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BROOK'S POVI spent almost all of my time beside Levi's bed.I ate every meal there, came back after leaving to bathe or change clothes, and I read to him often, along with Rowan. At first I wasn't even sure why. Maybe because the silence in the room felt unbearable. Maybe because talking to him made it easier to pretend he could hear me.Today wasn't any different. Rowan climbed onto the chair beside me with one of his books balanced awkwardly in his lap."Mummy, can I read to daddy too?"A small smile pulled at my lips and I shifted over to make room for him."Sure. I think Daddy would like that very much.”Rowan settled in immediately and began reading. The words weren't always right. Sometimes he skipped lines and difficult words, but he read with such determination that I didn't have the heart to correct him.Every so often he would glance at Levi to make sure he was listening.When he finished a page, he frowned."Why is Daddy sleeping for so long?"The question landed harder th
74By the time I reached the council meeting room, exhaustion had settled deep into my bones.The entire palace felt tense. News of Levi's condition had spread quickly, and everyone seemed to be waiting for the same thing. A miracle or a disaster, and neither had arrived yet.I pushed open the doors to the meeting room expecting to find the elders gathered around the table.Instead, the room was nearly empty.Lord Drahzar sat at the far end of the table, his posture as composed as ever. Sera occupied a seat nearby, silent and unreadable. The rest of the chairs remained empty.I slowed as I stepped inside, my eyes sweeping across the room before settling on Drahzar."Where are the others?"Drahzar folded his hands together on the table."They aren't coming. We wanted to speak with you privately."The answer immediately put me on guard, and I remained standing rather than taking a seat."About what?"Drahzar held my gaze for a moment before replying."About the future of the throne, whi
BROOK'S POVIt had been the longest day of my life.Everything had fallen apart so quickly that I could barely keep up with it. Flint's betrayal that sat heavily in my chest, raw and painful every time I thought about it.And now, Levi was lying unconscious in the healing room while multiple healers worked tirelessly around him, refusing to leave his side for more than a few minutes at a time.Outside the palace walls, the situation wasn't any better.News of the attack had spread faster than wildfire, and every screen I looked at seemed to have my face on it.Every headline had a different version of the same story.Some claimed I had brought chaos into the kingdom from the moment I arrived. Others insisted the throne had known nothing but tragedy since Levi chose me. A few went even further, suggesting that every disaster that had struck the royal family could be traced back to me.I should have stopped listening. And yet I kept doing it anyway.Earlier, Theo had tried to convince m
BROOK'S POVWhile the two men continued their heated exchange, I took the chance to fight for my life. I twisted my wrists against the ropes that kept digging into my skin and leaving angry, throbbing welts that burned with every movement.My shoulders began to ache, the muscles screaming from the constant strain, but the chair remained stubbornly rooted to the floor. No matter how hard I pulled or how desperately I thrashed, the restraints held me firmly in place.The weight of the situation finally settled deep into my bones. Flint certainly was not going to let me walk out of this room alive. There was no negotiation that could save me, and no plea large enough to satisfy his hunger for ruin.It was only a matter of time before he ended this, and as the realization took hold, my heart sank into a dark, suffocating pit of dread. I was trapped, and I could clearly see that I was going to die.The frantic hammering of my heart grew so loud that it drowned out their voices, turning the
As I burst through that door, every muscle in my body was a coiled spring, vibrating with a singular, blinding necessity.To kill Flint.But he was one step ahead.Brooks was tied to a chair, her eyes wide and pleading, with what looked like a bomb strapped securely to her chest and the red light on it blinked with a slow, agonizing consistency.The sight hit me with the physical force of a punch to the gut, stealing the air right out of my lungs, and turning my blood to ice.Flint had gotten up, and now he stood in the center of the room, his thumb casually hovering over the button of the detonator.I froze, forcing my hands to unclench, though every instinct in me screamed at me to close the distance and tear him limb from limb.But one wrong move and Brooks would be the one paying the price.I kept my gaze locked on Flint, pouring every ounce of my suppressed fury into the glare, refusing to let him see the fear that was surging in me.“Let her go.”Flint didn’t flinch. Instead, he
Every memory I had of Flint seemed to split apart in my head, leaving me unable to reconcile the man sitting in front of me with the one I thought I had known all these years.The Flint I knew was the man who had pulled me out of the wreckage of my old life, who had stood beside Rowan through countless illnesses, who had become so deeply woven into our lives that I had stopped questioning his place in them.The man standing across from me now felt like a stranger wearing Flint's face, and the realization left me feeling hollow.“Why?” I asked, my voice barely steady enough to form the word. “Why would you do that to us?”I found myself searching his face for something that would make sense of all this. I didn't know if I was looking for remorse, guilt, or some explanation that would make this nightmare less unbearable, but I found none of it.Flint simply looked at me with the same detached calm he had carried throughout this entire conversation.“Why would I do that to you?” he repea







