LOGINEPILOGUEZAHRA-ROSESix months later.The palace no longer looked like a place that had survived a war.The broken windows had been replaced.The walls had been rebuilt.The courtyard had been cleared of rubble.And where weapons had once been raised against one another, wolves now gathered every evening beneath the same moon.But some things couldn’t be rebuilt with stone. Some wounds needed truth.Some needed time. And some needed answers.I stood inside the archive.The same room that had once terrified me.The same room where I had first heard the voices.The same room where I had discovered that almost everything I believed about myself had been a lie.Ashvin stood beside me.He had become annoyingly fond of following me everywhere.I glanced at him.“You know you don’t have to come with me every time I enter this room.”“Yes, I do.”“Why?”“Because the last time you came here alone, you discovered a thousand-year conspiracy.”I smiled.“That happened once.”“Once was enough.”I
THE LAST BATTLEZAHRA-ROSEWe charged. The creature moved first.It was faster than something that large had any right to be.One second it stood across the hall.The next it was on us.I barely had time to react.A massive claw swung toward my chest.I dropped. The claw sliced through the air above my head.Ashvin attacked from the side.His weapon struck the creature’s ribs.A burst of white light exploded from the impact.The creature roared. It stumbled backward.I sprang to my feet.“Again!”Ashvin nodded.We moved together. Not separately.Not as two fighters standing beside each other. Together. He struck high.I struck low.The creature twisted away from him, straight into me.I drove my claws into its shoulder.Its skin was freezing.Not cold.Freezing.The instant my claws touched it, pain shot through my arm.I screamed.Eira snarled inside me.Let me.My eyes flashed white.I pushed deeper.The creature shrieked.Black smoke poured from beneath my claws.“What are you?” I
THE CHOICEZAHRA-ROSEFor several seconds, nobody moved.The ancient prophecy lay open between us.The last line seemed to burn into my mind.And together, they will end the bloodline that hunted them.I read it again.Then again.Something about it bothered me.Not the part about Ashvin.Not even the part about the seal.The word end.Eira stirred inside me.You feel it too.“Yes.”Ashvin looked at me.“What?”I pointed at the page.“This.”His eyes followed my finger.“The bloodline.”My mother went still.Ashvin’s expression hardened.“What about it?”I looked at her.“You said the original prophecy was changed.”She nodded slowly.“By your father.”“Why?”She didn’t answer immediately.That scared me more than anything.“Mother.”She closed the book.“Because the original prophecy wasn’t a promise.”My stomach tightened.“What was it?”“A warning.”The room seemed to grow colder.Ashvin stepped closer.“About what?”My mother looked between us.“About what happens when the White W
ZAHRA-ROSEAsael stared at us. For the first time since I had known him, there was no smugness in his eyes.Only fear, good.I wanted him to feel it. I took another step forward.“You lied to everyone.”His jaw tightened.“I did what was necessary.”“You manipulated Ashvin.”“I gave him the truth his family had hidden.”“No.”My voice echoed through the hall.“You gave him half the truth.”Ashvin stepped beside me.“And you used my family against her.”Asael laughed bitterly.“Your family didn’t need much convincing.”Ashvin’s eyes darkened.“My family believed I was meant to kill her.”“Because that’s what they were taught.”“By you.”Asael shrugged.“By generations before me.”I felt something cold settle inside my chest.“Then this ends with you.”Asael looked at me.“You think you’re powerful because those wolves bowed to you?”He laughed.“You’ve only awakened the first layer.”My eyes narrowed.“What does that mean?”He reached beneath his coat.Ashvin immediately moved.But Asa
ZAHRA-ROSEI charged.The first wolf barely had time to raise his weapon before I slammed into him. His body flew across the hall. Another came from my left. I turned.My claws caught his chest and sent him crashing into the wall.Another. Another.They kept coming.But this time, I wasn’t fighting blindly. I knew who I was. I knew what they wanted.And I knew exactly who was standing beside me.Ashvin.He moved like he had been born for this.Every time someone came toward me, he was there.Every time someone came toward him, I was there.We didn’t need to speak.We simply moved. Together.A wolf lunged toward my mother. I saw him.Ashvin saw him too.But I got there first.I caught the wolf by his throat and slammed him against the ground.My mother stared at me.“Zahra.”I looked back.“Stay behind us.”She shook her head.“No.”I blinked.She reached for something beneath her dress.A blade.My eyes widened.“You can fight?”She smiled.“I raised you, didn’t I?”Then she attacked.
ZAHRA-ROSEThe moment we stepped inside the palace, the doors slammed shut behind us. I turned and it was locked. Of course.“Interesting welcome,” Ashvin muttered.I ignored him, my eyes were already searching the enormous hall. Dark East had always been described as dangerous.Cold and unforgiving.But this place didn’t feel dangerous. It felt abandoned.There were no servants, no guards and not a single voices.Only rows of ancient portraits covering the walls.I walked closer. The first portrait showed a woman holding a white wolf pup.The second showed a man standing beside her. Then another. And another.Seven portraits. Seven couples. Seven different generations.My breathing stopped.“Ashvin.”He came beside me.His eyes moved across the portraits.“Those are the protectors.”I nodded.But something bothered me.I stepped closer to the first portrait.There was writing beneath it.I brushed the dust away.THE FIRST WHITE WOLF AND THE FIRST PROTECTOR.I moved to the second.THE
As the search for my mother and sisters continued, I tried to stay calm, pushing back the constant wave of worry threatening to drown me. But whenever I was alone, the tears would come, unrelenting, no matter how hard I tried to hold them back. How could I not worry? The people I loved most in the
ASHVINThe first time I met Zahra-Rose, the girl my brother was so obsessed with, I stayed hidden, watching her from the shadows since. I had no idea why I couldn’t walk away, but something about her demanded my attention.Her white, fair skin glowed under the room’s warm light, and even with her
It had been two days. Two days since my father was laid to rest. Two days of endless, frantic searching for my mother and sisters. And yet, no matter how hard we tried, we hadn’t found a single trace of them, it was like they had vanished into thin air.I kept telling myself this had to be some cru
The humiliation still clung to me like a stubborn shadow, impossible to shake. No matter how many drinks I downed, the memory of being left standing at the altar alone, humiliated, and exposed before countless witnesses was a weight I couldn’t lift.I tilted the glass in my hand, swallowing the las







