Lahat ng Kabanata ng The Rejected Luna’s Secret Crown: Kabanata 61 - Kabanata 70

Adrenaline is a liar. It tells you that you are invincible, that the bleeding doesn't matter, and that the cold is just a concept. But when the adrenaline finally drains away, it leaves the truth behind like wreckage on a beach.The truth was that my knees were shaking so violently I could barely stand.I forced myself up, wrapping my arms tightly around myself. The cavern was dead quiet. The chanting was gone. The hum of Darius’s machinery had died with him, leaving only the sound of Kaelen coughing as he leaned against the stone pillar, spitting blood onto the obsidian floor.Jinx finally made it down from the catwalk, sliding down a mag-line with one hand. She hit the ground, her rifle swept the shadows out of habit, but there was nothing left to shoot.She looked at the pile of ash. She looked at Ashren, who was still kneeling, his face buried in Valen’s small shoulder."Is it over?" Jinx asked, her voice sounding unnaturally loud."He’s gone," I said. My voice cracked. I cleared

Winning a war doesn't end with a parade. It ends with a mop.After the heavy obsidian doors slammed shut on the King of the West, the silence in the Vantablack was absolute, broken only by the sound of Kaelen tearing a strip of velvet from a ceremonial banner to bandage his bleeding forehead.Valen was asleep before he hit the floor. The sheer caloric output of digesting two dozen solar cores had crashed his system. Ashren scooped him up with a terrifying gentleness, holding the boy to his chest like a shield."We need a base of operations," I said, my voice hoarse. I sheathed Silentium. My arm was still stiff, the phantom cold of the blade lingering in my marrow. "And we need to feed the city before the riots reach the inner walls.""Leave the logistics to me," Kaelen said, tying off the velvet bandage. He looked like a pirate who had crashed a high-society gala, but his eyes were sharp. "I was raised to run a kingdom. You and the Wolf look like you're going to fall over. Go. Find a

The Onyx City at midnight was a graveyard of ice and shadows.We stood on the edge of the jagged eastern cliffs, the wind coming off the sea so bitterly cold it felt like broken glass against my cheeks. Below us, hidden in the churning black water, a sleek, unmarked smuggling skiff bobbed against the tide.Kaelen stood at the edge of the cliff, the collar of a heavy, fur-lined Northern cloak pulled up around his ears. He looked out at the dark horizon, where the faint, sweeping searchlights of the Aurelian blockade cut through the clouds."Jinx has the coordinates," I said, having to raise my voice over the roar of the surf. "She’ll drop you ten miles south of the Citadel’s main sensor net. From there, you'll have to hike to the coastal road and flag down a patrol.""I'll tell them my transport was shot down by Northern savages," Kaelen shouted back, a grim smirk playing on his lips. "It plays into my father’s prejudices. He’ll believe it."Ashren stepped forward. The massive Alpha di

We held the Onyx Throne for exactly forty-eight hours before we had to abandon it.The irony tasted like ash in my mouth. We had bled, fought, and clawed our way out of the dark to reclaim my city, only to hand the keys over to a mercenary and a dying general before sneaking out the back door like thieves."I don't like it," Jinx stated flatly, crossing her arms over her tactical vest. We were standing in the cavernous underground garage of the palace. The air smelled of old motor oil and freezing damp. "You're the queen. You're supposed to sit in the big chair and look intimidating. If the people find out you've left the capital...""They won't," I said, pulling the straps of my heavy winter pack tight. "You and Drax are going to enforce a strict quarantine on the royal wing. Tell the remaining staff that Valen’s magic is volatile and requires isolation. Anyone who asks to see me gets turned away by Silas."Drax wheeled himself forward. The old veteran looked frail, a heavy wool blan

The hardest part about freezing to death isn't the cold. It’s the thawing out.As Ashren’s Alpha heat poured into my shivering body, the blood returning to my right leg felt like a swarm of angry wasps underneath my skin. I buried my face in his shoulder, biting back a scream of pure agony."I know," Ashren murmured, his voice a low, soothing rumble in the dark pine forest. His hands mapped the frostbite on my hip through my leather trousers, his body acting as a living furnace. "I've got you. Just breathe."It took twenty minutes for my teeth to stop chattering. When I finally pulled back, exhausted and weak, the moon had shifted higher in the sky, casting long, skeletal shadows through the trees.Ashren stood up, the snow melting instantly beneath his bare feet. He walked over to the duffel bags he had dropped before his shift and pulled out his tactical trousers and a heavy wool sweater. He dressed in silence, his golden eyes flicking constantly toward the tree line, scanning for m