Many decades ago…I warned him.I told him over and over again that it wasn’t worth it. That pushing too far, too fast, would only bring disaster. But he didn’t listen. He never does when it comes to power. To his wolf. To proving that he was right, that he didn’t choose wrong.And now I’m the one paying the price for it.The day of the ritual came like a storm. Heavy. Loud. Unstoppable. I woke that morning with my chest tight and a weight in my stomach I couldn’t shake. I begged him one last time to reconsider, to wait. But his eyes were already far away, locked on a future I couldn’t see.“This is the only way,” he said.He told me that without full access to the white wolf, without proving complete control, there could be no coronation. No throne. No kingdom. No peace.And so, despite every part of me screaming to run, I stayed. I stood beside him in that cold stone circle, surrounded by old blood and older magic. I let them take my hand. I watched the blade slice my skin open, wat
Many decades ago…The last few weeks have been terrible, if I’m to put it mildly. I haven’t even had the time or strength to pen down what life has been like. Every day bled into the next, a blur of exhaustion and dread, each one worse than the last. Trial after trial. Test after test. Some were physical, brutal, punishing, cruel. Others were twisted in ways that made your mind curl in on itself, like they wanted to crack us open and see what spilled out.They succeeded.It didn’t stop until we were just three. Three out of how many? I’ve lost count. Maybe that’s the point. Names fade, faces blur. All that remains are ghosts and empty rooms. The ones who didn’t make it, some were taken, some disappeared, and some just broke and never got back up. I see them in my dreams. Sometimes I wake with their screams still echoing in my head.And then he had to choose.The prince.He stood there, quiet, unreadable, his eyes scanning the three of us like we were nothing more than lines in a book
ASHERI don’t move. I just stare at her, at the way her red-rimmed eyes bore into mine like they’re trying to peel me apart. Her hands are still balled into fists in the fabric of my coat, but her grip loosens as her words hit the air again, sharper this time.“You were with her, weren’t you?”It’s not a question anymore. It’s a sentence. A conclusion. A blade dressed as a whisper.I exhale slowly, hands lifting in a silent attempt to calm the fire that’s clearly building in her chest. “Caroline, it’s not what you think.”She pulls away like my touch burns. Her eyes narrow into slits, full of so much hurt, so much bitterness, I nearly flinch.“It’s not what I think?” she echoes, her voice pitching up with something cruel curling behind it. “Really, Asher? That’s what you’re going with?”She turns her back on me and presses both hands to her temples like she’s fighting off a pounding migraine. Her chest heaves with the kind of breath people take before they scream or cry or break somet
ANONYMOUS POVEverything had been going perfectly. Every word, every step, every calculated smile, months of planning, and I’d gotten so close I could almost taste it. That is, until recently. Now, my entire plan is hanging by a thread, and unless I act fast, it’s going to unravel completely.I press my back against the cold stone wall, the shadows of the corridor wrapping around me like a second skin. My hands shake, but I force them still. There’s no room for mistakes anymore, no time for hesitation. Not when everything I’ve worked for is at risk of being thrown out the window.It hasn’t been easy hiding my identity all this time. Playing the role of a harmless contestant, smiling when I wanted to scream, laughing at the prince’s jokes like I wasn’t slowly dying inside. Every day, I wore a mask. Sweet, silent, obedient. A background character in someone else’s love story. I even cut my hair, dyed it, changed my posture. All to make sure no one ever recognized me. Not even her.Espec
ASHERPain in the ass doesn’t even begin to describe that girl.She’s reckless. Impossible. Infuriating in a way that burrows under my skin and refuses to leave. One minute she’s biting my lip hard enough to draw blood, the next she’s flipping a coin to decide her fate like it’s all just a game. And somehow, even when I have her in my hands, when I’m supposed to be the one holding power, it never feels like I do.She had the chance to kill me. More than once. The blade was at my throat. Her fingers trembled, but not enough to stop her if she’d really wanted it. And yet, I’m still here. Breathing. Bleeding, but breathing.For all her talk of slitting my throat, she’s failed to do it every damn time.Then again, I’ve failed just as much. I swore I’d drive her own dagger into her back. Promised it. Dreamed it.But here we are.The steel stays sheathed, and I tell myself it’s strategy. That I need her alive to pry the rest of their plans from her lips. I need her to lead me to the others.
ALTHEAI stand there for a few seconds after he’s gone, staring at the empty space where Asher was. My heart still beats too hard, almost like it’s trying to tear itself out of my chest. The cold air wraps around me, but it’s not enough to cool the heat that lingers under my skin. I press my fingers to my lips. They’re still swollen from his mouth, still taste like iron and something I don’t want to name.Gods. Out of all the ways I imagined that going, daggers drawn, threats hissed between clenched teeth, maybe even blood on our hands again, this was not one of them. Never did I think we’d end up pressed together like that, kissing each other like the world wasn’t burning down around us. Like we weren’t enemies standing on opposite sides of a war.For a second, I’d let myself forget. And worse, it had felt good to forget.I force my hands down, shove the thoughts deep where they can’t touch me. Then I pull my hood back up and pick my way across the roof. My legs feel strange, too loo