ANMELDEN“Stop! Don’t do this!” They can’t hear me, can’t feel my desperate attempts to stop this. I’m trapped inside the worst moment of my life with no way to change it. The world fractures around me, and for the briefest second, my mother’s fingertips brush mine. “Live, Poppy.” Then darkness explodes
** Poppy’s POV ** I blink against the darkness surrounding me. The cabin is gone. The smell of dinner. The warmth of the fire. The laughter in the kitchen. All of it has vanished. Instead, cold asphalt presses against my bare feet. I know this place. Not because I’ve seen it before, but because I’
“It seems our timing,” Leo says, looking between us, “is perfect.”“No, it’s terrible,” Alaric corrects flatly.“That depends on who you ask,” Jake shrugs.Alaric ignores him, turning back to the stove to flip the chicken with far too much focus.“So, what were you saying about defence lessons?” Leo
** Poppy’s POV **I thought Alaric would have been pissed at learning his brother had my number all along and had been messaging me, but he’s amused, and maybe even a little proud. He shakes his head again and laughs; it’s so contagious that I can’t even be mad.“Come on,” he says, standing from the
** Poppy’s POV **Bastian has been gone too long for a simple perimeter check of the cabin. I don’t know why that bothers me, but it does. I catch myself rubbing my thumb over the rim of my coffee mug again. It’s gone lukewarm, but I haven’t taken a sip in several minutes. Instead, I keep glancing
“I only detected five scents in the pack centre,” Bastian says. “The sixth entered here.”He points to a patch of flattened fern that none of us had even looked at.“They were already travelling together.”“That’s what we thought,” Leo says.Bastian doesn’t answer. He simply keeps moving, following
** Paige’s POV **Nina draws a slow breath, as if bracing herself. “There’s something else,” she says softly.The forest seems to freeze around us, and I feel everyone around me tense, waiting for the blow.Jake stands just behind Nina with a steadying hand on her shoulder. “What else?” he whispers.
Callen huffs a laugh behind me. “Interfered is one word for it.”Parker snorts weakly. “Ryder almost blew the clinic door off its hinges.”I don’t look back. I can’t take my eyes off her.“You scared the shit out of me,” I whisper, my forehead pressed to hers. “Don’t ever do that again. Ever.”Her f
** Paige’s POV **The air around us is so still it feels held in place, like the world itself has paused.The blond male kneels on the grass in front of me, human now, still glowing faintly with that soft gold-silver shimmer that clings to all the Twiceborn. His hair falls over his forehead as he bo
** Paige’s POV **The moment the words leave my mouth, ‘I think I know what I am,’ the world stops.The air in the clinic feels like it freezes around me. Sound disappears, and even the lamplight seems to dim, as if the room itself is holding its breath.Callen’s eyes widen, pupils blown so large th







