FAZER LOGINRaiden's Pov
Day 15, Dawn. 12 days left. I wake to find Lily sitting beside me, staring at the crater. The little girl shouldn't be here. She should be safe in the temporary camp with the others. But somehow she slipped past the sentries and made the two-mile trek through dangerous territory to sit next to a man watching his mate burn. "She's pretty," Lily says softly. "Like a star." "Yeah." My voice is rough from disuse. "She is." "Is she going to die?" The blunt question hits harder than it should. Children always ask the things adults are too afraid to say out loud. "I don't know." "My mama died." Lily pulls her knees to her chest. "She got sick and then she was gone. Papa said she went to the moon. Is that where Nyssa's going?" "No." I pull the child against my side. She's too thin. Too fragile. Another victim of Kael's poison, savRaiden's Pov Day 15, Dawn. 12 days left. I wake to find Lily sitting beside me, staring at the crater. The little girl shouldn't be here. She should be safe in the temporary camp with the others. But somehow she slipped past the sentries and made the two-mile trek through dangerous territory to sit next to a man watching his mate burn. "She's pretty," Lily says softly. "Like a star." "Yeah." My voice is rough from disuse. "She is." "Is she going to die?" The blunt question hits harder than it should. Children always ask the things adults are too afraid to say out loud. "I don't know." "My mama died." Lily pulls her knees to her chest. "She got sick and then she was gone. Papa said she went to the moon. Is that where Nyssa's going?" "No." I pull the child against my side. She's too thin. Too fragile. Another victim of Kael's poison, sav
Raiden’s Pov Day 14, dawn. Thirteen days left. I set up camp right at the lip of the crater. Close enough that I can see her, really see her. Far enough that the leftover silver energy doesn’t start peeling my skin off in strips. The wolves think I’ve lost it. Honestly? They’re probably not wrong. “Alpha, you need to sleep,” Senna says. Again. Third time in an hour. “You’ve been up for a full day straight, you’re bleeding in like six places, and the pack...” “The pack’s got you.” I don’t take my eyes off the glowing silver shape floating in the middle of all that ruin. “Deal with it.” “Raiden...” “Order, Beta.” She flinches. I never snap rank at her like that. Feels like kicking a puppy. She walks away without another word. I can’t move. Can’t think about anything except Nyssa burning alive in there by herself. Kael said three days. Three days of this… whatever this is. Either she comes out immortal or she comes out dead. And all I can do is watch. Again. Helpless. Ho
Nyssa’s PovDay 14, midnight. 13 days left.The second I step inside that ring of chained-up skeletons, the altar wakes up.These old symbols carved into the black stone start glowing bright, cold silver. Same exact shade as the fire licking across my palms right now.Kael’s pacing around me, slow and deliberate, knife in one hand, the other dragging along the edge of the altar like he’s caressing it.“Last chance, Silver Blade,” he says, voice almost gentle. “Give me the blood willingly. Let me tweak the curse. Raiden gets to keep breathing, you go quick and easy. Everybody wins.”“Except me, obviously.”“You’re dying anyway.” He stops walking. Looks me dead in the eye. “I can see it eating you alive. Hands shaking. Silver creeping up your neck, streaking into your hair. Few more hours and there won’t be anything human left in you.”I let the fire flare brighter. “Good.”He actually laughs. “Good?”“I was never trying to stay human.” My voice comes out steadier than I feel. “Humans d
Nyssa's POVDay 14, Evening. 13 days left. Four hours until midnight.We find a room on the second floor that hasn’t completely fallen apart.A bedroom. King-sized bed. Mattress probably rotted through, but the frame’s still holding. Windows looking out over the courtyard where our pack is camped.I can see Garrett holding Lily. Senna pacing. Wolves on edge, waiting for us to come back, or die trying.“They think we’re not coming back,” I mutter.Raiden steps up behind me, wraps his arms around my waist.“They might be right.”“Always so optimistic.”“One of my best qualities.”I lean back, let his warmth ground me. The silver on my skin burns hotter now, spreading fast. Up my neck, into my hairline. Soon it’ll be everywhere.“I need to tell you the plan,” I whisper.“I’m listening.”“The curse… it needs willing sacrifice. Blood for blood. Life for life.”“Nyssa...”“Let me finish.” I turn in his arms, face him. “Kael thinks he can use my blood to rewrite the curse. Make it serve him.
Nyssa's POVDay 14, Early Afternoon. 13 days left.The mansion feels alive, in the worst way. Like it remembers everything.Every room we pass is a story I don’t want to read. Portrait halls with faces ripped out. Bedrooms draped in sheets thick with dust. A nursery where the crib is shattered, splintered like something clawed its way free.“This is where my father grew up,” Raiden says quietly. “Where his father died. And his father before that.”“Cheerful place,” I mutter.“The curse didn’t just kill mates. It poisoned everything. This estate, it’s sick,” he says, running a hand along the wall. The wallpaper peels at his touch. “After my grandfather died, my father swore he’d never come back. Said the place is haunted by every Shadowfang who died screaming.”“Is it?”“I don’t know. But… it feels like something’s watching.”And he’s not wrong.I can feel it too. Eyes in the walls, breath in the shadows, the heavy press of old death.The silver on my face tingles. Responding to… somet
Nyssa’s PovDay 14. Noon. Thirteen days left.The estate is a corpse.No other word fits. Three stories of rotting grandeur. Windows like empty eye sockets. Vines creeping up the walls, twisting like veins, not plants. Everything smells of decay, of old death.The silver gate slams shut behind us with a clang like a coffin lid. I grab the bars, yank. Nothing.“It’s locked,” Kael calls from the mansion steps. “Blood lock. Only opens for Shadowfang blood. Mine.”Raiden shifts back to human, furious, naked fury.“Open it.”“Nope,” Kael says, sitting like he’s got all the time in the world. “See, this estate was built on the exact spot the curse was anchored. That clearing? Just a stage. The real power—it’s here. In these bones. Every Alpha for six generations died here. It’s soaked in curse magic.”“What’s your point?” I ask, jaw tight.“You can’t leave,” he says. “Not until I let you. And here’s the deal. Give me what I want—or I kill everyone you care about. Starting with you, Silver B







