MasukSAGEEverything is working.The lie left my mind more than it left my mouth. Even through the mate bond, it felt thin—a statement that could have crumbled if Adam had pushed too hard, if he had sensed the truth beneath it.Because nothing was working.Not my body. Not my strength. Not time. Not fate.What was working was my death.It was unfolding slowly, methodically, like a ritual the universe was determined to complete.I scoffed at myself, or at least I tried to. The sound never made it past my throat; it dissolved before it could become breath. My chest barely rose. My lungs felt like they were breathing through water.I could not feel myself.Not my arms. Not my legs. Not even the weight of my own body against the cold floor. Everything existed at a distance, muted and fading, as though I was already halfway into the realm of spirits.My eyelids drooped despite the fact that I had woken only minutes before. Staying conscious felt like trying to hold onto smoke. The moment I loos
ADAMIt had been four days since I last saw my mate.Four days since Sage’s presence had filled my senses—her scent, her warmth, her sharp, stubborn energy that always felt like a storm wrapped in silk.Four days of restraint that felt like torture.Every hour stretched thin. Every night carved another layer of impatience into my bones. I missed her.Not in the casual, distant way people missed acquaintances—but in the raw, animal way a bonded soul ached when the other was out of reach.I wanted her near. Wanted to see her breathing. Wanted to touch her and confirm she was alive, whole, still here.And the thought that she was trapped—hurt—bleeding somewhere inside the queen’s walls made my chest burn.Every instinct in me screamed to storm the palace. To tear through gates. To break through guards. To carve my way to her if I had to.I could already picture it. I would burn the castle to the ground if that was what it took.But Darius had stopped me. Again. And again.For every time,
SAGESilence settled over the room again.I lay there, pinned by pain, pinned by truth, pinned by the consequences of every misstep I had made.My mind worked even as my body weakened. The queen had lied to her children. Hendel had lied to his. The throne had been built on deceit, blood, jealousy, and hunger.Even their own family was a lie.A part of me wanted to laugh at the absurdity of it. Another part quietly tucked the information away. If I lived, I could use it.If I died… then at least I would die knowing the full shape of the rot.No point crying over spilled milk. Tears wouldn’t save me. Information might.My gaze shifted to Hendel. He stood close to the queen, calm, composed, hands loosely clasped behind his back as though he were attending a court meeting rather than overseeing my slow death.I forced air into my lungs. “Why,” I rasped, “are you okay with all this?”He didn’t answer. The queen did.She reached up and tapped his cheek lightly, affectionate, mocking, propri
Silence settled over the chamber like a suffocating fog. It pressed against my ears. Against my chest. Against the fragile edges of my resolve.Freda did not answer my question. She didn’t even look at me again.She simply turned, heels clicking softly against the stone, and walked away as though none of this concerned her—my pain, my impending death, the corruption festering at the heart of this palace.The door responded to her presence instantly, parting without touch, without sound, opening as though it recognized her authority.I watched it with a dull, aching focus. The mechanism fascinated me in a distant, desperate way. It wasn’t just a door. It was a system. A spell. A gate woven into the very bones of this place.It meant escape might be possible.If I survived long enough to attempt it. If the stake didn’t finish dismantling me first.The queen remained where she was, studying me with open, predatory amusement.“Why do you care so much about Freda,” she asked lazily, “when
SAGEVoices dragged me out of the dark. They scraped across my consciousness like nails on stone, pulling me upward from a depth that had almost become merciful.Pain greeted me before sight did.It lived everywhere—sharp, throbbing, gnawing—but it burned brightest in my chest, radiating outward from the place where the stake remained lodged beneath my heart. Every breath felt like it dragged glass through my lungs. Every heartbeat seemed to grind the wood deeper into flesh, as though my body itself were conspiring against me.I had felt worse before. But not like this. This pain was layered—physical agony braided with black magic, corrosive and invasive, eating at my magic, destabilizing my core. I could feel the corruption crawling through my veins like a slow-moving poison, unraveling me thread by thread.I had hidden most of it from Darius. From Adam.Opening the mind path earlier had been a calculated risk, and I had refused to let my suffering become the trigger that sent them
ADAMSilence filled Peter’s living room hut like smoke that had nowhere to escape.It wasn’t the comfortable quiet of safety or rest. It was heavy. Loaded. Expectant. As though the walls themselves were holding their breath.Sage’s mind link remained open. Her presence lingered in my head like the fading echo of a scream—trembling with stubborn defiance. Even after the last of her message had faded, the emotional residue remained: pain folded into courage, heartbreak braided with resolve, fear sharpened into purpose. She had let us hear everything. Every word the queen spat. Every confession soaked in cruelty. Every revelation that peeled back layers of deception and rot.My jaw clenched until my teeth ached. I could still hear it—the queen’s voice slipping through Sage’s mind, dripping with pride as she admitted to murder, manipulation, decay. The deaths at the borders. The vampires unleashed like weapons. The magical beast sent to slaughter during the hunt. Every drop of blood spil







