MasukRue’s POVHis face hardened instantly as he took a deep breath. “She had him accused of embezzlement.” “They arrested him within a week,” Jasper continued.His voice trembled slightly now.“They said the evidence was overwhelming.” “My father was many things,” Jasper added hoarsely. “But he wasn’t corrupt.”He swallowed hard.“Haven…Haven had him executed….”The room fell silent.“He died before the trial was even completed,” Jasper added.My chest tightened slightly.“They said that he attempted to escape.”The lie was obvious.I sighed.Jasper looked down at his hands.“Why did they have to kill him?”His voice grew quieter.“I have nothing left.”For a long moment, I said nothing.Because his story echoed far too closely with something buried deep inside my own memories, the night I had been attacked by the wolf pack. The night Haven had stood there watching and doing nothing.My fingers curled slowly against the table.“I’ll see what I can do,” I said finally.Jasper looked u
Rue’s POVThe cold that evening was sharp enough to bite through my clothing. I noticed it the moment I stepped outside. Yet Percy stood in the middle of the yard as if the cold did not exist.He was arranging the small wooden table we had dragged outside earlier, carefully adjusting the placement of two candles and a simple vase holding several pale flowers. His movements were overly cautious, as if he feared the entire arrangement might collapse if he placed a single item incorrectly.I leaned against the doorway and watched him for a moment.His brows were slightly furrowed as he stepped back to inspect the table from a different angle.Then he frowned, walked forward and adjusted a spoon. He stepped back again.I couldn’t help it as a small laugh escaped me.Percy immediately looked up.“You’re laughing at me,” he accused, though his tone held no real irritation.“I’m just observing,” I corrected calmly.He crossed his arms.“How does it look?”I tilted my head slightly.“Like a r
Haven’s POVCamera shutters clicked relentlessly, the harsh white lights exploding in my vision as reporters surged forward like a pack of wolves that had caught the scent of blood. I would have loved this kind of attention before But now I resented them.“Miss Haven! Is it true you were present when Sora was dying?”“Why didn’t you help her?”“Did personal conflicts prevent you from saving her life?”“Do you regret your decision now?”Their voices overlapped, pushing against me from every direction. Microphones were shoved inches from my face. Cameras hovered so close I could see my own reflection in their lenses.There was no admiration in their eyes today. Only suspicion and accusation.“Move,” I snapped, trying to push through the crowd.But they pressed closer.Another reporter stepped in front of me.“Did you intentionally abandon Sora during her final moments?”The question felt like a slap.“I didn’t abandon anyone,” I said sharply.But even to my own ears, my voice sounded st
Rue’s POVThe security footage flickered faintly on the monitor. Percy stood beside me, one hand resting against the back of my chair.Neither of us spoke.On the screen, the hallway camera showed Haven slipping into the house earlier that evening, she clearly knew how to bypass locks without leaving evidence. She moved cautiously, as if aware she were committing a crime but convinced she would never be caught.I felt a strange calm settle inside me as I watched. Usually, our house was surrounded with guards. But knowing Haven’s mind, I had instructed them to act incompetent when Haven tried to sneak in. That way I would get to see what she was planning.True to my thinking, Haven had finally revealed the depth of her desperation. I switched the camera’s angles automatically to show the inside of the bedroom.The moment Haven entered the room, her entire posture changed. I watched her freeze as she saw the walls and the investigation board. Every connection I had painstakingly docume
Rue’s POVThe silence in the room stretched for a while. Veronica’s words had made everyone go speechless.“You must be very useful to her.”I didn’t look at Percy immediately. Part of me didn’t want to. Because even though I knew what Veronica was doing, knew she was trying to fracture something between us, the accusation still made me uneasy.Was I using him? Had I leaned on him too easily?The questions surfaced before I could stop them. And the worst part was that the entire room was watching, watching Percy. Waiting to see if doubt would appear in his expression.Veronica smirked slightly, sensing the moment of tension she had created.Haven’s mother folded her arms as well, clearly expecting the same outcome. Both of them were seemingly convinced they understood how loyalty worked. That Percy would eventually resent me.I finally turned my head to look at him.His gaze swept slowly across the room, lingering briefly on Veronica, then Haven’s mother, before finally returning to m
Rue’s POVThe sound of Veronica’s body hitting the polished floor brought more attention. For a moment, no one in the vicinity moved.The officials’ eyes darted between Percy and the woman sprawled across the floor. The sterile atmosphere of the CDC building had been shattered by the suddenness of the magic attack.Veronica groaned softly as she pushed herself up on one elbow, her hair falling loose around her face. The smug confidence she had entered the room with was gone, replaced by humiliation. Her eyes burned as she looked up at Percy.“You…” she began, her voice trembling with fury.But before she could finish…“Percy.”My voice cut through the room.He turned slightly toward me.There was still anger radiating from him, a silent pressure in the air that made the nearby officials visibly uncomfortable.I stepped forward.“That’s enough...” I said in an attempt to calm him down.Percy studied me for a second, his dark eyes searching my face. Then slowly, reluctantly, he lowered
Aiden’s POVI found the phone by accident. It was buried beneath layers of abandoned supplies in a storage tent within the Safe Zone. An old device, its casing scratched, its screen cracked at the corner like a spiderweb frozen mid-collapse.Rue’s phone.The moment I recognized it, my fingers went
Aiden’s POVI woke up with a groan clawing up my throat.My body rebelled the moment I tried to move, and pain flared through my ribs. My head throbbed, my vision swam but none of it mattered. The only thing that mattered was the name pounding in my skull relentlessly. Rue.I ripped the monitoring
Rue’s POVThe first thing I felt was breath on my skin. A hot, rotten, wet breath.It came in waves, accompanied by a low, vibrating growl that crawled into my bones and shook them from the inside. Even without seeing them clearly, my instincts screamed the reality of the situation.They were close
Haven’s PerspectiveI had always believed that if you wanted something badly enough, you didn’t wait for fate to hand it to you. You designed fate. Took charge of it and get what you want.That was what I was doing now.Everything had been arranged with meticulous care, so precise that even I felt







