MasukKNOX’S POVThe thing about self-destruction is that it requires commitment. You can’t half-arse it.You can’t run toward the fire and then flinch at the heat — you have to walk in and let it take you, and you have to do it with enough conviction that the people watching think it was intentional.A choice. A power move.The Lycan King, choosing Switzerland with the easy nonchalance of a man who has somewhere important to be, rather than the truth, which is that I strapped myself into a metal tube hurtling toward the one place on earth that could finish the job Ember started this morning.Because I am a coward, and between confronting the truth of her words and running, I choose running.I always choose running.Rayana is across the aisle and she hasn’t spoken in two hours, which is a record for a woman who once talked through an entire root canal.She’s curled in the leather seat with a blanket pulled up to her chin and her face turned toward the window, and in the cabin light she look
EMBER’S POVI storm into the main lodge and find him exactly where I expect to find him — seated in the dining area, coffee in hand, fresh shirt, hair combed, the bruises from Knox’s fists darkening along his jaw but groomed around like he’s styled them into an accessory.He looks up when I walk in and the smile he gives me is warm and sweet, and it makes my blood curdle.“Good morning. You look rested.”“Call off your men.”“Ember—”“Call them off, Rafael. Right now. I’m leaving.”He sets his coffee down with such careful precision.“The weather—”“There is no weather. It’s clear outside. The sky is blue. There is no storm and there are no wolves and we both know this lockdown has nothing to do with my safety.” I drop my bag on the floor between us. “I am not your guest. I am not your responsibility. And I am not staying one more minute. Call off your men or I will walk through them.”He studies me. The amusement in his eyes shifts to something else — something patient and appraising
EMBER’S POVThree polite rapt on the wood.“Ember.” Rafael’s voice through the bedroom door, warm and concerned, exactly calibrated. “You haven’t eaten all day. I had the kitchen prepare something light — soup, bread. I’ll leave it outside your door. You don’t have to see me. Just eat.”I don’t answer. The clink of a tray on the floor is followed by his footsteps retreating.I don’t touch the tray.The second knock comes mid-afternoon. Softer, almost tentative.“I understand you’re angry, and I accept that. You have every reason.” A pause. A sigh that sounds almost frustrated. “But starving yourself in a locked room isn’t going to bring him back, Ember. It’s not going to undo what happened. Come out. Even just for air. I’ll keep my distance.”He waits three full minutes. I count. Then he leaves.The third knock comes at sunset. The softness is gone.“Ember, this is ridiculous.” His voice has dropped the warmth entirely, replaced by something clipped and strained. “Over twelve hours. B
EMBER’S POVI wonder whether he’s still on the plane or already landed.Whether Rayana is talking to him or whether they’re sitting in the silence of every damage from today — the silence of Nathaniel’s journal, of the bloody gash Knox left across his face, of my own words and lies stacking up beside his.I wonder whether he’s drinking — he’s probably drinking. Whether he’s replaying the same loop I am or whether the “wouldn’t think of it” was a lie and he’s already regretting saying it out loud.I wonder if he is thinking of me at all.My phone is on the nightstand. I reach for it knowing what I want to find and knowing I won’t find it, yet still hoping painfully, desperately.But there is nothing from Knox. The screen is full of notifications but his name is absent in every single one of them.What is there: eleven messages from Queenie.Ember please let me explain I know you’re angry and you have every right to be Please just let me Ember I need you to know that I never wanted Plea
EMBER’S POV“I hate to say it, but I told you so,” Rafael says softly. “He is gone, and he is never coming back.”I don’t move.My knees are in the snow and my hands are numb and the tears have frozen to tracks on my cheeks, and I am so far past the point of responding to Rafael Montenegro that he might as well be speaking to the mountains.He crouches beside me.The warmth of his body engulfs mine even through the cold, and I hate that — hate that he’s warm and alive and HERE when the person who should be here is thirty thousand feet above the Atlantic heading toward a country with a woman who knew him before I existed.“You’re going to get hypothermia.” His voice is reasonable, though tentative. “Come inside. I’ll make you something warm.”I stare at the empty helicopter pad. The wind has already started filling in the tracks Knox left in the snow. In an hour, there’ll be no evidence he was ever here at all.“Ember.” His hand settles on my shoulder. “You can hate me tomorrow, I prom
EMBER’S POV“Don’t compare me to Celeste.”“Why not?” Something cruel flashes across his face — the defense mechanism I know too well, the one where hurt converts to venom because venom is easier. “You’ve been running to Rafael all trip. Confiding in him. Crying on his shoulder. Letting him touch you and hold you and fill your head with every reason to leave me. How is that different from what she did?”“It’s COMPLETELY different and you know it—”“Is it? Because from where I’m standing, it looks exactly the same. A woman who says she wants me but keeps one foot pointed toward the exit. A woman who takes what I offer and then looks around to see if someone better is available.”“I have NEVER—”“The gallery. An hour alone with him. Oh, come on. I’m not stupid. That painting — the fucking painting — where he’s captured you in oil like you’re already his.”“He’s not—”“You’re just like her.”Three words. Quiet as a knife entering flesh.“You’re just like Celeste. Pretty words about wantin
EMBER’S POVI stare down at Knox on his knees, my pulse slamming so hard I can feel it between my legs. He's grinning up at me like a wolf who's already tasted blood, gold eyes glowing, fangs just barely peeking past his lip.I fold my arms, pretending my thighs aren't already trembling."What do I
EMBER’S POVThe memory rises sharp and ugly.How easily he dragged me across the snow. How hell-bent he was on keeping those hands wrapped around my throat until he choked the last breath out of me.He didn’t hesitate. Didn’t show even a flicker of the remorse he’d performed so convincingly for Har
EMBER’S POV(PRESENT)We stay tangled together for a long time, neither of us willing to be the first to let go. His hand strokes through my hair.My fingers curl into the fabric of his shirt. The room is quiet except for our breathing and the distant hum of something mechanical — a generator, mayb
KNOX’S POVHe blinks, the picture of innocence. “I’m not sure I understand. I explained the purpose quite clearly at the beginning of the evening. Conflict resolution. Closure. An opportunity for all parties to—”“Bullshit.”The word is deadpan, and I see Logan’s head snap up, see Gale’s sobbing st







