Mag-log inAVARAThis place is... beautiful.I look around at the trees, the birds, the wild flowers. I have not been in such a beautiful place for as long as I can remember, and I almost feel tears welling up in my eyes.I take a deep breath. Yep. Smells like freedom.“This place is beautiful, isn’t it?”I turn around. Kaeden is behind me, his hand finding it’s place at the base of my back. He looks down at me and smiles brightly.“It is.”“Well, great to know that you’re finally steady. I’ll need to show you around.”“Is... is this where you’ve been hiding? All those years?”He laughs. “Oh, well, this is part of it. But I couldn’t possibly stay in one place, not if I needed to extend the allies I was gathering, especially not with my father’s assassins after me.”“Silas sent assassins after you?”“Surely by now you know what sort of man he is. What he can do.”“I do.” I go silent, the memory of the horrors that I went through before Kaeden whisked me away flashing before me. I shiver. “I’m so
SILASI’ve been mostly locked in my office, thinking, recalibrating, restrategising.And also, very much so, beating myself up.I do not take losing easily and this is my biggest loss yet.Perhaps I have wasted some time over the days of brooding instead of making advancements. However, I do know that Avara is was in too bad of a shape when Kaeden took her to be in perfect health at the moment, no matter how many witches Kaeden has in his disposal and uses in an attempt to get her to recover.Dark magic doesn’t fade easily. And perhaps it has gotten me some time.Anyways, right now, my head is clear. And it is time to start making movements. I’ve thought up several extreme measures that I will take to recover my harvest, and now it is time to start from the basics.I ring my call bell."Cassius."The door opens. Cassius enters first. Julian follows, and I read him immediately, pale beneath his composure, still looking gobsmacked and shaken by the events of that night.“It’s been three
KAEDENMy jaw tightens.“Do not think we have not already deciphered this, Kaeden,” Maereth says, “But we would much rather like to hear it from your own mouth.”"She's..."The word catches.I exhale."She's nothing," I say.The lie lands in the air and sits there and immediately, comprehensively fails to convince anyone in the vicinity, including me.Dolores raises an eyebrow. “Nothing?”"She's..." I stop. Try again. "It's complicated."I look at them with imploring eyes, desperate to run as fast as I can from this conversation, but none of them budge. It takes a long time of just staring and hoping against hope that they bore of the conversation before I sigh and finally give in."She's my mate." I finally grit out. “The Moon saw fit to tie me to her. Are you satisfied?"Fenris growls in satisfaction. I nearly snap at him.Maereth's expression softens. "There it is," she says. “For a moment, I feared that those words would not come out of your mouth.”Dolores raises an eyebrow. "The
KAEDENIt has been three days.Three days since I tore her from that altar, since I felt the weight of her in my arms and understood how much of her had already been spent.Three days of watching her breathe, watching the colour slowly return to Avara’s lips and the hollows of her cheeks fill out. Three days of Fenris pacing behind my ribs, a restless, silver tide that only settles when I am within arm’s reach of her.And I remain restless, desperate to be by her side, watch her recover, be there for her.I’ve tried to convince myself that it is because of the discussion that we need to have, because of the plans we need to map out, because I need her to get healed as quickly as possible so that we can begin working on undoing all that Silas has done to dispel her memories and block her abilities.But I know that it is much more than that. I just find it difficult to accept it because anytime I think in that light, let myself bask in my thoughts and feelings, the knowledge of the sacr
SILASThe smell of failure is unmistakable.I stand at the center of the ruined clearing, my claws still extended and I take the sight in, basking in the stinging humiliation of defeat.The altar is cracked down its center. Torches lie guttered across the dirt, their flames reduced to thin, directionless wisps. My warriors are distributed across the ground, some moving, some in the slow, effortful process of remembering how their bodies work. A handful are not moving at all, and I note their positions.The violet glow of the teleportation spell has faded, leaving nothing but a mocking silence and scorched earth.And she is gone.Taken.From my altar. From my ceremony. From my hands.Gone.A murmur moves through the crowd that has gathered at the clearing's edge, the pack, confused and frightened and looking to me. Shifting forms stumble through the dark, their whimpers echoing off the jagged rocks."Alpha? What was that?""Was that... was that Prince Kaeden?"“How did...”“Who were th
AVARAI’m scared and confused but very, very relieved.I didn’t marry Julian.I’m free from Silas.I don’t know how long my freedom will last, or even what the freedom pertains, in this strange place, but I’m willing to enjoy this, momentary as it may be.Silas will be back, though. I know it. He needs me for something. I have something that he wants. I don’t know what that is, but he actively pursued after me when I was little, killed my family, brought me to the pack, wiped my memories and pretended that all those years, the only reason why he kept me by his side was because of his benevolence.And I believed him. Even though he never had a kind word, or even a kind look for me, I believed that he somehow had compassion for me and maybe, somehow, cared for me.I was a fool. I know better now.I wince as a bout of pain shoots up my face, straight through my skull. Whatever the demon ‘doctor’, Scyla, gave me to keep me strong enough for the ritual, it is fading away and with it, all t
AVARA"The guards found him in the north corridor last night, behaving like an absolute madman," Julian scoffs. "Talking to the walls, chanting nonsense, screaming at shadows. They say he nearly collapsed before reaching his room. It seems that wherever he spent the past fifteen years have broken h
AVARAThis woman, Dr. Scyla, she terrifies me. And there’s no particular reason that I can point to. She looks normal, a very attractive woman in either her late 20s or early 30s, with beautiful cascading blonde hair that she wears in a ponytail and bright blue eyes. But there’s something, off abou
KAEDENI stand by the window, trying to clear my head, which is still pounding as an aftermath of the battle I had with the demons. I take a deep breath, and turn again to Elias Kore, who still has the amused expression on his face that irritates me. There’s absolutely nothing funny about the state
SILASThe heavy oak doors of my study are nearly taken off their hinges. I don’t even have time to set down my glass before Scyla is across the room, fuming.Her human skin is flickering like a dying candle, patches of iridescent black scales erupting along her jaw and throat. Her eyes are wide, th







