Mag-log inLADY SARAPHINA'S POVNo.No!The word slammed through my mind like a curse.I jerked upright in bed, a sharp breath tearing from my lungs.The room felt unnaturally still, the cold pressing against my skin like a warning.I hadn't truly slept.Every time I closed my eyes, the same images returned to torment me.Zoey's face.The shattered poison vial.Helena's smile.I pressed trembling fingers against my temples.I was trapped.If I refused Helena, everything would come out.The gold.The bribes.The years I had looked away while Violet suffered.The entire kingdom would finally see the truth I'd spent years burying.A sick knot tightened in my stomach.But if I obeyed Helena… I squeezed my eyes shut. Then I would become something even worse.A murderer.A child killer.The thought made bile rise in my throat.I threw back the blankets and crossed the room, stopping at the window. Golden morning light spilled across the palace grounds below. Servants rushed across the courtyards carryi
MERRIN'S POV"Impossible."The word left my mouth again and again.By now, I'd lost count.Across my chamber, Nolan stood in silence, his expression unreadable. Hours had passed since he'd delivered the news.“Silvan might not be dead.”The thought refused to leave.It burrowed deeper into my mind with every passing hour.I slammed both hands against my desk. The impact echoed through the room."He died. I watched you carry his body. I saw him take his last breath.”Nolan didn't move.For a long moment, only the crackling fireplace answered.Then Nolan finally spoke."You saw what you believed was his last breath."A cold sensation slid down my spine.For the first time, I allowed myself to consider it.What if Silvan was alive?What if he returned?What if one day those palace gates opened…and he walked inside?The image came too easily.Violet running toward him.Marrek throwing himself into his arms.The boy's face lighting up with the happiness I'd spent weeks trying—and failing—t
MERRIN'S POV"Mama..."The broken sound of Marrek's voice stopped me cold.His small chest rose and fell unevenly as tears streamed down his face. Every breath seemed to hurt him."You held Father's bracelet and cried," he whispered. "You said you missed him."Silence swallowed the room.I couldn't move. Neither could Violet.Marrek looked directly at her, and the question in his eyes was far more devastating than the tears."Why are you standing with the man who killed him?"Violet crossed the room so quickly the chair beside the bed nearly toppled."No." Her voice cracked. "No, sweetheart. That's not—""Did you stop loving Father already?"The question shattered whatever composure she had left."Never." She dropped to her knees beside the bed and took his trembling hands in hers. "Never, Marrek.""You said he loved us.""He did.""You said we'd never forget him.""We won't."His face turned toward me."Then why were you smiling at him?"Violet flinched. "I wasn't smiling."His voice
VIOLET'S POV"Will you hurt Mama too?"The small voice drifted across the garden."Or... will you make me disappear like Father?"The words hit me like a blade to the chest. For a heartbeat, the world stopped, the breeze, the fountain, my breath. Everything.Then I saw them.Marrek stood beside the fountain, clutching his stuffed wolf so tightly that his knuckles had gone white.Merrin stood a few feet away, utterly still.Neither of them had noticed me.Marrek's eyes were glassy with unshed tears. Waiting for an answer no child should ever have to ask.A violent protective instinct tore through me."MARREK!"Both of them turned.I crossed the distance in seconds and pulled my son into my arms.His little body trembled against mine."Mama!"I held him tighter. Then I looked up, straight at Merrin."What did you say to him?" My voice shook with fury. "What stories have you been filling his head with?"A shadow crossed Merrin's face—concern, pain, and something unreadable—as he reached
LADY SARAPHINA'S POV"Zoey!"The moment I spotted her crossing the corridor, panic surged through me.Before I could lose my nerve, I rushed forward and grabbed her arm. She spun around, surprise flashing across her face, but I didn't give her a chance to react. I pulled her into my arms, holding on to her as if she might disappear again.For one foolish, desperate second, I let myself believe she would hug me back. Instead, she shoved me away with all her strength. The force of it nearly sent me stumbling backward, and the hope I had clung to shattered in an instant."Don't touch me."The words hurt far more than the push.My smile wavered."Zoella—""No."Her voice sliced through me.Cold.Colder than I had ever heard it."You don't get to do that."My throat tightened."What are you talking about?"Her laugh was bitter."What am I talking about?" Pain flickered behind her eyes before turning into anger. "Violet came back with your grandchild, and you haven't even gone to see them."
MERRIN’S POV“Move back!”Violet’s scream ripped through the room just as the scissors flashed toward her throat.Everything inside me stopped. Then my body moved before my mind could.I caught her wrist hard enough to force the blades away from her skin while my other arm locked around her waist. The scissors slipped from her hand and shattered against the marble floor with a metallic crack that echoed through the chamber.Violet fought me instantly—wild, terrified, broken.“Let me go!” she screamed, thrashing against my chest. “Let me GO!”Her nails tore across my skin. My neck burned. My jaw stung where she hit me, but I barely felt any of it because all I could think about was how close she had come to dying. If I had been even a second slower, there would have been blood everywhere by now.My wolf slammed against my ribs so violently I almost lost control.“Alpha!” Sophie cried.“Get back,” I snarled.The room froze. Even the guards stepped backward.Violet kept struggling in my
VIOLET’S POVThe slave yard smells before I see it.Rotting straw.Old sweat baked into stone.Blood that never fully washes out… no matter how hard someone scrubs.The guards didn't shove me this time.They don’t need to.“Walk,” one says.I did.The iron gate creaks open, and sound crashes into m
MERRIN’S POVMorning doesn’t belong to kings.It belongs to the broken.I know that now.The yard smells like wet dirt and ash when I step through the gate… old smoke, rusted iron, something sour that never leaves this place no matter how many times the stones are scrubbed.Boots scuff. Armor shift
ZOELLA’S POVThe gold is still warm.I feel it through the cloth; heavy, dense, pressed tight against my ribs as Sophie winds the wrap around my waist.The metal weighs more than it should.As if it knows what it costs to take it.“Careful,” she whispers, fingers trembling as she knots the fabric.
QUEEN HELENA’S POVI haven’t left my room in three days.No mirrors.No maids.No light… except what slips through the heavy curtains in thin, dusty lines.The wound burns when I breathe too deeply.I sit on the edge of my bed, shirt hanging loose, fabric dark where blood soaked through and dried a







