Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 101 - Chapitre 110

Two hours later, the capital finally came into view.I had braced myself for ruins, for more blackened streets and the smell of rot that clung to the plague villages like a curse. But instead—what I saw was almost insulting.The capital was alive.The high, gleaming walls rose above us, sturdy and proud, unmarred by sickness. White banners lined the gates, fluttering in the warm breeze. Market stalls spilled down the wide cobblestone roads, colors bursting like a tapestry of life—fresh fruits, fabrics, trinkets. People bustled in every direction, children darting between carts with sticky hands from candied apples, mothers yelling after them. A group of wolf-shifters in their half-forms bargained loudly over cuts of meat, while musicians played by the fountains.Not a single cough.Not a single corpse in the street.Not a single ash-stained ruin.I tightened my grip on Emerald’s horse, my jaw locking.So the capital thrived while the outer villages rotted? While people clawed at their

The balcony stretched wide and open, carved from pale white stone that glowed under the fading light of the sun. It overlooked the eastern gardens of the capital—an expanse of emerald hedges, rose-covered arches, and fountains that sang with falling water. The horizon bled gold and crimson, the kind of sunset that should have been beautiful enough to soothe my soul. But it didn’t. The ache inside my chest remained, like an iron claw clamped around my heart, squeezing with every thought that spiraled back to him. To Edric. To Adrien. To the man standing at the crossroads of my love and my hatred.I sat slumped against the balustrade, my knees pulled close to my chest, staring at the gardens but not really seeing them. All I could feel was the gnawing guilt that refused to let me breathe. I destroyed him. I destroyed the realm. I destroyed us.The whispers of my failures coiled around me like snakes, hissing at every corner of my mind. My throat burned with unshed tears. And yet, when I

The council chamber smelled of polished oak and old parchment, the kind of place where tradition tried to choke out the air itself. I sat on the dais beside King Nollan Adrien Wolfe—though in my chest I still whispered Edric, whether I wanted to or not. The ache that had hollowed me out last night had not softened. No amount of wine, balcony silences, or starlit guilt had burned it away. And now here I was, facing the Elder Council of the Wolfe Kingdom, men and women whose robes were so heavy with embroidered rank they could barely move without help.They bowed, low and deep, though I noticed not all of their spines bent willingly. Some faces—lined with age, false humility, and a dozen flavors of arrogance—twisted as if they’d swallowed something sour.“Your Majesty, Your Grace,” one of them began, a silver-bearded relic whose voice carried the rasp of too many years telling others what to do. “We have summoned you because the kingdom faces unrest, and we believe the Queen’s… insight

It was an hour later with arguments and sass. The throne room still trembled with the aftershock of their argument—his clipped voice against her sharp, sassy retorts, a storm colliding against another storm. Adrien—no, Edric, though the name suited him less than the weight of his crown—stood with jaw taut, chest heaving, his hands curled at his sides like if he didn’t restrain himself, he might either drag her into his arms or throttle her for the insolence she wore like a second skin.Kyla, meanwhile, lounged back in her chair near the window as if she were utterly unbothered. Her legs crossed, her chin propped in her hand, her gaze flicking over him with infuriating calm. “You’re glaring like I just burned down your stables,” she said sweetly. “Which, for the record, I didn’t. Yet.”He exhaled through his nose. “You speak as if betrayal isn’t a wound deep enough. Do you ever take anything seriously?”“Please,” she muttered, rolling her eyes. “If I took everything as seriously as you

King Nollan Adrien’s POVWhere. The. Hell. Was. She?My chest was pounding so hard it was almost painful. One moment she was here—sassing me, glaring at me with those sharp eyes that somehow made me feel both infuriated and alive—and then she was gone. Just like smoke curling away in the wind. No trace, no warning, no permission.“Find her!” I roared, my voice echoing against the palace walls like a thunderclap. Guards flinched, their armor clattering as they scrambled in different directions. “Every corridor, every courtyard, every damn shadow. Search the markets, the streets, the gates. She cannot be far.”I gripped the arm of my throne until my knuckles turned white, rage prickling through me like fire beneath the skin. How dare she vanish? After everything—the attack on the council, the proof of betrayal—she chooses now to slip away?But beneath the anger was something far uglier. A gnawing, hollow panic.What if she was taken? What if she was ambushed by whoever had orchestrated