LOGINChapter 55Julian's Pov My heart was beating fast against my ribs as I kept one hand shoved inside my coat, my fingers tightly gripping the weathered leather of my old notebook.My head was throbbing and every shadow on the wall looked like a threat. Gideon knew I was digging, he had stripped the observation post clean, left my lost journal open on that wooden desk, and handed me a silent, terrifying warning.I took two steps down the dim hallway toward my private quarters, needing to hide the notebook before anyone saw me."Julian."A sharp voice cut through the dark.I spun around, drawing my sidearm halfway out of its holster before my brain registered the two figures stepping out from the narrow alcove near the linen store.Ronan stood in front, his eyes burning with an intense suspicion and beside him was Kael. "Put the gun away," Ronan said."What are you two doing sneaking around in the dark?" I demanded, snapping my weapon back into its holster. My breath came out ragged. "Y
Chapter 54Julian's Pov I crouched near the rocky base of the mountain and brushed my fingers along the stone, feeling the faint, lingering hum of siphoned magic.Ever since the thermal purge destroyed my terminal in the tactical office, I had stopped relying on screens and network logs because Gdeon controlled the digital space and If I wanted to find where he was sending the stolen White Wolf energy, I had to use my own hands and eyes.I pulled out my tracking compass. The needle spun wildly for two seconds before locking onto a thin thread. "Got you," I whispered to the dark forest.I kept my body low as I moved silently through the trees.The energy thread cut across the eastern ridge, descending toward a heavily wooded gulley on the outermost edge of Silvercrest territory.I stopped behind a wide oak tree and pulled up my mental map of the pack lands. Five hundred yards ahead stood an old, stone observation post built into the side of a cliff. It had been constructed decades ag
Chapter 53Yvonne's Pov My hands were still shaking as I walked into my father's private study.He looked tired with deep lines carved around his eyes. He was holding a glass of water but he wasn't drinking it."Yvonne," my father said, setting the glass down. "The guards told me what happened in the holding cell. Is it true? Is Marguerite dead?""She took poison," I said in a low voice. I closed the door behind me and stepped into the room. "She had a capsule hidden inside her back tooth. She bit down on it before I could get her to confess to me."My father sighed and rubbed his face with both hands. "Then our only solid lead is gone. We have nothing left to go on.""Not nothing," I said, stepping closer to his desk. "Before she died, she gave me a clue."My father looked up, his eyes sharp. "What did she say?""She told me to look at the ancestral vault," I said, keeping my eyes fixed on his. "She said bloodlines in Silvercrest are used like currency and she told me to check whose
Chapter 52Yvonne's Pov As I walked past the corridors, I noticed that the underground of Silvercrest was gravely silent. I walked past the guard post alone, carrying the heavy brass key to the lowest holding cell.My father had given up on questioning Marguerite but I couldn't sleep. Every time I closed my eyes and held my babies, the shadow of Marguerite’s words at the mountain echoed in my mind.I reached the reinforced iron door at the end of the corridor. The guard on duty bowed his head quickly, sliding the deadbolt back with a loud metallic clank."Princess," the guard warned softly. "She hasn't spoken a word since the guards brought Celeste back from the yard. Do you want me to stay inside with you?""No," I said. "Wait outside and lock the door behind me."The guard hesitated, but he obeyed. The door swung open, and I stepped into the room.Marguerite sat on the edge of her wooden cot, exactly where we had left her hours ago. She didn't look up when the door clicked shut
Chapter 51Ronan's Pov I pushed open the door of the war room and stepped inside. The air in the room was cold, smelling of old paper, map ink, and polished wood.Kael stood near the center table, bent over a large map of the Silvercrest borders. He looked up when the door slammed shut, his hand dropping to the hilt of his sword."Ronan?" Kael asked, his eyes narrowing. "What are you doing? I thought you were patrolling the perimeter.""Lock the door," I said quickly in a low tone. "What is going on with you?" Kael demanded, stepping back from the table. "You look like you saw a ghost."I didn't answer him, I walked across the room, grabbed the iron bolt on the door, and slid it into place myself. Then I turned around and walked back to the war table."Someone just tried to kill Celeste," I said, looking him straight in the eye.Kael blinked, his jaw dropping slightly. "What? Inside the Silvercrest holding facility?""Yes," I said. "A masked intruder bypassed the security wards with
Chapter 50Third person’s Pov The snow outside was freezing, biting mercilessly into Celeste’s torn dress and frozen skin as she dragged her bleeding body back under the perimeter fence. Her left shoulder throbbed with pain where the silver bolt had grazed her, and the paralytic venom was turning her limbs to lead. She had barely managed to slip back through the broken drainage chute behind the holding blocks, terrified that the guards would sound the alarm and execute her on the spot.By some cruel twist of fate, the alarms blared elsewhere in the complex, distracted guards rushing toward the eastern wall where her fake escape had triggered the sensors. That confusion saved her life.Crawling on her hands and knees through the damp, subterranean stone corridors of Silvercrest’s holding facility, she finally reached her cell.The iron bar she had broken out of still hung loose. She squeezed her battered body back through the gap, collapsing onto the freezing stone floor of her cell







