Beyond Redemption의 모든 챕터: 챕터 51 - 챕터 60

Kora’s POVThe compound was eerily quiet the next morning. The courtyard, once soaked in blood and noise, lay still under a gray sky. The bodies had been taken away, the stones scrubbed clean, but the smell of iron lingered like a ghost.I stood at the window of Edward’s chamber, my hands pressed to the cold glass, staring at the gates. Beyond them, the forest stretched out like a living thing, dark and endless. Somewhere out there, Aaron was moving. Watching. Waiting.The fire inside me hadn’t quieted. It simmered under my skin, restless, as if it remembered the fight as clearly as I did. It pulsed with each beat of my heart, a low thrum that made it impossible to forget what I’d done.What I could do again.A knock sounded at the door.I turned, expecting Edward, but Mara slipped inside instead. Her eyes, sharp as always, swept over me like she was assessing the damage.“You’re awake,” she said flatly.“I haven’t slept.”She closed the door behind her, leaning against it with her ar

Kora’s POVThe next few days bled into each other like streaks of ink on wet paper. Training at dawn. Training after dusk. Rest only in the hours between, if I was lucky. The courtyard became my battlefield, my confessional, my prison.Mara never went easy on me. She woke me before the sun and pushed me past the point where my body screamed for mercy. Edward was there almost every session—sometimes inside the circle with me, sometimes watching from the edge, his silver eyes narrowed like a hawk’s. When I stumbled, he steadied me. When I faltered, he caught me. But he didn’t stop Mara, not anymore.Because he knew what I knew.Aaron was coming.And if I didn’t learn to master what was inside me, there wouldn’t be a pack left to protect.On the sixth morning, the mist was thick enough to swallow sound. Mara stood in the center of the circle, her arms crossed, waiting. I stepped in barefoot as always, my breath pluming white in the cold.She didn’t say anything at first. She just looked

Kora’s POVThe night after the attack stretched endlessly, heavy with smoke and silence. The fires had been put out, but their smell still lingered, burned into my skin, into my lungs. I sat on the edge of the courtyard long after the others had gone, staring at the blackened earth where bodies had lain only hours ago.Edward had tried to coax me back to our room, but I couldn’t. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw their faces, our pack members who hadn’t made it, the glow of those strange, red eyes, the way their bodies had moved like broken puppets. It wasn’t just a rogue attack. Mara was right. This was Aaron testing us, poking at our defenses to see how far he could reach.And he’d reached too far.My hands shook in my lap. Fire still flickered faintly under my skin, restless, unsatisfied. I had killed tonight. I had burned them. The scent of charred flesh clung to me, and no amount of scrubbing would erase it.The sound of footsteps broke through my haze. Edward.He didn’t speak a

Kora’s POVThe courtyard emptied slowly after the gathering. Wolves filtered back into their homes, murmuring to one another as they went. Some still cast glances over their shoulders at me, but it wasn’t the same as before. It wasn’t just suspicion anymore. It was something heavier, something that almost felt like recognition.Edward stayed close to me as the crowd thinned. He didn’t say anything at first, just squeezed my hand and guided me back inside the compound. His grip was firm but not possessive—steady, anchoring.“You did well,” he said once the doors shut behind us.I let out a shaky breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding. “I thought I was going to faint up there.”His lips curved faintly. “You didn’t. You stood. You spoke. They heard you.”I wanted to believe him. “They still fear me.”“They fear what they don’t understand. Tonight you showed them you’re more than fire. The rest will come.”I nodded, though my chest still felt tight. The power inside me had been quiet d

Kora’s POVThe days without Mara dragged like slow-moving shadows. The compound buzzed with unease, the absence of one of our fiercest warriors leaving a hollow silence. Wolves trained harder, patrolled longer, but underneath it all was tension—a coiled spring waiting to snap.I tried to bury myself in the routine Edward set for me. Training at dawn. Strategy sessions after. Meetings with the healers, the warriors, the scouts. It wasn’t just about fire anymore—it was about learning to carry the weight of being Luna. But no matter how hard I worked, the whispers still followed me through the halls.*The fire witch. The cursed mate. Dangerous.*I heard them. I pretended I didn’t, but I heard them.One afternoon, after a particularly brutal spar with Edward that left me bruised and sweaty, I stormed into the bathhouse to wash the blood off my hands. The steam rose around me, fogging the mirrors. I stared at my reflection, the faint glow still simmering beneath my skin, and for the first