LOGINMaxonMy legs still remembered the weight of the chain.Elyria’s magic had entered my bones when she forced me to kneel before everyone, and that was an offense I had no intention of forgetting.A goddess could recover her name.An Alpha could discover new tricks.Elaine could hide behind blue light and pretend she no longer belonged to me.None of that changed the only truth that mattered.I was still alive.And as long as I remained alive, the game was not over.Talus had fled without looking back at me. The coward had left me to deal with the chain, the soldiers, and the most dangerous part of the battle.He thought I had not noticed.Idiot.That was not the only thing I had noticed.I had also seen the darkness peeling away from the shattered runes. They were small fragments; remnants of the p
ArselThe eyes of the creature behind the forge were not human.They were two vertical cracks filled with a starless sky, two open wounds in something that should not have possessed a face. When it blinked, the valley tilted toward the portal, and the earth roared beneath our boots.Elaine tightened her hand around mine.My mate’s fear mixed with my own.Elyria waited for an answer.Talus held the Bond Thorn in both hands while dark magic crawled up his arms. Maxon remained on his knees, still bound by one of the deity’s chains, although his expression did not show submission.It showed calculation.Even when he was about to be devoured by the very thing he had intended to use.Behind us, the battlefield had stopped for one impossible second. Wolves, vampires, humans, and hunters stared at the opening. The witches could barely maintain the out
ElaineI woke beneath a blue dome.The world struck it from the outside.Projectiles, fire, bodies, and screams crashed against the Ward. Every impact reached me as pressure behind my eyes. Selene held my head in her lap, one hand resting over my mother’s medallion.“Mom,” I whispered.I tried to sit up.“No,” Selene said.“I need to see.”“You need to breathe.”“I can do both.”She helped me sit.The dome covered the field hospital, hundreds of wounded people, and a portion of the valley. Some of Maxon’s soldiers had been caught inside when the protection expanded.They watched the supernatural beings with fear, but no one attacked them.The Ward did not distinguish between species.It distinguished intention.A violen
MaxonElaine’s lies flooded the screens.In the capital, people poured into the streets before we could block the channels. Not all of them were protesting against me. Many demanded more executions, convinced the evidence was supernatural propaganda. Others carried photographs of detained relatives.The crowd split in front of the palace, and the police received conflicting orders from three different ministers.I ordered the stations closed, the internet suspended, and a curfew declared.The president, whom I had reduced to a ceremonial figure, requested permission to address Congress.I ordered him detained for temporary incapacity.“Sir,” an adviser said, “the soldiers’ families are demanding to know whether the units were used in a ritual.”“Tell them it was defensive technology.”“The footage show
ArselElaine fainted in my arms.For one second, the battlefield ceased to exist.“Mother.”She was already beside me.“Exhaustion, not death,” she said before I could ask. “The Ward absorbed the impact.”We moved behind a formation of rocks. The guardians raised a physical barrier using pieces of metal.The field hospital was visible less than a kilometer away, but two trenches, a minefield, and a line of hunters stood between us.We could not open a portal.I drew a route through the mud.“We use the artillery craters as cover. The guardians clear the physical mines. Yara detects changes in the earth without casting spells. Evan speaks to any human unit before we fire.”“Why me?” the former hunter asked.“Because you know their codes, and some of them may
ElaineThe iron door bent inward.It gave way slowly, as though two enormous hands were forcing it to remember that it had once been flexible metal. The blue light of the Ward spread across its surface and opened a space around Arsel’s claws.I saw him before I felt him.He was covered in blood, dust, and burns. His torso had been bandaged hastily, and an open wound marked his side. His eyes were completely golden, but there was no blind fury inside them.There was fear for me.Selene appeared behind him, along with a woman I recognized after several seconds as Narel. Two guardians covered the corridor. Farther away, I could hear gunfire, screams, and the sound of collapsing stone.Arsel stepped through the door.“Elaine.”His voice broke.Niko clung to my jacket.I looked at Arsel, and the world found its center ag
ElaineI opened my eyes, and the white lights blinded me again.I swallowed hard when I found myself in another hospital room, on a much larger and more comfortable bed, but with my arms hooked up to IVs. That was a complete reality check.Shit, it’s real, I thought in horror.I had lost my memorie
ElaineMy head felt like it was going to explode.It felt like someone was hammering it with force and painful violence, so I groaned in pain. I opened my eyes carefully and was completely blinded by a white light. My lips were dry, and I was so thirsty that I would have drunk toilet water if I cou
MaxonElaine left.The thought gnawed at me the moment I found out. The plane ticket danced in my mind like a damn mockery, and I was writhing with rage.Finding the plane ticket had been a clear sign that my pet wanted to run away from me, but I ignored it because I thought teaching her a lesson w
ArselThe moon was high in the sky when I reached the border.It lit up everything in its path, which meant it was going to be a good night.I patrolled as usual, running along the edge of the forest, letting Leo, my beast, take control of my body and release as much energy as he could.I could hea







