LOGINSergio's POVThe night Leandro came back to me, we did not talk much more. He stayed in my room, and I held him until his shaking stopped, and neither of us mentioned the week of silence that had passed between us. In the morning, he was still there, and I knew that he was not going to hide anymore.But the castle did not stop turning just because we had found our way back to each other. The whispers in the corridors did not stop, the nobles did not stop plotting, and Ramiro did not stop moving pieces on a board that I was only beginning to understand.I had learned a lot in that week of silence. I had learned to trust my instincts, I had learned to see what others were trying to hide, and I had learned that Leandro was not the only one who needed to fight for his crown.I had been watching, and I had been listening, and I had been learning.And I had finally found what I was looking for.I had been watching for weeks, and I had learned to trust the patterns of the servants who moved
Sergio's POVI woke up alone the morning after Leandro had held me in the corner of my room. The space beside me was cold, and the blankets were undisturbed, and I knew before I opened my eyes that he was gone.I sat up slowly, and I looked around the room. The fire had burned low, and the shadows were long, and the only sound was the wind howling outside the window.Then I saw the note.It was on the table beside the bed, folded in half, and his handwriting was messy, and almost illegible, like he had written it in a hurry. I reached for it, and my fingers were shaking, and I unfolded it slowly.In the paper, there was one word. "Sorry."I read it once, then again. Then a third time, trying to find the hidden meaning, the secret message, and the explanation that he had not been able to give me in person.But there was nothing. Just ink on paper, and just a word that could have meant anything or nothing.I touched the bruises on my shoulders where his hands had gripped me. They did no
Sergio's POVHe kissed me hard, too hard, and I saw the monster I had been waiting for.I was sitting at my desk, staring at the list of names I had written, when I heard the footsteps in the hallway. They were heavy, uneven, and not the steady rhythm of the guards.My heart began to pound."I knew that sound, that heavy uneven gait, because I had heard it before on the nights when Leandro could not sleep, when the weight of the crown pressed down on him so heavily that he would wander the halls until dawn," I said to myself, with my hands gripping the edge of the desk. "But this was different, this was heavier, and more urgent, and I knew before he even entered that something terrible had happened."Next, the door burst open, and Leandro stood there with his golden eyes wild and his chest heaving. His shirt was torn, and there was blood on his hands, blood on his face, and blood on the front of his shirt. It was not his blood. I could see that now. But the sight of it made my stomach
Sergio’s POVThe second noble was quiet for a moment, then he looked up."And what about the human? The king will not let him go." the second noble said.The first noble laughed. "The human is the key, and Ramiro will use him to break the king. Once the king is broken, the human will be discarded, because he is nothing more than a tool."I felt my hands curl into fists at my sides when I heard the words “A tool.” That was all I was to them, and that was all I had ever been."Then we move quickly," the second noble said. "Before the king realizes what is happening."I heard their footsteps fade down the corridor, and I let out a breath I had not realized I was holding. My hands were shaking, and my heart was pounding, but I had learned something important.Ramiro was planning to use me to break L
Sergio's POVElara's words stayed with me long after I left her chambers that night. I lay in bed, staring at the ceiling, and I turned them over and over in my mind like stones in my palm. "Start by watching, start by listening, and pay attention to the people around him."I thought about Ramiro, sitting in his chambers, plotting his next move. I thought about Leandro, on his throne, blind to all the danger closing in around him. And I thought about myself, sitting in the shadows, invisible to everyone who walked past.I had spent my whole life being invisible. I had made myself small, quiet, and unnoticeable. It had been my shield, my armor, and my way of surviving.But now I realized that invisibility was not just a shield, it was also a weapon.I could not sleep that night, so I walked through the halls, with my bare feet silent on the cold stone floor. The castle was quiet at this hour, and the only sounds were the distant howl of the wind and the soft crackle of the torches bur
Sergio's POV"Know your enemy," Elara said. "Ramiro wants the throne, and he will use anyone to get it."Elara closed the door behind me, and the sound of it clicking shut echoed in the small room. She walked to the chair by the fire, and she sat down slowly, like her bones were tired, and like she had been carrying the weight of this castle for longer than anyone could remember.I stood in the middle of the room, with my arms wrapped around myself, still shivering from the cold that had seeped into my bones. I had not bothered to change out of my thin shirt, and the warmth of the fire was just beginning to reach me."Sit," Elara said.I nodded and sat down. The chair was hard beneath me, and the wood was cold through my thin trousers. I shifted, trying to find a comfortable position, but there was none. My body was still shaking from the cold, and my mind was still spinning with everything that had happened.Elara watched me, patient and steady. "You are still cold," she said."I am
Sergio's POVThe morning after Leandro stayed in my room, I woke to find him gone.The space beside me was still warm, and the indent of his body was still pressed into the mattress, and I could smell him on the pillows, like snow and smoke and something wild that I was starting to recognize. I la
The room had a fire, and that was the first thing I noticed when the guard shoved me through the doorway and closed the door behind me with a click that echoed in my ears like the sound of a cage locking shut.It was a real fire, with logs burning and flames dancing and heat pouring off it in waves
I had expected a monster, the kind of monster that lived in the stories my mother used to tell me before bed, with sharp teeth and claws and eyes that glowed in the dark, but when the doors of the throne room opened and Lycan king Leandro walked in, I realized that I had been wrong about everything
The snow burned my knees through the holes in my trousers, and I had been kneeling for what felt like hours, though time moved differently when you were waiting to die, and I had been waiting to die for as long as I could remember.The chains bit into my wrists, the metal so cold that it felt like







