Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 41 - Chapitre 50

Niklaus’s mansion had always felt dramatic. Tonight, it felt haunted. Not by ghosts—those were inside me, thank you very much—but by tension so thick it felt like walking through honey.Tonya and Dakota sat curled together on the velvet couch, his arm around her shoulders, her fingers fisting the fabric of his shirt like she needed to hold onto something real. Darcy paced the length of the room with enough force to wear a trench into the antique rug. She kept swiping tears off her cheeks like they personally offended her. Niklaus lounged by the fireplace pretending to be casual, though the tightness around his jaw betrayed him.And Dylan…Dylan didn’t leave my side. Not for a second. He sat on the armchair with me tucked into his lap like he was anchoring me in place—like if he loosened his hold, I might dissolve. His hands were on my hips, fingers splayed protectively. Warm. Trembling. He hadn’t looked away from me once. Not once.I hated myself for loving that. I hated myself more fo

Moonlight crept across the edges of Niklaus’s mansion like cold fingertips. Not full. Not bright. But near. Near enough to make my ribs tighten again.The dead whispered against the inside of my skull: Soon. Soon. Prepare yourself.I sat on Niklaus’s ridiculously ornate settee, blanket around my shoulders, pretending to drink tea Tonya made me. Dylan sat on the arm of my chair like a guard dog, eyes glowing, thumb brushing the inside of my wrist every few minutes like he had to remind himself I was still warm. Tonya sat tucked into Dakota’s side. Darcy hovered nearby like a guardian gargoyle. Niklaus sulked in his own house. Everyone was waiting. Watching.Terrified. And I couldn’t stand it. The weight of their eyes. The worry. The hope. It all pressed against me until the only thing louder was the thought thrumming in my skull: If I don’t come back… they’ll shatter. I needed to soften the blow. I needed to give them something. Anything. Before I walked into death.I stood abruptly. “

The moment my spirit touched the crack in the veil, everything shattered. Light. Cold. Silence. My soul peeled away from itself like a page ripping from a book.I felt the tear pull me in—then the sound of the living world vanished. Except one voice. Faint, raw, and terrified. “Thea!” Not heard with ears. I felt it inside my very bones. Dylan.Even from the far side of death, I felt him. A string of gold yanked tight between us. I tried to reach back, unsure of why—and the tear swallowed me whole.********Dylan’s world had gone silent. He stood in Niklaus’s anchoring room, staring at Thea's lifeless body on the floor. The others were arguing — trying to strategize, trying to think — but their voices were nothing but noise around him.All he could hear was the faintest echo of her. A thread. A whisper. A pulse. Not alive. Not dead. Spirit. He didn’t question it. He just moved. He scooped my body up from the circle like she weighed nothing.Niklaus lunged forward. “Dylan, stop—if you b

My lungs worked, but unevenly. My pulse thudded, but off-beat. My vision shimmered at the edges like the veil still clung to me, but Dylan’s arms grounded me to earth. They were trembling and warm as they desperately clung to me. I was folded against his chest at the base of the weeping willow, my face buried in his neck as if he believed he could anchor my spirit with sheer force of will. He might’ve been right. He held me so tightly I half-wondered if I’d bruise. Good. Let me bruise. It meant I was here. It meant I’d made it back. It meant he needed the reminder as much as I did. “I thought I lost you,” he whispered — raw, broken, like the words were scraping his throat on the way out. “I know,” I breathed. “I know. But I'm here.” I felt my fa

 The Council emerged into the path in a cluster of wardlight and righteous indignation. Half a dozen robed figures, sigils burning on their sleeves; two enforcers with restraint rods; a diviner whose eyes were already rolled back, pupils gone. And at their center—my mother. Of course. She took one look at me in Dylan’s arms and stopped walking. Her mouth parted. Her eyes flickered. Just once. Just enough. Shock. Then it was gone. er spine straightened. Her gaze cooled. My mother opened her mouth to speak— And Niklaus threw the garlic bomb at her head. Hard. She barely ducked. It whizzed past her ear with a strangled pop and exploded in a harmless cloud of garlic-scented spite. “What in the—” she sputtered, s