Chapter 48

Elouera

The power of an empire meant nothing compared to the silence of a man who had decided he was willing to die for you.

I stood in the middle of my bedroom, staring at my reflection in the dark, polished wooden wardrobe. The high lace collar of my velvet shirt felt tight around my neck, hiding the faint golden mark Jace’s fangs had left on my skin.

Outside my heavy wooden doors, the palace corridors were unusually quiet. But beneath my feet, I could feel a faint, steady vibration. Soldiers were being moved into position, preparing for a war no one was openly talking about.

The trapdoor in the lower maintenance tunnel hadn’t dropped us into the forgotten vaults beneath the city. It was actually a hidden iron gate designed to force unwanted visitors into the drainage tunnels.

Jace and I had struggled through the darkness, climbing back up through filthy water and freezing mud. We had barely escaped before the palace guards realized we were missing.

We had survived the fall, but the danger waiting for us afterward was much worse.

A slow creaking sound came from behind me as the heavy door opened.

He didn’t knock. He never knocked anymore.

I turned slowly, my fingers still resting on the brass buttons of my coat.

Commander Jace Corowa stood just inside the doorway.

He was no longer wearing his usual black combat uniform with its leather straps. Instead, he wore the formal silver and dark blue uniform of the Imperial Royal Guard. A long white-and-silver cloak rested over his broad left shoulder, held in place by a golden badge bearing the Empress’s royal crest.

He looked different, but there was still something dangerous about him.

That morning, Jace had walked into the High Council chamber without a weapon. In front of forty powerful nobles, the Empress, and Crown Prince Callan, he had officially given up his position as the supreme commander of the Vanguard.

Instead, he had requested a lower position as a personal guard assigned to the Second Prince.

The court had considered his decision a disgrace.

Callan had been so suspicious and angry that he had nearly drawn his sword. His reddish eyes burned with fury.

The Empress had allowed the change for one reason. She believed placing such a dangerous and skilled commander beside her supposedly sick and dying son would make it easier to keep both of them under control.

They thought Jace had been punished.

They thought he had lost his power and been forced to bow to the royal family.

But they were wrong.

They didn’t understand that once an Alpha finds his mate, his rank, medals, and reputation no longer matter as much as staying close to the person he loves.

Jace closed the heavy oak door behind him and locked it with a loud thud. He didn’t bow or greet me like a soldier. Instead, he stood beside the door, blocking the only way out. One of his gloved hands rested on the handle of his short sword.

He stood exactly eight feet away from me. Not an inch closer or farther.

“You don’t have to wear that,” I said weakly. My voice sounded rough and tired. “You gave up three years of being the commander of the Vanguard. The soldiers in the barracks are calling you a traitor.”

Jace kept his eyes on the curtained window, watching the guards moving around the courtyard three floors below. His jaw was so tight that the muscle in his cheek kept twitching.

“Let them call me whatever they want,” he replied in his deep, rough voice.

“The Vanguard protects the borders. The Royal Guard protects this floor.”

“Jace”

“Eight feet, Elouera,” he interrupted quietly, finally turning to look at me.

His eyes were so intense that I forgot how to breathe for a moment.

“For three years, I stood twenty paces away from you in the training yard while you bled. I stood ten paces away while Callan looked at you like you were nothing more than a piece of meat. That ends today.”

My breath caught in my chest.

The golden mark on my neck suddenly burned, sending waves of heat through my skin. I could feel the strong possessiveness coming from our bond. It was slow, painful, and impossible to ignore.

Jace was no longer following my orders. He wasn’t acting as my commander or simply protecting me anymore.

He had become my shadow. A silent, unbreakable wall standing between me and the palace that seemed determined to destroy me.

I took two steps toward him, my boots making a soft sound against the thick rug.

“You’re giving up everything for the throne of a dead woman. What will happen if Holden finds out what you’ve done?”

“Holden already knows,” Jace replied.

He took one careful step toward me, but somehow kept the same eight feet between us, as if an invisible line stopped him from coming any closer.

His scent of cedar, wet earth, and lightning filled the room. It was strong enough to make me forget the bitter taste of the Catalyst-7 I’d swallowed hours earlier.

“He passed me in the lower gallery twenty minutes ago. He didn’t say anything. He just smiled.”

My stomach tightened with fear.

“What is he planning?”

“The Empress has ordered a public trial tomorrow morning in the Grand Square,” Jace said. His voice became cold and emotionless. “She plans to execute the four Vanguard captains who failed to protect the perimeter during the Gala. She wants everyone to see that the Crown is still in control.”

“And Holden?”

“Holden supplied the wine for the guard posts tonight,” Jace answered.

His hand tightened around his sword until his leather glove creaked.

“Every Beta and Alpha guarding the inner wall is drinking that wine right now. By midnight, half of the royal soldiers will have the same poison in their bodies that Holden forced you to take for six years.”

Fear hit me so hard that it felt like someone had punched me in the chest.

He wasn’t planning to make me go into heat again. He was going to make everyone go into heat.

He wanted to poison the entire imperial guard with the catalyst, turning every trained soldier in the capital into a wild, bloodthirsty beast. Then he would let them destroy the palace from the inside.

“We have to stop the wagons,” I whispered, moving toward the door. My hand reached for the silver dagger hidden on me. “If the guards drink that wine”

Jace moved before I could finish.

He didn’t draw his sword. He simply stepped in front of me, blocking the oak door with his broad chest. He didn’t touch me because he knew my body was still recovering from the fever. But he made it clear that I wasn’t getting past him.

“You aren’t leaving this room, Elouera,” he said quietly, looking down at me with fierce concern in his eyes. “It’s not my job to save the empire. My job is to make sure you’re still alive when everything is over.”

“Jace, move!” I shouted.

I pressed both hands against the cold metal covering his chest.

The moment I touched him, a powerful shock ran through our bond. The golden mark on my neck suddenly lit up, burning so badly that I could feel the heat through the high collar of my tunic.

Jace gasped and clenched his jaw, fighting the urge to pull me into his arms and hold me tightly against him.

His hands rose toward my shoulders but stopped just an inch away. They trembled as he struggled to control his Alpha instincts. Every part of him wanted to give in to our bond, mark me again, and lock me somewhere safe where no one could ever hurt me.

“Don’t,” he whispered, his voice breaking with emotion. “Don’t touch me like that when I’m trying so hard to control myself. I want to tear this door off its hinges, carry you out of this city, and keep you somewhere no one can ever reach you.”

I froze, staring up at his troubled face.

His words made my chest ache. I could see how much he was struggling. He wanted to protect me so badly that it was hurting him, yet he was still trying to give me the freedom to make my own choices.

He stood eight feet away, fighting every instinct inside him because he didn’t want to control my life.

Then I heard something from the dark corridor outside my locked door.

Click. Drag. Click.

The sound was soft but steady.

It wasn’t Holden’s mechanical cane. This sound was lighter and faster. I could also hear the faint scraping of a heavy iron chain against the marble floor.

Jace’s eyes turned completely black in an instant.

He pushed me behind him as he drew his broadsword. The blade came out with a sharp sound that filled the room.

The door didn’t break open.

Instead, it slowly swung inward without making a sound.

The Empress stood in the doorway.

Her hands were locked in thick iron cuffs. Her silver gown was torn and covered in fresh blood.

And standing right behind her was Pip.

He held a glass vial filled with swirling silver liquid against her throat.