Lahat ng Kabanata ng The Price Of Fate: Kabanata 351 - Kabanata 360

Nyra’s POVThe laughter did not last long, but it stayed warm inside me even after it faded. For a few moments, I had stood between my mother and father and laughed like war was not waiting outside the chamber. Like Lucian was not moving through broken land with hunger in his hands. Like Vandwood was not sitting too close to danger. Like I had not just accepted one quarter of Emberfall’s army under my command. Like the future had not turned into a blade and placed itself against all our throats.Then the silence came back. Not coldly. Not harshly. Just honestly. It settled between us as Tobias’s smile softened, and my mother’s hand remained over mine, and the truth returned the way truth always did. Quiet first. Then heavy. There was still a war waiting. There was still a journey to make. There was still a side of the world that had once bruised me now needing me to return with dragons, Primas, Aetherfangs and Vaelcryns behind me. And I still had to leave the parents I had just found.

Nyra’s POVI looked at the army again. Safe enough. Those words were never as comforting as people wanted them to be. Still, the revelation would not leave me. Emberfall beyond the meadow. My father beyond a place I had stood in without knowing he was so close. My mother living in a cabin not far from it all those years. Everything started clicking together, but not fully yet. Not until we reached it.“Move,” Tobias ordered.The army obeyed. The outer grounds opened into a wide stretch of black stone and green-edged paths. Dragons moved first. Some stepped into open spaces, and then the air filled with power.One by one, they shifted. It was not like wolves. Wolves broke and reformed in a rush of bone, fur, instinct and breath. Dragons became more. They unfolded. Human bodies stretched into scale and wing and ancient shape. Some were dark red, some bronze, some black with silver threading their spines, some deep green, some pale gold. The ground trembled as they lowered themselves for

Nyra’s POVThe words hit me directly in the chest. Ronan looked at me once, and the love in his eyes nearly made me look away. Then he faced my father again. “I will do everything in my power to bring Nyra home,” Ronan vowed. My father’s jaw flexed. “Not only bring her home,” my father replied. “Come back with her.” Ronan’s throat moved. “I will,” Ronan promised. For a heartbeat, neither of them moved.Then my father stepped forward and pulled Ronan into his arms. The sight stole my breath. It was not the stiff embrace of two men tolerating duty. My father held Ronan like a father would hold a son before battle. Hard. Brief at first, then longer. Ronan stiffened for a fraction of a second, not because he rejected it, but because maybe he had not expected it. Then his arms came around my father in return. I pressed my lips together. Do not cry. Do not cry now.My father gripped the back of Ronan’s neck with one hand, his voice rough when he spoke. “Thank you for loving my daughter thro

Keiran’s POVA sound tore out of me before I could stop it. Astrid gripped my wrist. “Keiran,” Astrid breathed. I forced myself to breathe through my nose. The pendant at my chest pulsed once. Spiro. Please be working. Please let them see this. Please let Nyra see what Vandwood had become before we were swallowed whole by it. My parents. Where were my parents?I searched frantically, eyes moving over chains, faces, smoke, ruined streets. I saw academy instructors kneeling near the market gate. I saw guards stripped of weapons and bound with silver cuffs. I saw children huddled near the fountain, watched by two Outlands soldiers with spears. My stomach twisted so violently I thought I might vomit. “We need to pull back,” Astrid whispered. “They need to see this.” I agreed, though my voice barely worked. “Slowly.”We began to shift backwards. Then something cold touched the back of my neck. “Going somewhere?” a rough voice asked behind me. I froze. Astrid stiffened beside me. I turned j

Nyra’s POVI could have told the man Vandwood was never my home. I could have told him these people did not love me. I could have told him I owed this pack nothing except the truth of what they had done. But Ronan’s hand brushed mine. Elara was chained. Keiran and Astrid were kneeling. Children were huddled near the fountain. People who had never had the power to hurt me were waiting to see if I would walk away because the land that raised me had failed me.“I cannot do that,” I answered. The man tilted his head. “You dare challenge King Lucian?” That name moved through the square like a shadow. Lucian. I felt Seraphina’s heat sharpen. I thought of Edenwood. Of Elaine’s visions. Of Tobias’s warning. Of the Ashland. Of the meadow. Of my father standing at the open border because he could not openly cross without turning this into a royal war, but still sending power through me because I was his daughter.I lifted my chin. “Does Lucian dare come to my home, kill my family and friends, c