Vladimyr's POVThe world cracked when I left.That’s what it always feels like when I teleport without an anchor—like tearing a seam between here and nowhere, like ripping a fabric that was never meant to be torn.The courtyard, Katie’s voice, the blood and ruin of the castle—it all imploded into silence.And then… nothing.Cold air. A mountainside, black stone sharp beneath my boots. The night sky wider than any cathedral roof, heavy with stars that glared down like indifferent gods.For a long while, I didn’t move.I just stood there, chest heaving, fists trembling at my sides.Her words echoed.“Not when you can’t even remember a thing or two...”It shouldn’t have mattered. It shouldn’t have cut so deep.But it did.Because it was true.I didn’t remember. Not everything. Not enough.Fragments came to me like shards of glass—jagged, incomplete. A voice screaming my name. A hand pulling me from fire. Shadows rising and crumbling. And then nothing.Blank pages where there should have
Katie's POV I knew that look in his bloody eyes.The one that burned hotter than flame and colder than the grave.It wasn’t Vladimyr staring past me anymore—it was the part of him that refused to bow, refused to kneel, refused to wait. The part that had clawed itself out of death once before.He straightened from the fountain edge and brushed his palms against his bloodstained tunic. That simple movement was enough to tell me: he had already decided.“You are going after him...” My voice cracked. It was not even a question.My beloved mate didn’t look at me, not fully. He stared at the horizon, where night crawled heavy over the castle walls, and said, “I can’t sit here while he mocks us. While he hurts my people.”“Our people,” I snapped before I could stop myself.That got his attention. His head turned slowly, crimson irises glowing faintly in the gloom. The weight of his gaze pressed into me like an iron brand.“Our people.. yes, but most especially you are part of being under my
Katie’s POVI didn’t remember teleporting.One second, Vladimyr gripped my arm, and the next, the forest gave way to smoke—real smoke—and the choking scent of blood.Hot. Thick. Metallic.The moment we reappeared in the front hall of the castle, I gagged.Victoria let out a short, strangled scream. Rori caught her arm and stumbled forward, nearly slipping on the slick red smear across the marble. Fenrir shifted with a snarl, nose to the ground, ears pressed flat to his skull. He recognized the scent before I even formed the thought:Sebastian.Miranda.No—all of them.The castle reeked with it.Walls scratched with claw marks. Curtains scorched and dripping. Blood ran in rivulets between the tiles, streaked by hasty bootprints—guards, maybe. Or worse.“No,” I whispered, heart slamming against my ribs. “We were only gone—how long were we gone?”“Five days? Maybe more,” Rori murmured, his voice hoarse. “Time bent near the west. We didn’t notice.”“Miranda?!” I cried, stepping forward. “
Katie's POV By the time we made it back to the tent, the sky had shifted from pitch black to a bruised, early gray. The fog still clung to the forest like a second skin, thick and quiet, almost too still—as if even the birds were holding their breath.No one said a word once we crossed the threshold of canvas and reentered our temporary shelter. Rori resealed the back seam in practiced silence, while Victoria began brushing loose pine needles from Fenrir’s fur. Vladimyr went straight to the basin, splashing his face again as if the cold water might scrub away the child’s voice, her eyes, that warning.I sat down, knees to my chest, and stared at my hands.Not a shadow.Not a dream.Not a girl.Who was she?"She said ‘they’re waking up,’" I muttered aloud. “Plural.”Vladimyr didn’t turn around. “And the first ones will rise. She was repeating instructions. A script.”“She wasn’t real,” Tori whispered again, kneeling beside her brother.“No,” Vladimyr agreed. “She was worse than that.
Katie’s POVI stood frozen at the tent’s entrance, my fingers still gripping the flap. The camp outside was quiet. Too quiet. The kind of quiet that didn’t belong to a place like this.No footsteps. No wind. No chatter.And there was no one.But I know what I heard—or rather, what Vladimyr heard.Someone had whispered my name, not aloud, but in that strange, slithering way some spells and curses carried sound. Thin and invasive, like smoke curling into your ear.Behind me, Vladimyr stepped up beside me silently, his gaze sweeping the empty space outside and then he sent me a telepathy. ‘They’re trying to see if we’ll react. Trying to confirm who you are.’I nodded tightly and lowered the flap. ‘We gave them nothing.’Yet, the knot in my stomach twisted tighter. If they were already testing us this early, then our disguises were only barely holding. And it meant they were suspicious of me first.The wolf.The “exiled scout.”Fenrir growled low, curling tighter into his bedroll at the c
Katie's POVWe arrived at dusk.The outer camp of the Duke didn’t look like a battlefield, not at first. From a distance, it resembled a marketplace—or at least, a crude version of one. Canvas tents flapped in the wind. Fires crackled low in sunken pits. There were wagons, traders, mercenaries, and creatures I couldn’t even name moving about like ants in a nest. All ordinary enough, until you looked closer.Until you saw how still the guards stood, like puppets waiting for strings to pull.Until you noticed the scent in the air—not just smoke, but blood, old and soaked deep into the soil like the land itself remembered every scream.My mate dismounted first. His face was still, unreadable. Fenrir padded ahead, tail low, hackles twitching. Disguised as an ordinary pet. The twins stood on either side of me, unusually quiet for once.We were in enemy territory. That means everyone is serious now and we cannot afford to make one single mistake. Not even one.“Stick to the plan,” Vladimyr