جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 130

TWO DAYS LATER. . . NAMIKO The dungeon was freaking cold, but it wasn’t the stone or the chains biting into my wrists that made me shiver, not really, no. It was the eerie silence that consumed the sticky bloody space, the moment the Alpha King Caspian Ravenwood walked in, with three hefty guards behind him, I shifted beneath me. He wasn't smiling, his face was as hard as a rock, it's just like when death kissed him and lingered. His pale eyes were shadowed with pain and suspicion. And now. . . Now he looked at me like I was the blade pressed to his throat, or just an enemy sent to take him out of his misery. His watchful eyes and the way he was staring at me made me nervous. I arched backwards, clinging to the wall, as if I wasn't already pressing my back to it. “Have you thought well about how to fix this? Or do you wish to spend the rest of your very short life in here?” I opened my mouth to speak, but no words came. What could I say to the king to prove that I had

NAMIKO I lay on my side, facing the wall, the room cloaked in flickering shadows. The fire burning crackled softly, casting warm light over cold stone, but it did nothing to soften the dread pooling in my gut. His presence behind me was suffocating and dominant. His breath ghosted along my shoulder, deliberate and slow, like a hunter savoring the moment before the kill. The bed dipped as he shifted closer, and I didn’t dare move, just lay there, hoping the night could pass soon. “Do we have to do it tonight?” I asked, my heart pounding against my chest, as sweat formed on my forehead. This was my choice, I should feel ready to take it on, a part of me wants to, but my nervousness keeps eating deep inside me. “If I want to.” He replied, his voice dangerously low. “But you don't have to now…right?” “You offered this.” He reminded me, and I subconsciously, but my cheek. “I didn’t know this was what you meant,” I whispered, not turning. My voice was small, and it felt

Namiko’s POV I should have known not to hold on to hope. Hope is such a fragile thing. It slips into your chest like a seed, rooting in the cracks left by trauma and cold nights. You want to nurture it, to believe in something better. Even when your hands are still shaking from what happened before. I’d only been in the Alpha King’s pack for a week. Seven days of uneasy peace. Of walking on eggshells, of learning the language of a man who didn’t know how to touch without bruising, but who had whispered one night, “With you, I want to try.” And he had tried, there is not a lie there. He did. Since then, he hadn’t raised his voice, he didn't leave any new scars, Instead, there were quiet moments where he had a hand lingering on my lower back, a softened tone when addressing me, a seat at his right hand during council meetings, even though I should not be there in the first place. He didn't care that he called me “the half-blood,” behind my back. But I smiled. Because I

Namiko’s POV They took everything from me when they dragged me into this cell. Not just my freedom. Not just the clothes stained with Caspian’s scent and the faintest hope of something soft blooming between us. No, they took the one thing I was just starting to believe in, that I might finally be safe and even belong somewhere I am accepted. Now, even the shadows feel dangerous. I sit in the cold corner of my cell, back pressed to stone, arms wrapped around my knees like that might somehow hold me together. But I am coming apart, quietly. Bit by bit. I hear footsteps echoing down the corridor. Every time I hear them, I pray it’s not him. Every time, I also pray it is. I must be crazy! He is just like everyone else. I should not feel entitled to the attention he gave me, I don't deserve any of it. When the door opens, and Caspian steps in, my heart splits cleanly down the middle. He looks like a stranger now. Cold, unreadable and sharp around the edges. The way h

Namiko’s POV The cell was cold. Not just the kind of cold that settled into your skin, but the kind that buried itself in your bones and made you forget what warmth ever felt like. I sat curled on the stone slab that passed for a bed, tracing circles into the grime with my fingertip, trying to think. Trying to breathe. Days had passed, how many, I didn’t knowhow long it has been since I was thrown into this dungeon for a crime I didn’t commit. I hadn’t seen a map. I’d never touched a locket. But truth, as it already seemed, held no weight here. Not when the court already saw me as the poison to be removed itself. And Caspian, Caspian hadn’t even come to check on me. Not even once. I told myself I didn’t care. That his absence was a blessing. That I didn’t want to look into the eyes of a king who once took me into his arms like I was something sacred, and now believed the worse of me. But it wasn’t true. Because I did care. Because part of me still wanted him to be