LOGIN“CAUSING HAVOC IS MY JOB.”KIVAWe had barely reached the damaged SUV before Knox straightened despite the obvious pain written across his face. "We need to return to the Northern Gates immediately." His eyes found me. "Luna, Alpha Damien—""I know." The words came out before he could finish. Every second that passed, Damien was out there somewhere. Alone. Lost to whatever darkness had swallowed him in that bedroom. The thought sat in my chest like a stone.Tamara opened the driver's side door, glanced at the wrecked interior, then at the mangled front of the vehicle. "Well. That's not going anywhere." She kicked one of the flattened tires. "What a shame."I almost smiled. She talked about a completely destroyed vehicle the way someone talked about a mildly inconvenient weather forecast.Knox reached for the communication device on his belt. Before he could press it, Tamara spoke. "You."He looked up. "You're going back."He frowned. "Excuse me?""The estate." She pointed back toward
"Some reunions are quiet. Others arrive with blood, laughter, and promises of revenge."KIVAWe found Knox halfway down the slope where he had fallen.He was unconscious, his left arm soaked in blood from the gunshot. My heart lurched when I saw him. "Knox!" I dropped to my knees beside him and pressed two fingers against his neck. His pulse was weak but it was there. "But it's there," I whispered, and the relief that came with those three words was almost physical.Tamara crouched beside us and looked him over for barely a second. "He'll live."I looked at her. "You can tell that?""I can tell a lot of things."Before I could ask what she meant, she pressed two fingers against Knox's forehead. The crimson markings beneath the skin of her wrist flickered. The air shimmered. Leaves began circling slowly around her hand and Knox inhaled sharply, his body jerking once, the bleeding visibly slowing. I stared. "What—""I stabilized him." She stood. "He still needs a healer. But he won't di
"Some people walk into a room and demand attention. Others walk into a room, and the world remembers why fear exists."KIVAFor a long moment, nobody moved.Bryan knelt on the ground clutching the arrow through his hand, blood dripping steadily onto the cracked concrete. He didn't seem to notice it. His eyes were fixed on the doorway. Mine were too.She stepped inside as though she owned the world.Long white hair spilled down her back like something belonging to a different era. Her dark leather clothes were mud-stained from the forest. A bow rested in one hand with the relaxed grip of someone who had been carrying one since they could walk. Three empty spaces in the quiver across her back explained the three arrows now buried in Bryan's body. She couldn't have been much older than me. But she looked like she had lived ten different lifetimes inside the same number of years.She was me. The same face. The same lips and nose and height. But everything else was different. Where people
"An obsession will always mistake destruction for devotion."KIVABryan smiled. It wasn't the smile that frightened me anymore. It was how calm he looked — like a man finally sitting down after finishing a long day's work. He leaned back in his chair, folded his hands together, and regarded me with the patience of someone who had nowhere else to be."You know, I've always wondered what expression you'd make when you found out."My throat felt dry. "Found out what?""About Fabian."The room felt colder. "I told you. He was the first."My fingers tightened around the chains. "What did you do to him?""I killed him." The words landed with terrifying simplicity. No hesitation. No remorse. Just a statement of fact. "He deserved it.""No. He didn't."Bryan laughed. "He kissed you. He touched you. He wanted what belonged to me. He deserved far worse."I stared at him. The frightening thing wasn't the anger. It was the absence of it. He believed every word he said completely, the way people b
"Obsession doesn't sound like love. It sounds like possession wearing love's face."KIVAPain was the first thing I felt.A sharp, relentless ache pulsed through my skull with every heartbeat, each one arriving like something striking bone from the inside. I groaned. Everything around me was blurry and dark and cold. The air smelled of damp concrete and rust, the smell of a place that had never been meant to be comfortable.I tried to move.Metal clinked. My wrists screamed.My eyes opened fully. Both hands were shackled above my head, the chains fixed high enough that I had to stand on the balls of my feet to bear the weight. The iron cuffs had already rubbed the skin raw. Every small shift sent a new wave of pain shooting up through my arms.I drew a shaky breath and let the memories come back in order. The crash. The sound of metal giving way. Knox returning fire and then the shot that had sent him over the barrier. Bryan's face coming into focus through blurred vision."Knox." My
"Sometimes the greatest act of love is lying to the world until the child you're protecting becomes strong enough to survive the truth."KIVA"We need to leave."The words had barely left the Priestess's mouth before I was already outside. Knox was a step behind me. "My Luna." He moved in front of me before I reached the gate. "I'll call for another vehicle. We can't leave without an escort. It'll only take a few minutes.""A few minutes?" I turned to face him. "My husband is missing. I've just been told my entire life has been a lie. And you're asking me to wait?""My Luna, protocol—""Forget protocol. I am giving you an order!"His jaw tightened. For a long moment he simply looked at me. Then a small smile pulled at one corner of his mouth. "There she is.""What?""The Alpha." He stepped aside. "As you command."The journey wasn't long. But my mind refused to settle. Damien. Where was he? Was he hurting someone? Was someone hurting him? Was he even thinking clearly, or had whatever
"Sometimes the people who destroy you aren't your enemies. They're the ones who call themselves family."KIVAGiovanni's hand closed around my arm so hard I felt it in my shoulder."Kiva." His voice filled the room the way it always filled rooms, with the particular force of someone who had never n
"The cruelest people are not the ones who hurt you. They are the ones who watch and decide it is not their problem."KIVAShe held out her hand, palm up, like this was already settled, like I had already agreed, like the outcome of this moment had never really been in question.And maybe, in this h
"The bravest thing a broken person can do is say yes to something good."KIVA."Yes."The word came out broken by tears, cracked right down the middle, not elegant at all, not the way I had ever imagined saying something like that if I was ever lucky enough to be asked something like this."Yes, Fa
“THE DREAMS WE CANNOT CONTROL ALREADY OWNS US”DAMIEN (HADES) POVI am in the dream again, and I always know I'm dreaming the moment it starts, but that never gives me control over it because it just means I'm aware enough to suffer through it properly.It begins in silence, not a peaceful silence







