{Dominic}It should’ve rained.The sky should’ve opened up and poured every ounce of heaven’s wrath on Crownshaven, just to match the way my chest felt like it had caved in. But no. The skies were blue, mockingly clear. And a warm breeze swept across my blood-soaked shirt like the deities above were applauding my fall.I was dragged across the ground. Literally.Two of Varen’s warriors had me by the arms, hauling me across the marble like I was yesterday’s garbage. My feet scraped lifelessly behind me, boots leaving a trail of blood and broken pride all the way to the front gates of the villa.“Mind the step,” one of them muttered, and then ruthlessly shoved my already battered body down the stone stairs.I hit every single one.“Son of a—” My voice cracked as I rolled, bones screaming with every jolt. My vision sparked white at the edges. I bit back the groan climbing up my throat because I’d be damned if I gave them that satisfaction.Corvin was waiting at the bottom, looking every
{Lyra}It’s strange, really, how you can be alive, but not fully living. Breathing, but not in control of your own lungs. Watching the world through your own eyes, but behind a locked door, screaming into a darkness that no one else can hear.That’s exactly where I was… trapped inside myself in a room with no walls, no floors, no ceilings. Just an endless black space where I floated, watching as Alissa wore my body like a coat.She had promised she’d leave Crownshaven, but I guess she wasn’t going to leave until she had gotten her revenge fully out of her system, and that meant marching straight toward the Elder’s villa and ending up in a fight with the man I loved. Dominic Bloodhound.I watched it all like a movie playing in my head. How she threw spell after spell at him, how she mocked him with my own voice. I hated every single second of it, but there wasn’t anything I could do.As the fight raged on and things got even more serious, all I could do was stand there, deep inside my
{Dominic}I spat blood onto the cracked marble floor and swayed, barely catching myself against what was left of the villa’s mangled archway. My chest felt like it had caved in, and my ribs were screaming with every breath, but I stayed standing… barely. My wolf growled weakly inside me, licking his wounds. He was hurting, but alive. Which was more than I could say for my pride.Across the room, Corvin stoodwith his hands clasped behind his back and not a damn scratch on him. The smell of betrayal clung to him like his stupid, unwrinkled robe.And then there was Varen, leaning on a fractured pillar with all the lazy arrogance of a wolf who’d already won the war. “Go on,” I rasped, glaring at both of them. “How long have you been planning this little parade?”Corvin gave a low chuckle and shook his head, his silver hair gleaming in the firelight. “Long enough to know you were never meant to lead. You were always sentimental, Dominic. Soft in all the wrong places.”“Could’ve fooled me
{Dominic}I didn’t know whether it was the blood in my ears or the way the light kept strobing through the cracks in the ceiling, but the world felt like it was tilting.Smoke curled through the shattered rafters of the Elder’s Villa, and the taste of magic clung to my tongue, but somewhere beneath it, I caught the scent again.My claws were still dug into the marble on either side of her head, my body half-shifted and trembling, but not from exhaustion, oh no. From something so much deeper that my wolf couldn’t name it, but it was howling for it all the same.I stared down at Lyra and watched as her chest rose and fell beneath me. She looked like a goddess sculpted from fury and gold, magic simmering under her skin like a volcano beneath a silk sheet.She was my mate… the pieces snapped together almost immediately, it all made sense now. Every time I couldn’t bring myself to hurt her, every time I let her get under my skin. Even when she lied, even when she ran, I still wanted her.
{Dominic}I ran like the ground behind me was about to explode. Isaac’s voice kept echoing in my head, asking for his sister.And then the look on his face when I told him; the way his eyes dulled like someone had reached in and turned out the lights. I hated that I had to tell a boy who’d already lost too much that his sister was now possessed by the same witch who had placed the curse on Odessa.Before I left, I made him promise that he’d stay put in the bunker, no matter what. His sister had sacrificed herself so mine could be saved, I had to bring her back.By the time I made it back to the place where Alissa was, my lungs were seizing, and my legs felt like I’d sprinted through hell. The scent of ash and crushed greenery still clung to the air, thick enough to sting my nose. The trees were snapped at odd angles, as if someone had torn through them with reckless anger.“Mace!” I shouted, eyes scanning the area.She groaned from a crater in the ground, her leg bruised badly. Felix
{Dominic}The thing wearing Lyra’s body smiled. Her eyes gleamed with a strange darkness, and the smile sent a chill down my spine.“I must admit,” Alissa purred, stretching out her arms and flexing Lyra’s fingers like she’d just slipped into a silk robe. “I didn’t expect this. I thought I’d be bound to Odessa forever… but this?” Her eyes flicked down at her borrowed form. “This is divine.”My nails dug into my palms until I felt skin tear. I couldn’t bring myself to speak, but that was mostly because my heart was still catching up to what I’d just seen. She tilted her head at me with a grin that didn’t belong on Lyra’s lips. “And all because your precious little mate gave herself up like a gift-wrapped sacrifice. How touching.”I saw red, but I held myself back.I had just gotten her back. We hadn't even had the chance to talk about what had happened and now she was gone… for good this time.I took a step forward, my claws twitching at my sides. “Give her back.”Alissa laughed. “Oh,