there was no running from what the moon goddess had given me. My destiny wasn’t about revenge. It wasn’t about the hatred I carried or the love I feared. It was bigger than me. And no amount of heartbreak could be allowed to break me.I took a deep breath and stood up. My legs felt weak, but I forced them to move. No more hiding. No more letting my pain trap me. If I was truly meant to bridge the worlds—to heal what had been broken—I had to be stronger than this.When I stepped out of my chamber, the sunlight almost blinded me. It felt foreign against my skin, like I had been locked away in the darkness for too long. I shielded my eyes and headed straight to the courtyard, the place where everyone seemed to gather when something important happened.As I approached, I noticed Kai. He was standing there, as if waiting for me, his arms folded stiffly across his chest. His eyes softened when he
Mira’s POVI couldn’t believe what I’d just seen.Lucian. My mate. Lying unconscious on a bed hidden in the shrine. All this time, they’d kept it from me—every single one of them. Even Damien, who I’d come to trust more than I thought I would. The sight of Lucian’s motionless body sent something cold and aching straight through my chest. And then to hear them… Damien and the disciple, talking like I was never supposed to know. Like I wasn’t even part of this.The betrayal tasted like ash in my mouth.I stormed out of the room, my vision blurring with tears. I could hear Damien calling after me, his boots slapping the stone floors of the shrine, but I didn’t stop. I couldn’t. If I turned back, if I let him catch up to me, I might break completely.“Mira! Please, just listen!”“Don’t!” I snapped, spinning on my heel just as I reached the carriage. “Don’t you dare speak to me!”He stopped short, his chest rising and falling with effort. The look in his eyes was soft—regretful. But
Mira POV I stood in the courtyard, surrounded by the soft murmurs of the guards and the quiet tension that buzzed in the air like a taut string waiting to snap. Everyone was waiting for Adela to return. The amulet swap needed to happen perfectly, silently. One wrong move and Councilman Baylor would vanish into the shadows like smoke. We had one chance to use his connection to the witches to find them, and I couldn’t shake the anxiety tightening around my chest.Adela was brave, no doubt, but this was different. Dangerous. I tried to keep a calm expression as I stood beside Kai, Damien, and Rowan, but my thoughts were far from steady. My mind kept drifting back to the voice I heard last night. The moon goddess. Her words still echoed in my head like a steady drumbeat.You were born for this.The weight of her voice still lingered in my chest. Heavier than armor. More binding than any promise.If I was truly the bridge between the three factions, then I had to start walking that