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CHAPTER 19
publish date:
2026-02-17 06:29:59
Latest chapter
THE REJECTED BETA CHAPTER 62
Astance’s POV The map-room was slowly shedding its coat of frost, the ice retreating into the cracks of the floor like a defeated army. I stood by the high window, watching the moonlight bleed across the jagged peaks of my kingdom, feeling the heavy, rhythmic thrum of the mountain in my bones. But for the first time in three centuries, the mountain offered no counsel."You're still standing there like a gargoyle, Astance."I didn't turn to look at Kaelen. I didn't have the energy to snap at him, nor the pride left to pretend I wasn't hollowed out. "I called her a traitor," I whispered, the words tasting like ash. "I looked at the woman who fled a gilded cage to find sanctuary in my arms, and I told her she was a spy."Kaelen moved into my peripheral vision, leaning his back against the cold stone of the window frame. He didn't offer a platitude. He knew me too well for that. "You didn't see a spy. You saw a tether you couldn't cut with a blade, and it terrified you. You’ve spent y
THE REJECTED BETA CHAPTER 61
Kaelen’s POV The map room was no longer a place of tactical planning, it had become a localised glacial event. Frost climbed the tapestries, turning the woven depictions of our ancestors into blurred, white ghosts. In the centre of the room stood Astance, motionless by the high window, his silhouette carved from the same jagged obsidian as the fortress walls. The air around him hummed with a low, dangerous frequency, the sound of a mountain preparing to slide.I didn't announce myself. I didn't need to. I stepped over a shattered wine glass, the crunch of my boots the only intrusion into the Archon’s brooding silence. I’ve lived through three centuries of his moods, but this wasn't just a mood. This was a breach."You’ve cracked the table," I remarked, my voice conversational, as if I weren't standing five feet from a man who could likely snap me in two. I traced the jagged fissure that now split the Southern territories in half. "Artisans spent six months on this mosaic. I suspec
THE REJECTED BETA CHAPTER 60
Marie’s POV The transition from sleep to wakefulness wasn't a drift, it was a violent expulsion. I bolted upright in the oversized mahogany bed, my lungs seizing as if the very air of the Northreach had turned into thick, cloying smoke. My skin was slick with a cold sweat that didn't belong to the mountain chill, and my heart was hammering a rhythm of pure, unadulterated panic.It wasn't my panic.I pressed my palms to my eyes, trying to scrub away the lingering images. I had seen grey. Not the noble, flinty grey of Astance’s eyes or the silver-grey of the High Passes, but a sterile, suffocating ash. I had seen silvered ferns that looked like skeletal fingers and smelled the oppressive, funeral scent of Gardenias. And in the center of it all, I had felt a hollow, aching void.Noah.The connection I thought I had severed, the one the North was supposed to have frozen out of me had flared to life in the dark. It wasn't love. It was the psychic residue of years spent as his anchor, a
THE REJECTED BETA CHAPTER 59
INoah’s POV The smell of Gardenia incense was so thick in the Grand Ballroom that it felt like breathing through a wet silk veil. It was Doreen’s favorite scent, a sharp, cloying floral that lacked the wild, earthy sweetemphasisehe jasmine that used to define the Thorne estate. It was a civilized scent, she had told me, designed to mask the musk of the wolves that inhabited these halls.I stood on a raised dais, my arms extended like a sacrificial lamb, while three tailors from the Capital pinned a waistcoat of shimmering charcoal brocade to my frame."A bit tighter in the shoulders, Monsieur," the lead tailor muttered, his mouth full of silver pins. "We want to emphasize the strength of the Southern Alpha, yes? A silhouette of iron.""Whatever Doreen wants," I said, my voice sounding hollow even to my own ears.Across the room, Doreen was holding court with the High Florist. She didn't look like a bride-to-be, she looked like a general surveying a battlefield. She was dressed in a
THE REJECTED BETA CHAPTER 58
Astance’s POV The heavy door to my private solar didn't just open, it swung wide with an insolent lack of ceremony that could only belong to one person in the four corners of the Northreach. I didn't turn. I was currently occupied with a training dummy, my fists wrapped in rough linen, methodically pulverising the reinforced straw until the dust choked the air.Thud. Thud. Crack."I heard the kitchen staff is currently in a state of religious shock," Kaelen’s voice drifted over the sound of my labour. He was leaning against the weapon rack, buffing a stray spot of tarnish on his bracers with the hem of his cloak. He didn't look at me yet, but I could hear the tremor of suppressed amusement vibrating in his chest. "Something about the Archon of the North attempting to assassinate a citrus fruit? And a toaster that may never recover its dignity?"I didn't answer. I delivered a roundhouse kick that sent the top half of the dummy spinning into the shadows. My chest heaved, sweat stingi
THE REJECTED BETA CHAPTER 57
LarerfterfterfterfterfterMarie’s POV The sun over the Northreach peaks didn’t rise so much as it pierced, a jagged blade of white light cutting through the heavy velvet curtains of the private wing. I woke not to the smell of ozone or the thrill of the hunt, but to the aggressive, rhythmic thwack-thwack-thwack of someone attempting to be domestic in the next room.I sat up, pushing my hair back. My heart gave a traitorous little skip as the memory of last night surfaced, Astance at my door, his pride discarded on the stone floor like a shed skin, promising to be a man instead of a monument. It had been beautiful. It had been moving.It was currently sounding like a demolition site.I pulled on a thick robe and padded toward the small kitchenette attached to my suite. I stopped at the threshold, my jaw dropping.Astance, the High Archon of the North, a man who could freeze a lake with a glare and had survived three centuries of political assassinations, was currently engaged in a life
THE REJECTED BETA CHAPTER 36
Noah’s POVThe air in the South was stifling, thick with the scent of blooming jasmine and the rot of the marshes, but for the first time in days, I felt like I could breathe. I stood on the terrace, watching the sunset bleed across the horizon like a fresh wound, while Raine, the courier who had
Last Updated : 2026-04-03THE REJECTED BETA CHAPTER 34
Marie’s POVThe stone walls of Northreach felt like they were perspiring, the damp chill of the mountains seeping through the heavy tapestries until the very air tasted of salt and impending snow. I ran. I didn’t care about the propriety of a Luna—or a Seer, or whatever hollowed-out vessel for powe
Last Updated : 2026-04-01THE REJECTED BETA CHAPTER 14
Valerie’s POVThe silence that followed Astance’s departure was more deafening than the roar of the engines in the parking lot. I watched from the shadows of the hospital room as the black SUVs, the only wall standing between us and a shallow grave began to peel away, one by one. The silver crests
Last Updated : 2026-03-20THE REJECTED BETA CHAPTER 20
Marie’s PovThe door to Room 412 might as well have been a vault made of reinforced titanium. Even through the heavy wood and the hiss of the hospital’s ventilation, I could sense him. The air in my room had changed, it had become charged, thick with the scent of cedarwood, rain, and the lingering,
Last Updated : 2026-03-23
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