Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 11 - Chapitre 20

I shouldn’t have brought her there.That thought clung to me as I left the greenhouse, shadowing every step back through the sleeping castle.I’d watched her kneel beside the basin, silver light glinting in her hair, her fingers so steady despite the pulse of ancient magic beneath them. She hadn’t flinched. She hadn’t hesitated.She had looked right into the heart of the curse and said, with terrifying certainty, “It doesn’t scare me.”She should have. She still might.But in that moment, all I could see was how she fit into the space—as if the castle had been waiting for her shape, her defiance, her flame. Like she belonged.And gods help me, I hated that part of me agreed.Her presence unsettled me—not just for the danger it invited, but for what it stirred inside me. It had been centuries since I’d let myself feel anything so immediate, so visceral. Wanting had always been dangerous. Wanting had always come with a cost. And yet—She was beautiful.Not the delicate, icy beauty of no

I didn’t mean to fall asleep.One minute, I was sketching a new containment glyph on the edge of the anchor map. The next, my head tilted against the stone table, and the world shifted—softly, then sharply, like the floor dropped out from beneath me.I wasn’t in the annex anymore.I stood in a long hallway bathed in golden light—too warm, too vivid. The stone was unmarred. The air smelled of sage and blood-roses. Every flickering lantern glowed with steady flame, and laughter echoed from nearby rooms.Castle Thorne—but not as I knew it.This was the castle as it had been. Before the wards cracked. Before the magic soured. Before something ancient and hungry rooted itself beneath its bones.I wore different clothes—soft black velvet and silver thread, too fine for work. My hands were bare. My magic thrummed just beneath my skin, vibrant and steady, as if the castle recognized me not just as a guest—but as its own.I walked.I didn’t tell my legs to move. They just did, down corridors t

I didn’t run when I left his tower, but I didn’t look back either. I wasn’t sure what I would’ve done if I had. Part of me wanted to throw something, just for the satisfaction. Another part still wanted to kiss him, which was worse.The castle’s corridors were quieter than usual as I made my way back to the East Wing. Not peaceful—just oddly still, like the whole structure had stopped mid-breath. Even the usual creaks of old stone and shifting magic felt muted. It gave the sensation of walking through a place that was listening carefully, as though waiting to see what I would do next.My thoughts churned as I walked. Theron’s voice echoed in my head, low and ragged—“If I kiss you now, I won’t stop.” That confession hit harder than it should have. Not just because of what he didn’t do, but because I knew he meant it. And still, he pulled away.I tried to shake the moment off as I reached the annex. The door was open. That stopped me. I had left it sealed—three layered glyph locks, a sa

She wasn’t hurt.That was the first thing Valesa said when she entered my study—before the door had even closed, before I could look up from the deteriorating ward map splayed across the table.My hands stilled. “What happened?”“She was seen in the eastern corridor this morning,” Valesa said. “Cassian intercepted her.”That sent heat crawling up the back of my neck.“And?” I asked, though I already knew I wouldn’t like the answer.“He confronted her,” she said. “Cornered her, by some accounts. She held her ground. He made threats—cleverly worded ones, but threats all the same.”“And he walked away?” I asked, already skeptical.Valesa met my eyes. “No. He was forced to leave. The castle turned on him.”I rose from the table, heart slamming once against my ribs.“What do you mean ‘turned’?”“The sconces in the corridor lit themselves—overheated,” she said. “The walls glowed with old sigils. The hallway distorted slightly. Enough to disorient. He backed off before it got worse.”“She di

The path to the West Tower was different this time.It wasn’t just that the route had changed again—though it had. The corridor curved where it hadn’t before, and the lanterns overhead lit themselves a few seconds before I stepped beneath them, not after.It wasn’t even the faint warmth in the floor as I walked, as though the castle’s bones were humming beneath my boots.It was the feeling in my chest.Like something was reaching up to meet me.Theron walked beside me in silence. He hadn’t touched me since the garden, but his presence was all over me. I could still feel the imprint of his mouth, the heat of his hands, the weight of his restraint finally breaking. I knew he felt it, too—whatever wall he’d kept between us had cracked, and the castle knew.The castle had felt it.Now it wanted more.We stopped at the door to the West Tower vault.It looked the same—tall, black wood reinforced with ancient sigils carved deep into the grain. But the air around it pulsed now. Magic coiled a