Mag-log inAuroraDecember 16, 2025The cells beneath the Royal Mansion were colder than anywhere I had been in Averne, and it was not the kind of cold that came from snow. The walls were made of heavy gray stone, the torches along the corridor burned low, and the air smelled of damp and iron.My crutch echoed loudly with every step, and I hated how the sound followed me down the corridor like someone was walking right behind me.Rina was sitting on a narrow bench in the last cell. Her wrists were bound in thick cuffs that glowed faintly silver, and wherever the metal touched her skin, it had left angry red marks. Someone had changed the bandage on her shoulder.When she heard us coming, she lifted her head, and her tired eyes went straight to Leon's sling before they dropped to the floor.The King stopped in front of the bars. "Stand up."Rina stood."You were raised in this house," the King said quietly. "My wife braided your hair when you were a child. I stood beside your parents' graves and
AuroraDecember 16, 2025The Alpha King did not shout when we walked into his study the next morning, and somehow that was worse.He sat behind his massive oak desk with his hands folded in front of him, his face so calm and so cold that I found myself gripping my crutch tighter just to keep my knees from shaking.Leon stood beside me with his arm in a black sling, his face pale from a night of fresh stitches and very little sleep.The doctors had begged him to stay in the hospital for another three days. He had signed himself out at six in the morning."Sit," the King said.We sat.For a long moment, he said nothing at all. He only looked at us, first at Leon and then at me, and the silence stretched until I could hear the fire crackling in the hearth behind him."My son," he said finally, "was stabbed with silver three days ago. Last night, he tore open his own wound and walked into a trap with a Valderrama princess who has a bullet hole in her shoulder, because his mate decided to
LeonDecember 15, 2025I felt it before I understood it.One moment, I was lying in the hospital bed, staring at the clock on the wall and counting the minutes since Dominic had driven away with Aurora, and the next moment, a cold spike of terror drove straight through the center of my chest. It was not my fear. It was hers. It flooded through the mate bond so violently that my back arched off the mattress, and then, just as suddenly, everything went still, as if her heart had frozen in the middle of a beat."Leon!" Rhaziel howled in my head, louder than he had been since the silver went into us. "Our mate! Something is wrong with our mate!"I was already moving. I tore the tape from my arm and ripped the IV needle out of my vein. The heart monitor screamed in protest as the wires came off my chest, and a sharp pain exploded through my shoulder when I swung my legs over the side of the bed. My vision went white at the edges. I gripped the rail and forced myself to breathe through
Aurora "You did not give me much choice," I said, staying close to the door. "You said everyone dies on Christmas Day.""They will." Rina's voice broke. She pressed a trembling hand over her mouth and shook her head. "I am sorry, Aurora. I know that means nothing to you right now, but I am so sorry. The skates, the messages, the photographs of your son... I did all of it because he told me to. I was the one who sent you the email offering you this job. He asked me to pick you up at the airport. I looked at the mark on your neck that day and pretended I did not know whose it was."My grip on the crutch tightened until my knuckles turned white. I had suspected it, and I had said it out loud to Leon in that tunnel, but hearing her confess it while she sat in front of me crying made my stomach turn."Why?" I asked. "Leon told me your parents were killed by the Black Spots. Why would you help the people who took your family from you?""Because he is my mate," she said simply, and the word
AuroraDecember 15, 2025I pressed the phone against my chest so quickly that the screen went dark against my sweater."Aurora?" Leon's voice was low, and when I looked up, his eyes were already on my face. "Who was that?""Elias," I lied, forcing a smile that felt stiff on my lips. "He wants to know if I approved the edits from the parade."The words had barely left my mouth when another voice slid into my head, warm and amused, as if its owner was lounging somewhere behind my eyes."You are a terrible liar, dear Aurora."I nearly dropped the phone. Of course Rhaziel was awake now that Leon was.I kept my face calm and stared down at Noel, who was still asleep with his tiny fist wrapped around Leon's finger. I did not dare look at Leon because I knew that if I did, he would see everything."Get some rest, son," the Alpha King said as he moved away from the window. He glanced at his phone, and his jaw tightened. "The council is waiting for me. They want to know how a Beta walked out
AuroraDecember 15, 2025I did not care that my leg was screaming inside the cast or that my crutch had clattered to the floor somewhere behind me. All I cared about was the warmth of Leon's body under my arms and the sound of his heartbeat, which was no longer a beep on a screen but something real that I could feel against my cheek."Aurora," Leon groaned, and I realized too late that I was squeezing his injured shoulder.I pulled back immediately, my hands hovering in the air as if I was afraid to touch him again. "I am so sorry! Did I hurt you? Oh God, I hurt you, did I not?"A weak laugh escaped his lips, and even though it ended in a wince, it was the most beautiful sound I had heard in two days. "You could never hurt me," he said softly, reaching for my hand with the arm that was not bandaged. "Come here. Just be gentle with me this time."I let out a sound that was half a laugh and half a sob as I sat down carefully on the edge of the bed. His fingers laced through mine, and
AuroraThe arena was in an uproar as we joined the men who were already waiting at the stations. My eyes roamed the arena until they landed on Leon, who was standing on the left side wearing his red jersey and his Crimson Crushers apron. Our eyes met and he winked at me; I winked back and waved be
LeonDecember 11, 2025I let out a groan as the clock on the wall of the surgical wing flickered over to midnight. It’s been twelve hours since the ice turned red. Twelve hours since the sports festival turned into a dark ceremony.I paced around the length of the theater hallway, my boots clicki
AuroraDecember 12, 2025The world was gray and smelled of sulfur and wet earth. I was running, but my legs felt like they were made of cooling lead. Every step I took on the ice left a trail of purple-black rot.I looked down, and I wasn’t wearing skates; my feet were bare, shredded by obsidian s
AuroraI stood on the sidelines with Sasha a moment after the Mean Greens were announced winners. The cheerleaders had come to the center of the arena again to perform. Sasha and I were both wrapped in the team’s thick jackets because even though the dodgeball game had gotten all of us sweaty, it







