FAZER LOGINThe jade crossbow stayed pointed at my chest, but Rowan didn't wait. He moved before the lead hunter could fire.
The glowing bolt hissed through the cold air. Rowan twisted, caught the shaft with his bare hand, and snapped it in half. Purple sparks died against his palm.
"Behind me," he said.
I stepped back. My legs still fel
We ran through the dark servant tunnel until the air grew warmer and the smell of blood and smoke reached us from above.Rowan kept my hand in his. The bond stayed quiet and steady between us. Every few steps I felt the distant gold spark far to the south—scared, hurting, but still there.“She is still alive,” I said.“I know, I feel her too.” Rowan answered.We climbed the last narrow stairs and stepped out into a side courtyard near the medical wing. Bram was already there. His silver armor was dented and stained. Behind him, healers and vanguard fighters moved children toward the northern gates.Bram saw us and let out a long breath.“You stopped the mountain-breaker.”“We did,” Rowan said. “Theresa’s key worked. The charge is dead.”Bram’s eyes moved to the blood on Ro
The jade crossbow stayed pointed at my chest, but Rowan didn't wait. He moved before the lead hunter could fire.The glowing bolt hissed through the cold air. Rowan twisted, caught the shaft with his bare hand, and snapped it in half. Purple sparks died against his palm."Behind me," he said.I stepped back. My legs still felt weak from the dual lock, but the bond between us burned steady and bright, the memory of our brief kiss was still an obvious sensation on my lips. This was not what I pictured my life would look like if I had taken that last dose.This was not...The three hunters were spread out; their black cloaks shrouded them in darkness. The one in the center spoke first.
Rowan did not answer with words. He raised his left hand and used a single obsidian claw to open a clean, precise line across the palm of his right hand. Dark, hot copper blood welled up immediately.He did not look at the wound. He simply pressed the bleeding palm flat against the silver hilt of the key and let his True Alpha blood soak into every ancient carving.The silver key reacted at once. The angular script along the hilt flared with a bright, violent purple light that hummed fiercely against my skin and set the mark on my wrist burning in answer.“Now, Adele,” Rowan growled low in his throat, teeth bared against the sudden sharp spike of heat that raced across our sealed link. “Turn it before the marrow has a chance to crystallize again.”
You are lying! I yelled over the heavy thumps of the mountain-breaker and dust came loose from the ceiling with each pulse.“Your father tried to trade me; you opened the gates for the mutant wolves. Why should we believe a single word from you now?”Theresa did not lower the silver key. Her hands shook, but her green eyes stayed locked on mine.“That is because the Alliance vanguard tried to put a bolt through my throat in the lower tunnels the moment my father fell into the canyon,” she said. Her voice was raw; all traces of her courtly polish were gone.“They do not want an alliance with Dravenwood. They want every independent northern bloodline erased from the maps or subservient to them. If this weapon detonates, they will achieve their
The black-ice desert of Rowan's mind was freezing. The crimson sky above swirled hard, throwing dark ash across the cracked ground. I was on my knees; fangs still locked in the crescent mark on his neck. The cold here was not ordinary cold. It bit straight through the spectral form I wore and tried to slow the gold frequency in my blood.The volcanic throne stood empty, but the First Alpha was not gone. It hung above the ice as a massive swirling cloud of silver light, its presence pressing down like a second sky."You returned to the prison, little Erias," the entity said. The voice filled every corner of the mindscape and made my thoughts shake. "The silver poison has already turned his human marrow to frost. Look at your King."I looked down.Rowan was trapped again i
The silver light from Rowan’s eyes did not simply shine.It poured across the courtyard in cold, hard rays and turned the bloody snow into a strange white moonscape. Every torch flame bent away from him. The air itself felt thinner, as if the mountain were holding its breath.Veda stopped mid-step on the stone stairs. The repeating crossbow shook in her hands for the first time since she had appeared on the ledge.The intricate first-era markings that covered her gold armor flared bright purple, then clicked and hummed in uneven bursts, as if the power rolling off the silver-eyed figure was about to burn the anti-magic circuits out from the inside.“No,” she whispered. The flat, empty voice finally cracked. A thin edge of human fear leaked through. “The anti-magic bolt was meant to split the core. The timeline should have killed him already. The silver poison was calibrated for exactly this







