Chapter 54

Crown Prince Callan

The palace was far too quiet at midnight, and it made me sick.

It was the kind of silence that hid lies, as if someone had covered a house full of dead bodies with a soft blanket to hide the smell. My heavy leather boots, covered in dried mud, echoed loudly as I walked across the cold marble floor of the East Wing. I didn’t care that the night guards moved nervously out of my way. I didn’t care that the flames on the walls shook as the wind blew my dark velvet cape against my legs.

My mind was a complete mess, filled with anger and dark thoughts.

For two days, my Alpha instincts had been driving me mad. It felt like a hungry, wild animal was clawing at my chest, desperate to get out. I couldn’t forget the scent I’d caught at the Equinox Gala. It was a strange, powerful mix of honey, crushed wildflowers, and the smell of a storm in the air. That scent had settled so deeply into my body that breathing without it felt like swallowing dry sand.

My heart pounded so hard I could hear it in my ears. My teeth ached, and I had been clenching my jaw so tightly that it felt like my teeth might break.

I stopped in front of the heavy mahogany door to Elian’s bedroom.

The two Royal Guards standing outside barely had time to greet me.

“Your Highness, the Second Prince is resting—”

I didn’t even reach for my weapon. I stepped toward the first guard, grabbed him by the throat with my iron-gloved hand, and slammed his head against the stone wall. The sickening sound echoed through the hallway, and he dropped to the floor.

The second guard stumbled backward, raising his hands. His face had gone as pale as ash.

“Key,” I growled.

My voice was rough and low, sounding less human with every passing hour.

The guard’s hands shook so badly that he almost dropped the heavy brass key ring. He quickly unlocked the door and hurried away into the shadows.

I didn’t knock. I shoved the door open so hard that it crashed against the stone wall inside.

The room was almost completely dark. Only the pale moonlight coming through the tall, gothic window gave me a clear view of the room. The air was cold, carrying the faint smells of lavender medicine, bitter tea, and damp wool.

And there he was, standing beside the large iron bed.

My little brother, Elian.

He looked weak and sickly, wearing a thin white nightshirt that hung loosely over his narrow shoulders. The moonlight made his already pale face look almost ghostly. His chest rose and fell quickly as he stared at me in fear.

“Callan…” he whispered, his voice weak and trembling.

Hearing his voice should have calmed me down, but it didn’t. Instead, it made the dark, dangerous feeling inside me grow stronger.

I stepped into the room and kicked the door shut behind me. The lock clicked, trapping us together in the darkness.

“Where is she?” I growled, my voice even deeper now.

There was a dangerous, possessive edge to my words, like a predator that had finally found its way into the place where its prey was hiding.

I moved toward him, my heavy boots hitting the floor with every step. Elian stumbled backward until his knees hit the edge of the bed. He quickly grabbed the high collar of his nightshirt with both hands.

“Who are you talking about?” he asked weakly, his eyes wide with fear as he moved farther onto the bed. “Callan, you’re not thinking clearly. You need to see a doctor”

“Don’t lie to me!” I shouted angrily.

In that instant, I completely lost control of my anger.

I rushed toward him, grabbed his shoulders, and threw him back onto the soft bed. Before he could get away, I pushed my knee between his legs, holding his hips down with the heavy weight of my armor. Then I grabbed both his arms wrists with my left hand and pinned them above his head against the thick wool pillows.

“Callan! Stop!” he screamed, struggling wildly beneath me with so much strength that I was caught off guard.

He didn’t fight like a sick prince who was too weak to get out of bed. He twisted his body and tried to drive his knee into my stomach. His teeth were bared, and his eyes flashed with such fierce anger that it made my blood boil.

I bent down and pressed my chest hard against his, holding him firmly against the bed so he couldn’t move.

“Stay still!” I growled close to his face.

My nostrils flared as I lowered my head into the side of his neck, just below his ear, and took deep, desperate breaths, trying to catch a familiar scent.

I was looking for her.

The girl who had turned my life upside down. The girl whose Omega scent had filled the entire Gala and affected everyone there. The same girl Commander Jace claimed he had killed in the underground chambers.

My Alpha instincts refused to believe she was gone. I was convinced she was hiding somewhere in these rooms and that Elian was keeping her there. If that was true, her scent had to be on his clothes, his bedsheets, or even his skin.

I took a deep, shaky breath.

Lavender. Old tea. Cold sweat.

Then I caught something beneath the bitter smell of the medicine.

My mind went blank.

A sudden shock shot through my head, almost like an electric current. Hidden beneath his skin was a faint, sweet scent of wild honey. It was so weak that I could barely notice it, like a whisper carried by the cold wind.

I stopped breathing for a moment.

No. This couldn’t be happening.

The scent was faint, almost completely covered by the strong, bitter smell of the medicine rubbed onto his skin. But it was still there. It was the exact same scent that had driven me wild in the Grand Conservatory.

A wave of terrible confusion swept through my mind.

Why did my brother smell like her? Why did my Alpha instincts twist painfully inside me whenever I touched him? And why did I have such a strong urge to sink my fangs into his throat?

“What did you do with her?” I demanded, my voice shaking with anger, pain, and desperation.

I pressed down harder on him and grabbed his jaw with my free hand, forcing him to lift his face toward the moonlight.

“Why do you smell like her, Elian? Who is she to you?”

“Let go of me, Callan!” he cried, his voice breaking as tears filled his eyes.

He struggled wildly beneath me, and in his panic, the collar of his linen nightshirt ripped down the middle with a loud tearing sound.

The moonlight fell across his bare collarbones.

My eyes immediately fixed on his throat, and suddenly, I couldn’t breathe.

His neck didn’t look like a man’s. There were no thick muscles or hard lines. Instead, there was the soft, delicate shape of a woman’s throat.

Two dark, uneven puncture marks sat on her neck. From them, thin golden lines spread across her skin, glowing with a strange, ancient light that pulsed softly in the darkness.

My pupils widened until my eyes turned completely black.

The truth hit me so hard that my mind went blank.

The sickly prince. The weak younger brother. The person I had looked down on for ten years.

He wasn’t a boy at all.

“It was you,” I whispered, unable to believe what I was seeing. Shock and wonder filled my voice. My hand shook against her jaw, and my thumb brushed gently over the smooth skin of her throat. “All this time… it was you.”

Before I could fully understand what I had discovered, the air in the bedchamber suddenly shifted violently.

A heavy, suffocating scent of damp earth, crushed cedar, and raw lightning suddenly filled the room. It was so strong that my teeth began to ache.

A shadow stepped out of the pitch-black corner behind the wardrobe.

Before I could even reach for my sword, a huge, blood-covered hand grabbed me by the throat from behind. The person yanked me off the bed and slammed me hard onto the stone floor, making my armor crash against the ground.

I quickly scrambled to my feet and pulled out my sword. The blade slid free with a sharp, deadly sound.

Standing between the bed and me was Commander Jace Corowa. He held a short sword in his hand, and his eyes had turned completely black, filled with a terrifying desire to kill.

Beside him stood Archduke Holden. He held a silver stiletto in one hand and a glass vial of Catalyst-7 in the other. The liquid inside the vial glowed faintly.

“How touching,” Holden said smoothly, a dark and frightening smile spreading across his face. “The royal family is finally gathered in one place.”

His eyes moved between us.

“Now, which one of you would like to die first?”