Chapter 51

Adeline’s POV

It began with blood on my hands.

I was running—barefoot, breathless, the forest tearing at my skin. My belly was heavy, the child inside twisting with fear I could taste. The night howled around me, filled with the sound of claws and snarls. Rogues. Too many of them. Their eyes glowed like coals in the dark, closing in from every side.

“Vincent!” I screamed his name until my throat split, until my voice was just another sound swallowed by the trees.

He didn’t come.

The ground gave way beneath me, roots clutching my ankles as I stumbled and fell. Pain exploded through me—sharp, raw, endless. My hands pressed into the dirt, desperate, shaking. Somewhere far away, a wolf cried, and I thought it was him. But when I looked up, there was only smoke, and the faint scent of blood and ash.

Then the flames rose—swallowing the forest, swallowing me.

I woke with a gasp, drenched in sweat, the scream still burning at the back of my throat.

For a moment I didn’t know where I was. The