로그인The private dining room felt too small this morning, though nothing had changed since yesterday—same polished wood table, same silver candelabras, same view of the gardens through tall windows. I stirred my coffee without tasting it, watching the cream swirl into patterns that reminded me of blood splattered across stone floors. Lily sat across from me, her amber eyes missing nothing as she methodically worked through a plate of pastries, her health improving visibly with each passing day. Ne
We found her in a clearing less than two miles from the palace, kneeling in the soft earth with the blood moon directly overhead. For one terrible moment, I thought she was dead; her body too still, her copper hair hanging in a tangled curtain around her face. Then Ares’s senses caught the faintest rise and fall of her chest, the barest whisper of her heartbeat, and my world narrowed to a single, desperate point.Amelia.My mate, my queen, naked and alone in the middle of a forest clearing, her skin painted in bruises and cuts that made something in my chest twist with protective rage. She knelt perfectly still, not even shivering despite the cool night air, her arms limp at her sides, her head bowed as if in submission.I shifted back, running before the transformation had fully completed, crossing the clearing in desperate strides that ate up the distance between us. Behind me, I heard Dominic bark orders to the guards, establishing a perimeter, calling
I wasn’t sure how many days I’d been here. Time blurred together, marked only by the injections that set my blood on fire and Sera’s increasingly frequent visits to my cell. Days, certainly. Maybe weeks. The cave walls offered no clues, the single lantern that provided my only light never dimming or brightening to mark the passage of time. All I knew was pain, agony that started in my veins and spread through my muscles until even breathing felt like being flayed alive.They’d given up on the silver cuffs after the first day. I’d struggled so hard against the restraints that I’d nearly dislocated both shoulders, my body fighting even as my mind remained trapped behind the glass wall Sera had built. Now they just kept me heavily drugged, the injections coming more and more frequently as the days passed.Each one hurt worse than the last, the liquid burning through my veins like acid. But the physical pain was nothing compared to the h
I paced the length of my office, claws tearing into the carpet with each step. Ares paced with me, his obsidian presence so close to the surface that black fur rippled across my hands, canines pushing against my bottom lip as I fought to maintain even partial control. Three days. Three days since Amelia had run, since I’d watched her disappear into the forest with tears streaming down her face. And now, the night of the second blood moon, we still had nothing.Not a trace of Amelia. Not a single lead on Sera or Sam. Nothing but empty rooms, hollow explanations, and the growing certainty that every second we wasted in the palace was another second Amelia spent in the hands of the Voice.I slammed my fist into the wall, plaster cracking beneath the blow. Pain lanced up my arm, a momentary distraction from the fear that had been eating me alive since I’d watched Amelia’s copper hair disappear between the trees.
I woke to cold air biting my skin and a pain in my neck like I’d slept wrong for days. My eyelids felt weighted, my mouth dry and tasting of something metallic and wrong. I blinked, forcing my eyes open against the dim light that made my head throb, and the world slowly swam into focus around me.Stone walls, slick with moisture. A rough wooden desk directly in front of me. The prickling burn of wolfsbane against my wrists, which I realised with a jolt were bound to the arms of the chair I sat in. The silver cuffs gleamed in the low light of the single lantern on the desk, their surfaces etched with patterns that made my stomach turn, protection runes, the kind meant to contain a wolf’s power.I wasn’t alone.“Ah, she’s awake.” The voice came from behind the desk, feminine and tinged with a satisfaction that made my skin crawl.I looked up, and my breath caught in my throat. Across from me sat a woman I’d only see
I ran through the city with tears streaming down my face, my bare feet slapping against cobblestones still cool with morning dew. The streets were mercifully empty; too early for merchants, too late for night owls, leaving me free to run without witnesses to the Queen’s breakdown. I’d left the palace with nothing but the thin robe clutched around my body, my hair wild around my face, my mind still echoing with the memory of Sera’s voice. Of my hands around Lukas’s throat. Of the moment I’d nearly killed the man I loved.“I nearly killed him,” I gasped to the empty street, the words tearing my throat raw. “I nearly killed Lukas.”Athena stirred beneath my skin, her copper presence a warm counterpoint to the ice in my veins. She pushed forward, offering strength, offering comfort, but even she couldn’t drown out the horror of what had happened. I’d been riding Lukas, my body joined with his in the most int
I stood on the palace steps, bare feet cold against the stone, my chest heaving from the desperate run through the corridors. Dawn light crept across the grounds, painting the trees in pale gold, but there was no sign of Amelia, no flash of copper hair, no slight figure hurrying toward the forest.I’d lost her.The woman who meant everything to me had run because she’d nearly killed me, and now she was gone.Behind me, footsteps pounded against marble, then gravel. I turned to find Dominic and Nico racing toward me, both of them flushed and breathing hard. Nico carried a thick robe, which he thrust toward me with a bow that managed to convey both respect and concern.“My King,” he said, his voice pitched low. “What’s happened?”I pulled the robe on with quick movements, grateful for the warmth despite the urgency of the situation. I glanced at the guards positioned at the bottom of the steps, their eyes car
I stood before the mirror as attendants made final adjustments to my formal attire, a crown of silver leaves resting against my copper hair. The emerald gown they'd selected matched my eyes, though Athena had turned them gold-green more often than not this morning, her eagerness for justice bleed
I paused outside the private dining room, my hand on the ornate handle, taking a moment to collect myself. The day's events whirled through my mind; Lily's rescue, Julian's capture, the look on my best friend's face when she'd realised I was actually Queen. A week ago, I'd been a servant girl wit
I sat frozen as Amelia's voice rang through the throne room, pronouncing a sentence I could never have imagined coming from my gentle friend's lips. Fourteen days of public punishment. Forced witnessing of suffering. Execution. The words felt alien, disconnected from the girl who had once cried w
I clutched Amelia's hand as we walked through corridors that seemed to stretch into infinity, my legs trembling with each step. The palace swallowed us in wealth that made my head spin, or maybe that was the fever. Marble floors gleamed beneath our feet, and gilded frames held portraits of stern-







