Lahat ng Kabanata ng Reckless Royals of Nocturne Prep: Kabanata 141 - Kabanata 150

RAELuca’s arms hooked under mine and dragged me upright, my feet scraping uselessly over the ground because my legs had forgotten what they were for. Everything hurt in a way that felt wrong, like my body had rearranged itself without asking permission. Blood pooled in my mouth, thick and metallic, and when I swallowed it burned all the way down.“We need to get you out of here,” Luca said.He sounded calm if you listened carelessly, but I could hear the strain in it, the tightness he used when he was afraid and refusing to let it show.“He’s mad,” I whispered.The words barely made it past my throat. Conrad’s fingers had been there not long ago, pressing, crushing, and even now my neck felt wrong, swollen and tender, every breath scraping. My pulse thudded loud in my ears, too fast, too uneven.“This isn’t rage anymore,” I tried again, forcing the thought through the pain, through the dizziness. “He’s just… mad.”Luca didn’t argue. He just pulled me with him, half carrying, half dra

RAEThe memory hit me sideways, dragged up from somewhere deep and old, the kind of place you think is buried for good until it claws its way back out.I was six again, crouched in the garden behind our estate with the sun warming my shoulders and dirt packed under my fingernails. The air smelled like grass, the earth and something sweet. A butterfly was tangled in a spider’s web, its wings flashing blue every time it struggled, beautiful and frantic. The spider waited at the edge, perfectly still, patient in a way that made my stomach twist.I remember holding my breath as I reached out, fingers shaking while I tried to peel the silk away without tearing it, without ruining anything. I didn’t want to break the web. I didn’t want to hurt the spider. I just wanted the butterfly free.“What are you doing?”Seraphina’s voice came from behind me, calm and curious. I turned and saw her standing there, golden hair catching the light like it always did, her face open and unreadable.“There’s

RAEThe beams left my fingertips.Eight streaks of pure light, each one aimed at Kieran’s head. At Conrad too. At the problem that needed to be erased from existence.The world stuttered then.Not slowed. Not paused. It fractured, like someone had slammed a fist through glass and every shard decided to fall in a different direction.I screamed at my wolf.Not out loud, but inside. It was like a pressure spike in my skull that made my vision warp and my stomach roll. The beams I had fired twisted midair, their paths wobbling, skidding sideways like drunk comets. Some clipped trees. Some tore trenches through the dirt. Some hit flesh that was never meant to be touched by anything that violent.Cassian came out of nowhere and proceeded to take three of them.I felt it when they hit him. A jolt of resistance. A flare of pain that wasn’t mine but brushed close enough to scrape my nerves raw.He went flying, slamming into the treeline hard enough to bring half of it down with him.The

CASSIANDid father win? Was this a future he envisioned and planned at? Or did Rae's wolf against all odds blindside gun and actually win at a game she didn't even realize she was playing?My bones finished knitting themselves together with a sensation like hot wires being threaded through my marrow. I pushed myself up from the ground, wiping blood from my face with the back of my hand. The forest had gone quiet. Too quiet.I didn't need to search for Conrad's body. I knew Rae's wolf had caught him. Knew she'd torn him apart the way she'd been designed to do. The predator that lived beneath her skin had finally been given permission to hunt, and nothing Conrad had stolen or sacrificed would have been enough to save him.I turned toward the treeline instead. Toward where I'd left Kieran propped against an oak with a stake through his heart.My feet carried me there without conscious thought. Each step felt heavier than the last, like I was walking through water that kept getting deeper

RAEThe cabin was barely lit, the kind of low, tired light that made shadows cling to the corners and softened the edges of everything it touched. The air smelled faintly of old wood and smoke, something earthy and worn that felt older than both of us. Cassian stood close enough that I could feel his heat without touching him, the quiet between us loud with everything we were not saying.When I looked at his eyes, my chest tightened. They glistened, caught between tears he refused to let fall, and the black ichor pooled at their corners made the shine sharper, almost painful to look at. It was wrong and beautiful at the same time. His hands came up slowly, as if he were afraid I might flinch, and framed my face. They were warm, solid, familiar. His thumbs brushed under my eyes, sweeping away tears I had not realized were already there.The weight of him pressed in from every direction. Not his body, but his despair, the heavy certainty of a choice already made. It settled into my ribs