LOGINSERA'S POV"Your time in the Voss Palace has ended." The words echoed through the dark space long after The One stopped speaking. A chill crawled down my spine immediately. Thousands of shadow-like figures remained kneeling around me, their heads bowed as though they were witnessing something sacred. Not one of them moved. Not one of them spoke. Their silence somehow frightened me more than if they had all been screaming. I swallowed hard and stared at The One.For the first time since I arrived in the strange place, anger pushed through the fear. Because I was tired. Tired of cryptic statements. Tired of secrets. Tired of being treated like a piece on somebody else's game board. Most importantly, I was tired of people discussing my life as though I had no say in it. "What does that even mean?" I demanded. The sound of my voice echoed throughout the endless darkness. Unlike the first time I visited this place, blood did not immediately pour from my mouth. The realization made me frown
DORIAN'S POV"Come and get her if you can.” The voice disappeared immediately after the words were spoken. I shot to my feet so fast that the remains of the shattered table beside me scattered across the floor. My eyes darted around the room. Every corner. Every shadow. Every inch of the chamber. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. The room remained exactly the same. The broken furniture still littered the floor. The curtains still moved lightly with the wind coming through the open window.nThe fireplace still burned weakly in the corner.Yet the voice had been real. I knew it had. The sound had carried too much weight to be imagined. Too much confidence. Too much mockery. The One had spoken to me. Not through another person. Not through a vision. Directly. A low growl escaped my throat. The sound startled even me. My ears immediately flattened. The realization hit me harder than expected. That wasn't supposed to happen. Nothing about this was supposed to happen. I lowered my gaze and looked
DORIAN'S POV"Mom is where?"The words exploded from my mouth before I could stop them.Every sound inside the room disappeared.Every face vanished.Every thought narrowed into a single point.Sera.Enzo stood several feet away from me.His face looked pale.His expression looked frightened.Yet there was certainty in his eyes.Certainty.Hope.Something I desperately needed.I took a step toward him.Then another.My heart slammed violently against my ribs.The pain throughout my body remained unbearable, but suddenly I no longer cared.Nothing mattered except what he had just said.Nothing mattered except finding her."Enzo."My voice came out rough.Dangerously rough."Tell me where she is."He didn't answer.A strange look crossed his face.Confusion.Then concern.Then fear.The sight made my stomach twist.I reached toward him."Enzo."The moment my fingers almost touched his shoulder, everything shattered.His body flickered.Like smoke caught in a storm.My hand moved through
DORIAN'S POVPain exploded through my body with a force I couldn't describe. It felt as though every bone inside me was being pulled apart and stitched back together at the same time. My muscles tightened violently beneath my skin, refusing to obey me no matter how hard I fought for control. The pressure inside my head continued building until it felt like something was trying to claw its way free from within me.The guards surrounding me took cautious steps backward.Nobody spoke.Nobody moved.The entire room had become painfully silent except for my uneven breathing.I remained on one knee, my hands pressed firmly against the floor as another wave of agony crashed through me. Sweat dripped from my face and splashed against the stone beneath me.Something was changing.Something I had never experienced before.I could feel it.The sensation was impossible to ignore.My jaw tightened painfully.Then the final shift happened.A sharp ache shot through my mouth.I instinctively reached
SERA'S POVI didn't know what woke me up. One moment, I was asleep beside Dorian. The next, my eyes were open. The darkness inside the room greeted me immediately and for several seconds, I simply lay there staring at the ceiling. My heart was beating strangely. Not fast enough to suggest danger. Not slow enough to suggest calmness. It felt like anticipation. Like some part of me already knew something was about to happen.I slowly turned my head toward Dorian. The soft glow from the dying fire illuminated part of his face. His eyes remained closed. His breathing remained steady. Peaceful. Normal. I found myself staring at him longer than necessary. After everything we had been through recently, seeing him asleep felt strangely comforting. At least one thing still looked normal. At least one thing hadn't changed.My chest tightened unexpectedly. The memory of yesterday immediately returned. The contract. The One. Alpha Caden's confession. The kingdom I supposedly belonged to. The debt
DORIAN'S POV"Sera is missing." I muttered as the realization slammed into me so violently that for a moment, I genuinely forgot how to breathe. I stood outside her locked office, staring at the attendant as though repeating the words would somehow change them. It didn't. Lady Sera never came here today. The statement echoed inside my head repeatedly. Each repetition made the growing sense of dread inside my chest worse. Because if Sera hadn't come to her office, then the guard who claimed to have seen her leave our chamber this morning had either lied to me or someone had manipulated his memory.Neither possibility was acceptable.I turned sharply and left without another word. The attendant called after me, but I ignored her. The only thing that mattered now was finding Sera. My footsteps echoed violently throughout the corridor as I headed straight toward the security wing. The palace suddenly felt unfamiliar. Every hallway seemed longer. Every corner seemed darker. Every second fe
DORIAN'S POVThe moment the figure stepped through the doorway, my entire body froze. My hand slipped from Sera's without me realizing it. For several seconds, I could only stare. Because the man standing in the doorway was supposed to be dead. Not missing. Not hidden. Dead. I had seen people mourn
SERA'S POVThe moment the guard mentioned Alpha Caden, every trace of comfort I had felt after seeing Enzo and Damien disappeared. My heart immediately tightened with worry.nThe guard's expression alone was enough to tell me that whatever had happened was serious. Very serious. I exchanged a glance
SERA'S POVThe moment the door opened, every muscle in my body became tense. The strange feeling that had followed me from the hospital suddenly intensified, settling heavily inside my chest as my eyes landed on the figure sitting comfortably inside the room. The stranger occupied one of the chairs
DORIAN'S POVThe palace felt different on the journey back from the hospital. Perhaps it was because too much had happened within a single day. Perhaps it was because I had spent hours watching Sera lie unconscious while healers debated whether they could save her. Or perhaps it was because every i







