Semua Bab BETRAYED BY HER BLOOD, CLAIMED BY THE NIGHT: Bab 71 - Bab 80

(NOMO HOLT’S POINT OF VIEW)“You’re going to kill her before she even sees the mortal world again, Priestess. Is that the grand design?”Nomo Holt leaned heavily against a jagged pillar of obsidian, his knuckles white as he gripped the stone. His chest still ached where the grey toxin had been purged, a lingering coldness reminding him of how close he had come to the final sleep. His silver-grey eyes were fixed on the center of the courtyard, where Sofia was currently suspended a foot off the ground, surrounded by a swirling vortex of violent violet light that seemed to be flaying the very air around her.“The girl is a bridge, Vampire,” Elowen replied, her voice echoing not in the air, but directly against the lining of Nomo’s skull. She stood perfectly still, her robes of starlight untroubled by the magical gale Sofia was generating. “A bridge that is currently buckling under the weight of two worlds. If I do not harden the stone, the first step she takes back into your city will be

(SOFIA QUISPE'S POINT OF VIEW)"The residue isn't just a map, Sofia. It’s a key, and it’s screaming for the lock it was taken from," Priestess Elowen said, her voice shimmering like wind chimes in a storm. She hovered near the empty silver chalice, her translucent fingers tracing the air above the dried flakes of human blood."If it’s a key, then turn it. Open the door before the air in this place turns to lead," Sofia replied, her voice steady despite the hammer-strike rhythm of her heart. She stood at the center of the sanctum, her boots planted firmly on the white marble. Every muscle in her body was taut, wired with a frantic, desperate energy that sat somewhere between Fae magic and pure, human adrenaline."The blood belongs to your mother, the Queen of Exiles. It is the bridge between this dying rock and the world where her life was stolen," Elowen projected, her silver eyes turning toward the jagged tear in the air that was beginning to form. "But you must understand the weight

(SOFIA QUISPE'S POINT OF VIEW)"Don't move, Nomo. Just breathe. If you throw up on these expensive-looking tiles, I’m leaving you behind," Sofia said, her voice cracking as she tried to force oxygen into her scorched lungs. She remained on all fours, her fingers digging into the cold, polished surface of the floor. The transition had felt like being squeezed through a needle’s eye, a violent compression of her molecules that left her skin tingling with a static charge."The... tiles are the least of our problems," Nomo managed to wheeze. He was slumped against a massive, metallic crate, his eyes tightly shut as he clutched his stomach. "Do you smell that? Tell me you don't smell that, Sofia.""I smell iron and ozone. And something like old, dusty velvet," Sofia replied, slowly pushing herself into a kneeling position. She wiped a smudge of soot from her cheek, her violet eyes scanning the dim, cavernous space. "It’s too quiet. Where are the sirens? Where is the rain?""This isn't the

(SOFIA QUISPE’S POINT OF VIEW)“Is he going to wake up, or are your machines just making him look like a very expensive corpse?” Sofia asked, her voice echoing sharply against the sterile, obsidian-glass walls of the Montague infirmary. She stood with her arms crossed tightly over her chest, her fingers digging into the worn leather of her jacket sleeves. The violet glow from the Faerie realm had faded from her skin, leaving her looking pale and dangerously sharp in the cool, blue light of the district’s inner sanctum.“He is a vampire of the Blooded line, Sofia. Their physiology is resilient, but the toxicity of the Faerie atmosphere is an entropic force,” Phuwin Montague replied without turning around. He stood before a hovering translucent display, his long fingers swiping through streams of biometric data that pulsed in rhythmic waves of amber and gold. “The stabilizers are flushing his marrow. He is not a corpse. He is merely... resetting.”“Resetting. Right. Like a piece of brok

LAVINIA QUISPE POV: The Gilded ShackleThe moment the guard’s fist hit the door, a sudden, sharp surge of cold dread spiked through me. It wasn't just nerves; it was the suffocating, familiar terror of being caged.“It is time,” the deep voice of the guard bellowed.My throat tightened. You can do this, Lavinia. Just the most important, inescapable day of your life. I needed better pep talks.Mari, my maid and only friend, gave my shoulder a sympathetic squeeze—a gesture that felt far from comforting because it confirmed my misery was obvious to everyone.“Every female Fledgling in the Covenant would kill to be Bound to not one, but three beautiful Princes,” she chided softly, adjusting the heavy white robes over my torso. “And you act like it’s a death sentence.”I let out a harsh, low puff of air. “It is, Mari. A glamorous one.”My mother, Rosa, had been tall and slender. I was shorter, with softer curves. The robes, meant to be ethereal, hung loose on my shoulders, yet the tight cr