เข้าสู่ระบบSienna's POVStill on the ground when the two rings caught fire against each other, floating in the air above me. I coughed, and what came up was dark red mixed with gold, thick on my tongue.Tears ran down my face. I didn't wipe them.Why should I?The Ruby Sinister who'd fallen started stirring, groaning as they climbed back to their feet. Their leader stayed floating above them, eyes wide, circling the two rings."So you're the daughter of Alexander." She cast something toward the ones still on the ground.Pain hit them all at once. They rose up screaming, wings tearing out through their backs, the corrupted wolves among them baring teeth as they climbed to all fours.Darkness pressed in from every side.Above me, the rings drifted closer, then stopped an inch away and held.They slammed into me. Both of them, straight into my chest, and I didn't feel anything at first, just the impact, just the weight settling somewhere deep in my sternum where nothing had been before.The leader
Damien's POVWe stood there. Neither of us said anything. I didn't know how long. I didn't know where. This wasn't my home.I turned. Helen was already staring at me.She swallowed fast, turned away, started toward the town before I could ask anything."Is everything alright?""Does it matter right now?" Hard. Not looking at me. Already walking.I fell in beside her. The bond to Sienna was just gone, nothing left where it used to sit. I shoved the thought down. Later.A scream tore through the town behind us.Then laughter. High. Wrong. We turned together.A woman stood in the street with three swords through her stomach, laughing like it was the funniest thing she'd ever felt.The town came apart. People running, scattering, and some of them didn't get three steps before they froze mid-stride, turning gray, turning to ice, statues where a second ago there'd been a person running for their life."What's happening?"Helen's hand locked around mine. "They're here for you, Damien.""Who?
Damien's POV The cloaked figure went down hard, and it took me a second to place Helen standing over him, her heel already coming to rest on his skull, slow and satisfied with herself.Two old men had been standing off to the side for the better part of an hour, watching. Now they started walking toward us.Helen came back to me, brushing blood off her sleeve, unconcerned. I was still on the ground, my head snapping up faster than I could track.What had just happened? What had I just felt?My voice cracked when I tried to ask her, so I got to my feet instead, the two old men closing the distance behind her."We need to go." Helen lifted off the ground, hovering on a single wide leaf, waiting on me. "Those two are stronger than you think."I wasn't ready to leave. I'd been trying to reach Sienna through the bond for the last ten minutes, and the silence on the other end had my stomach dropping before I could even explain why. I reached up toward Helen's hand anyway, meaning to pull m
Sienna's POVPain came first, before anything else made sense. I knelt in the dirt, head down, unable to lift it. They circled me, waiting for something I couldn't name."Juvien."Nothing answered.Images flashed behind my eyes too fast to hold onto. A scream tore out of me before I understood I'd made the sound."Look." One of the wolves pointed. The others turned toward me at once."That mark. It looks like a curse.""Don't get close to her." Another voice, thin. "I don't like the way it's glowing."I looked down at my arm without meaning to. David's mark, the one that never faded, burned hot enough that the skin around it had gone red. I pressed my other hand over it, trying to push the heat down. I didn't know why it was burning, or why my body had carried me this far without asking first."She's getting weak. Get her. We don't have much time.""Are you certain? Look at that mark. What if it's a trap?""Everything out here is a trap. Get her now."Six of them stepped in at once, t
Sienna's POVAngela's weight dragged against my side, her head lolling with every step. I got one arm under hers and pushed off a tree trunk, legs shaking, and made it halfway upright before my knees buckled again.Who had tried to kill me? Where had she gone? Why had she screamed Lydia's name like it was the last word she'd ever say?I didn't have answers. I had a forest, a body I couldn't quite carry, and blood already drying stiff down my leg."Angela." Her head rolled against my shoulder, eyes half open, unfocused. "Stay with me. Please."I started walking anyway, because standing still felt worse.The trees thickened. Birds called somewhere far off, indifferent to any of it. Cold worked into my chest through the duvet, and I stopped once to catch my breath, sweat cooling fast on skin that shouldn't have been sweating in this weather at all.Lydia. The woman had screamed that name like the sound of it alone had been enough to send her flying.What did that mean? I didn't know. I w
Sienna's POVI hadn't slept in days. Every hour I lay there the same thoughts came back around.Was tonight the night? Could I trust what Angela told me, or was I about to chase something into the forest that wasn't even real?What if it went wrong out there? What if she'd lied to me?I needed to decide before I lost my nerve.I checked the clock. Past midnight. Everyone asleep.I sat up and crossed the room. Lydia lay in the corner bed, one arm over her face. Angela curled near the door, breathing even."I won't leave either of you," I said, quiet, mostly for myself. I pulled a duvet off the hook and stepped outside.Cold hit me the second the door shut. I wrapped the duvet tighter and stood there, breath fogging in the dark.Then I saw him.Damien, walking toward me out of the trees. A faint light sat around him, like something had been lit under his skin.My chest went tight before I understood what I was even looking at."Damien?" His name broke coming out of me.He kept walking,
Sienna's POV The air here didn't belong to the living, lacking the scent of damp moss or the metallic bite of the cellar to taste of ancient dust and ozone instead, like the heavy, electric stillness right before a mountain storm breaks. I choked on the thickness of it, my lungs burning as they str
Lucas's POV "What!" The sound ripped out of me before I could catch it. Something inside me shifted, my wolf collapsing into the back of my mind with claws scrabbling before going completely silent. My knees found the floor, palms slapping the tile, the cold biting through the fabric of my pants.
Sienna's POV The air hit me first. Clinical and sharp, thick with the industrial rot of bleach and old iron. I tried to drag oxygen into my lungs but my chest was pinned under an invisible weight, my body heavy, my eyelids rusted shut by dried salt. I tried to shift. A loud clang echoed through t
Sienna's POV Today was my Luna coronation. The Silver Fang Pack had waited months for it. I had waited longer. I stood on the balcony, looking at the thousands of wolves gathered in the courtyard below. Their torches burned in lines and clusters against the dark edge of the forest, the light catc







