LOGINIt might have been laughable, had circumstances not been so… sad.“So your parents took it badly, I imagine,” I pointed out.Callum huffed and looked into his bottle. “My dad beat the shit out of me.”I pulled my head back. “He what?”Wordlessly, Callum turned, pulling his shirt up to reveal his bac
Liora’s POVI just barely made it into the parking space before the car let out one final groan, then sputtered to a stop, rocking back and forth on the wheels.“Sorry about that, girl,” I said, patting the steering wheel. “That was a lot more driving in one day than I anticipated.”Shirley almost s
“Twenty lashes,” he said. “We’ll see if you change your mind then.”I grit my teeth. “I don’t have to put up with this anymore.”“Would you rather take it, or would you prefer if that little wolfless whore of yours took it instead?”The moment he said those words, I felt all the blood drain from my
Callum’s POVMy father’s shadow darkened the room.There was a time in my life when my father’s presence seemed enormous and all-consuming, like a black hole filling any space he entered. When I was a child, I remembered thinking that he was big enough to reach the moon, or to blot out the sun.I’d
“The ones at the top of the list are our recommended ones,” my father added before I could say anything. “But ultimately, dear, it’s up to you.”I quirked a brow and opened the folder. There were over a dozen names on the list, along with small black-and-white headshots of each bachelor and which pa
Liora’s POVWhen I returned to the palace, I honestly expected to find that half of it had burned down in some freak fire, or that someone was dead.I didn’t find any of that.The palace was as peaceful as ever, quiet and cheerfully lit, the yellow porch lights illuminating the melting snow. The but
Liora’s POV“Marissa’s alive?” I gripped Zane’s arm so tightly I could feel my nails digging into his flesh even through his jacket. “Are you sure?”“Mostly sure.” He looked between me and Callum. “It was hard to tell without getting closer. But they had her ankles and wrists tied, and she looked li
Friends. That was all we were, right? All we could be.I cleared my throat and looked away, suddenly feeling bashful. I knew I shouldn’t be feeling like this. It was just a laugh and a single smile. Literally the bare minimum for a properly functioning person.But… Dammit, if it didn’t make somethin
Liora’s POVThe common room, which had briefly been alive with laughter and the sounds of cooking after weeks of silence and pain, was quiet again. Everyone stood there in the wake of Bianca’s disaster, staring at the mess that sat on the stove.“The equinox is ruined,” someone whispered, their voic
Callum shot me a glance that I couldn’t read, not that I bothered to. I was too busy staring at the spot where her body had been. The coroner had taken her, but the ground was still disturbed there. I could tell that the puddle of blood was still slightly tacky just from looking at it.“Aha.” Zane







