Semua Bab Bad Boy Alpha: Bab 161 - Bab 170

Into the DarknessNicholas’s POVThe air got still thicker as we moved down deeper into the cave. It lay against his skin like a second skin, lights wet and electric and humming with something old and wrong-seeming. My wolf snarled under my flesh, pacing with restless fury. We were close. I could feel her.I could feel Azaria.“Ash,” I said over my shoulder, “tell the others to close off the western tunnel. If this goes sideways, we can’t risk the corruption spreading.”Ashley gave a sharp nod and disappeared down the branching tunnel with three wolves in tow. That left me, Killian, and a dozen loyal fighters—those who hadn’t flinched when I said we’d be walking into the jaws of death to retrieve someone who might already be gone.But I refused to believe that.There came a low growl deep out in the cavern system, and a shriek as unnatural as to raise the hair on the back of my arms.“They know we’re here,” Killian muttered.“Let them.”We moved fast. Shadows darted across the walls a

The Moon Will BleedNicholas’s POVThe moon turned red.Not the soft rust of an eclipse.But blood red—ominous and burning, as if the sky itself was weeping for what was to come.We all saw it.Wolves howled and then harkened frozen in mid-howl, they seeming to hear in the skies a knell of death. Witches left their incantations halfway through and spells stagnated in the air as though fire burned at the border of extinction. Earth itself took breath.At the edge of the forest there was a scream of wind--unnatural, dry, metallic. It smelled of sulfur, ash and something more ancient. Something was wrong.Killian’s eyes narrowed, lips tight. “The omen’s real.”Ashley stepped beside me, her tone like frost. “The prophecy’s begun.”I didn’t need to ask which prophecy. I already knew. I had memorized every line, every warning etched in the stars, because it all pointed to her.The moon will bleed, and light will fall. If the vessel breaks, the shadows will rise. If she dies… the world dies

The Sleeping FlameNicholas’s POVPain.The first thing I felt as I awoke was that. A sharp, hot burning pain in my side, and one that ached with every breath.The second thing I felt—was absence.She wasn’t in my arms anymore.“Azaria—” I croaked.I tried to move, but my body screamed in protest. Blinding light danced behind my eyelids. Every muscle felt torn, stitched together with fire and will.“Don’t move,” someone said gently.Ashley.She went on her knees beside me, her hands already charged with the white light trying to repair what she could. Her sleeves were covered with blood. Mine, I realized.“You're lucky,” she murmured. “A few more inches and Selene would’ve pierced your heart.”My head spun, trying to make sense of the chaos. The temple. The blade. Selene’s smile.Then—Azaria’s scream.That power.“Where is she?” I rasped.Ashley’s expression dimmed. “She saved us all.”I tried to sit up. She stopped me.“You’re not ready—”“Where is she?” I growled.Ashley hesitated.

Broken Pieces of HerAshley’s POVI I disliked entering this room.Not because it was cold, or silent, or disturbed by the smell of herbs that were healing some one, and half-dried tears.I just despised it, since she was not her.The girl was so motionless under the soft sheets and her chest rose lightly and her skin quivered with silent magic. She had brushed her hair, and the crack on her lips were healed; there was some light in her.Alive.But not here.Every time I came in to do my check-up, I told myself today would be different.That today, I’d touch her hand and she’d open her eyes and call me a dramatic idiot.But today, like all the others, I was met with silence.“Hi,” I said, forcing a small smile. “It’s Thursday. I know that doesn’t matter to you right now, but I thought I’d mention it.”I got in a seat at the edge of the bed and opened the healing kit. I no longer needed it anymore. Her vitals were stable. The glow hadn't changed. But I came anyway.Routine.Hope.Denia

The Plea of the TwinsAshley’s POVI found them kneeling outside her door again.Aiden and Ariana, Azaria’s younger siblings silent, their fingers laced, their foreheads pressed together like they were praying to a god none of us believed in anymore.They didn’t hear me approach.Didn’t flinch when I crouched beside them.Tear-streaked but resolute were their faces. They had concluded that the world was not going to win. Not with her. Not with this.“She’s not waking up,” Aiden whispered, his voice so soft I barely heard it.“But she’s in there,” Ariana added quickly, wiping her cheek with the back of her sleeve. “I can feel her.”I nodded. “We all can.”Ariana was looking up and at me, and her eyes were shining dimly not alone with grief, but with something more.Hope. Or maybe fire.“She’s calling to us,” she whispered.I felt a chill run down my spine.---They were only fifteen.Too young for this war. Too young to have seen their sister collapse in a storm of divine fire, too you