CHAPTER 41 EVERYTHING THEY ASSUME ABOUT ME IS WRONG

The first thing I broke was a glass.Not on purpose.It slipped from my fingers while I was standing there pretending my hands were steady, pretending my chest wasn’t tight, pretending I wasn’t thinking about how easy it would be for everything to go wrong if I blinked at the wrong moment. The glass shattered on the stone floor, sharp and loud and final, and the sound echoed through the room like it wanted witnesses.No one spoke.I stared down at the mess. Water creeping between the cracks. Tiny shards catching the light. A stupid, small accident that felt bigger than it was.“Leave it,” Kaden said quietly.“I wasn’t going to clean it,” I replied, a little too fast.Kael shifted near the doorway, arms crossed, watching me like I might fracture next. “You are spiraling.”I looked up sharply. “I am thinking.”“That is usually what it looks like right before you do something reckless,” he said.I almost smiled. Almost.Instead, I crouched slowly and began pushing the shards together wit

Last Updated : 2026-01-14

CHAPTER 42 THEY LIT THE CIRCLE WITHOUT ME

The scream wasn’t human.It tore through the forest like something had been ripped open and forgotten how to close. The sound carried wrong, bending around trees, vibrating through the soles of my feet before my ears caught up. My breath stuttered. The hum inside my chest flared sharp and ugly, like it had just been insulted.I stopped dead.Kaden crashed to a halt beside me, one hand already half raised like he could physically block whatever was coming next. Kael pivoted, scanning the trees, posture snapping tight and predatory.“That came from the capital,” Kael said.“No,” I whispered. “It came from underneath it.”The ground shuddered again, subtle but unmistakable. Not an earthquake. A response.My stomach dropped.“They started without me,” I said.Kaden’s eyes darkened. “Started what.”I swallowed. The words tasted like iron. “A binding.”Silence fell heavy around us. Even the forest seemed to recoil, leaves shivering faintly as if they wanted distance from what was happening

Last Updated : 2026-01-16

CHAPTER 43 THE SECOND SCREAM WAS MINE

The explosion didn’t sound like destruction.It sounded like relief snapping.A deep, concussive release that tore through the capital and punched the breath straight out of my lungs. Light collapsed inward, the circle imploding instead of bursting, power folding violently back on itself like it had been waiting for permission to stop pretending it was stable.I hit the ground hard.Stone slammed into my back. My head rang. For a second, I couldn’t tell where I was or if I still had a body at all. The world narrowed to heat and ringing and the sharp taste of blood in my mouth.Hands were on me instantly.“Alina!”Kaden’s voice cut through the chaos, panicked and furious and too close to breaking for comfort. Kael was there too, I felt him more than saw him, a solid weight shielding my side as debris skittered across the ground.“I’m here,” I rasped, though my body hadn’t fully agreed with that yet.The hum inside me was chaos.Not gone. Not quiet. Just… scrambled. Like someone had tak

Last Updated : 2026-01-16

CHAPTER 44 THEY CALLED IT STABILITY

They didn’t arrest me.That was the first mistake.They formed a corridor instead. Guards lining the shattered square with weapons held just low enough to pretend restraint, eyes flicking everywhere except at me. The council stood clustered near the ruins of the circle, robes singed, dignity cracked, faces set into something brittle and rehearsed.Stability, they would call this later.Order restored.I could practically hear the words being polished already.“Walk,” the council leader said.Not shouted. Not commanded.Assumed.I took one step forward and felt the city tense like a held breath. The hum inside me rolled low and warning, not flaring, not exploding, just… present. A reminder. I wasn’t caged. Not yet.Kaden stayed close on my right. Kael on my left. No one tried to separate us. No one wanted to be the one who tested that boundary first.We moved.The streets of the capital looked wrong from the inside.Too clean in places. Too broken in others. Windows blown out in a neat

Last Updated : 2026-01-19

CHAPTER 45 THEY UNLEASHED THE PRECEDENT

The bells rang without hands touching them.That was how I knew it had begun.Not the ceremonial bells. Not the ones for gatherings or grief. These rang from underneath the city, a deep iron toll that vibrated through bone and stone alike, slow and deliberate, each note spaced just far enough apart to make your nerves stretch thin waiting for the next.Kaden’s head snapped up first. Kael followed a heartbeat later.“That’s not an alarm,” Kael said quietly.“No,” I replied. “It’s a summons.”The hum inside me tightened like a muscle preparing to tear.The garden outside the window went still. Birds froze midflight, wings locked. The water in the central fountain shuddered, ripples collapsing inward until the surface went flat and wrong.“Alina,” Kaden said, already moving, testing the warded door again. “Whatever they’re calling, it’s close.”Too close.The bells rang again.This time, something answered.Not a sound.A pressure.It pressed up from beneath the city, old and methodical,