Isabella – POVThe gates slammed shut behind us with a finality that didn’t ask questions.No turning back now.The Vale smelled of cedar and ash, of dirt soaked in memory. My boots crunched over familiar gravel, the kind I hadn’t heard underfoot since I was a girl sneaking out to chase fireflies with Mai and getting caught by Mama before we even reached the tree line.Now, Mai sat silent in the carriage behind me, holding Mama’s hand like it was the last piece of her she could anchor to. Mama’s breaths were shallow. Her skin was pale and pulled tight, but she was still here.Still fighting.We all were.The sentry who had opened the gate trailed behind, eyes flicking toward the blade strapped at my hip. “Your… arrival will stir trouble.”“I’m counting on it,” I said without slowing.He blinked.I didn’t.---The outpost was half a mile in—stone-walled and bramble-wrapped, tucked between hills like a secret too dangerous to whisper aloud. My father used to call it the Vale’s throat. Y
Isabella – POVThe wind that morning didn’t whisper—it howled.It screamed through the tower’s broken wall like it was mourning the dead… or warning the living.I stood at the threshold, watching smoke rise from the distant treeline. The forest was charred, but not lifeless. Birds were already returning, hesitant but determined. Life always clawed its way back.Even after ruin.Even after war.I pressed a hand to my ribs. Each breath was a bruise. Each heartbeat a reminder: I was still standing.Behind me, Mason was rolling his shoulder with a wince as he scanned the outer perimeter. Blood crusted his temple. His blade was notched. But his stance… that hadn’t changed.He was still my wall.“Anything?” I asked.He nodded toward the woods. “They’re gone. Fully. For now.”“For now,” I echoed.Mai sat huddled near the firepit, cradling our mother’s head in her lap. Mama’s eyes had fluttered open briefly at dawn, glassy and dazed, but she was alive. Still burning.Just like the rest of us.
Isabella – POV The door shut with a resounding thud, but its echo pulsed through my bones like a warning bell. Demian was gone. But not gone. His scent still lingered in the doorway—rosemary and crushed steel and ash. That eerie, unnatural calm he wore like a crown had chilled the very foundation of this house. Mai was breathing too fast beside me. Mason still had his blade drawn, the tip trembling just barely. Not from fear. From restraint. I crossed to the window and watched the Crescent Moon guards vanish into the woods. Demian’s golden cloak was the last thing I saw before he melted into shadow. My voice came out low. Flat. “He’s going to raze this place to the ground.” “He won’t touch you while I breathe,” Mason said behind me. I turned, slowly. “He won’t touch me while I fight. And he’ll find out soon enough—I breathe just fine while swinging a blade.” --- The forest was no longer a barrier. It was a path. A map. A silent witness to the brewing war. Mai started to c
Mai – POVThe fire had long since turned to embers, but I kept watching it like it might give me answers. Like it might do what Kael couldn’t—stay quiet and warm and dependable.But no, even flames betrayed. Even they burned too hot and left you with ash.I sat curled in the armchair like a storm packed tight into a dress two days too old and a braid that hadn’t been redone. My hands were cold despite the heat, but it wasn’t the kind of cold a hearth could cure.Kael was here. Still.That Flameborn bastard didn’t know when to quit.Good.I didn’t need a prince.I needed someone who would fight for me. Not just in a ballroom or a battlefield—but in the quiet. In the silence after the storm. In the days when I wasn’t gentle or easy or anything close to loveable.He had looked like he might.But I’d seen better men with prettier words rot from the inside out. Titles didn’t impress me. Loyalty did. Pain endured. Promises kept. Choices made when no one was looking.I’d give him one chance—
Kael – POV The orchard wind bit at my skin, sharper than it had any right to be in early spring. But it wasn’t the cold that kept me rooted there, long after she walked away. It was her. Mai. My mate. Fates be damned. I flexed my hands, slow and deliberate, as though trying to wring the sensation of her voice from my bones. It clung to me. Brash. Defiant. Beautiful. I’d meant to leave the market quietly. The bond had other plans. The moment I turned and saw her—saw her—standing in dust-streaked skirts, with a cloak that had clearly weathered too many seasons—I knew. My wolf knew. The bond hit me with a force I hadn’t prepared for. It struck through me like molten glass, all fire and brightness, and something deep and ancient that I’d been taught to silence. And instead of embracing it—I recoiled. Like a coward. No, worse. Like a prince. Because that’s what I was, wasn’t I? Kael of the Eastern Flameborn. Son of High Lord Merek. Heir to a dynasty older than half the te
Mai pov The village market bustled with chatter, boots scuffing against cobblestone, and the scent of ripe apples and leather mingling in the air. The sky was bruised blue with dusk, and the sun had begun its slow descent over the slanted roofs and vine-covered chimneys of the Crescent trading district. I clutched my coin pouch in one hand and smoothed my skirts with the other, grateful for the freedom to breathe. Isabella had gone to speak with Alpha Asher—about him. And though a part of me felt bare knowing the truth had finally slipped from my lips, another part felt lighter. As if some great stone had been pulled from my chest. I needed air. I needed people. I needed to feel alive again. So I came here. Where bartering echoed like song and children darted between stalls, sticky with honey and freedom. A pair of elderly she-wolves argued over the price of wheat, a boy with a missing front tooth offered carved wooden wolves for a single silver coin, and somewhere near the b