Semua Bab The Midnight Veil: Bab 11 - Bab 19

The interior of Selene's house felt like stepping into a dream someone had built with their bare hands.Not whimsical.Not soft.Just... otherworldly.Shelves curved along the walls, carved directly from roots that twisted out of the floor like living sculptures. Jars glowed faintly from within—powders, herbs, shimmering dust that looked suspiciously like captured moonlight. A hearth burned with blue fire, throwing dancing shadows onto tapestries woven with scenes of wolves and trees that moved when Charlie wasn't looking directly at them.Selene gestured toward a circular table made of polished stone veined with silver."Sit," she said gently.Charlie did, though her legs felt like warm Jell-O. Wren sat beside her, his hand resting lightly on the table but his body angled toward her—protective without touching.Selene moved with unhurried grace, collecting items from shelves: a bowl carved from obsidian, a vial of something pearlescent, a thin strip of white cloth, and a knife whose

Charlie didn't realize she'd fallen asleep until the dream yanked her awake.She stood in the forest, except the trees were wrong—too tall, too thin, bending like ribs around some massive unseen beast. The moon overhead pulsed like a heartbeat. Shadows dragged across the forest floor, alive, whispering.You were chosen, a voice murmured.Or cursed, another said.Or both.Charlie spun, but the dream forest didn't obey normal rules. Every turn led her back to the same clearing—a circle of stone, ancient and broken, claw marks etched into every surface. She knelt, brushing her fingers over the carvings. A symbol repeated everywhere: a spiral of teeth.The mark from the prophecy.The one Rivener kept evading questions about.She pressed her fingers against the stone and felt heat flare beneath her skin. Her own energy, or the dream's—hard to tell. But something responded to her."No," Charlie whispered. "Not happening. This is dream nonsense. Zero stars. Would like to wake up now."But so

By late afternoon, the sky had turned the color of a dying bruise—purple, gold, and a hint of you're about to regret this. Charlie stood at the edge of the forest with Rivener, feeling like she'd signed up for a field trip she definitely did not have permission slips for.Rivener checked the horizon like he could glare the sun into setting faster."Tension level," Charlie muttered, "solid nine out of ten. Should I stretch? Do supernatural wolves appreciate warm-ups?"Rivener shot her a look. "Making jokes won't make this less dangerous.""Oh, that's where you're wrong. Humor is my only coping mechanism. If I don't joke, I'll panic, shift into something embarrassing like a squirrel, and get eaten."A pause."Do you actually shift into a squirrel?" he asked, genuinely concerned.Charlie opened her mouth to say no.Closed it.Then shrugged. "Let's... hope we never find out."He huffed—half frustration, half reluctant amusement. "Stay close. And if anything feels wrong, we leave.""Copy t

Charlie's heartbeat was still doing its best impression of a techno drumline, and the lingering moonlight energy beneath her skin hummed like a caffeine overdose. Rivener and Adrian stood on opposite sides of the clearing, both poised, both tense, both looking at her like she'd just grown antlers.Honestly? Charlie wished she had grown antlers. That would at least be predictably weird."This is fine," she said, mostly to herself. "Just a tiny magical meltdown. Happens to everyone, right?""No," both alphas said in unison.They turned to glower at each other immediately.Charlie groaned. "Right. Perfect."Rivener pointed a sharp look at Adrian. "You shouldn't be here.""I was summoned here," Adrian snapped. "By the prophecy. By the Sentinel. By her power."Charlie raised a hand. "Hey. Hi. Hello. Can we stop talking about me like I'm a mystical coupon someone accidentally clipped out of the destiny section of a newspaper?"Adrian didn't even blink. "You're more than that."Rivener mutte