All Chapters of His Doll: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

The morning after our conversation over chess, Ethan gathered everyone in the main hall before the sun had fully risen. His uncle stood at the edge of the group, along with several guards I hadn't seen before, their expressions unreadable, weapons visible but not drawn. Tally arrived last, arms crossed, saying nothing. "We're going to the safe house," Ethan announced. "All of us. If there's evidence of who was there before Darius, we find it today. We don't have time to wait for someone to confess." Nobody argued. The twenty four hours were already bleeding away, and everyone in that hall understood exactly what waited on the other side of that deadline. We left as a group, guards falling into step around us like an honor guard turned something closer to an escort for suspects. I walked beside Andy, watching the forest close in around the path the deeper we went, thick and old, the kind of trees that had clearly stood there longer than anyone currently walking beneath them. It was

They put the chains on me before we even reached the main hall.Cold iron, not silver, though the difference hardly mattered once I felt the weight of it close around my wrists. Two guards flanked me on either side, their grip firm, careful, like they expected me to fight even though every ounce of resistance in me had drained out somewhere in that clearing, standing beneath the old woman's accusing finger.Ethan walked ahead of the group the entire way back, his shoulders rigid, his silence louder than anything he could have said."This is wrong," Andy said quietly, falling into step beside me despite the guard's warning glance. "I don't care what that woman said. I don't care what necklace you were holding. I know you, Selene. This isn't you.""Tell that to them," I said, my voice hollow.By the time we reached the underground hall, the elders had already gathered, word apparently traveling faster than our procession through the forest.

Warmth reached me before anything else did.Not the cold stone I'd grown used to, not iron biting into raw skin, but something soft beneath me, something warm pressed gently against the wounds along my arms. I surfaced slowly, sound arriving before sight, a low, familiar voice murmuring something I couldn't quite make out yet."...stay with me. Selene, please."I opened my eyes to find Ethan close, closer than I'd seen him in what felt like days, his hands working carefully at the bandages wrapped around my wrists, his jaw tight with the kind of focus that came from trying very hard not to fall apart in front of someone."Ethan," I managed, my voice barely a rasp.His head snapped up. Something broke loose in his face at the sight of my eyes open, relief so raw it looked almost like pain."You're awake." He set the bandage down and reached for my face instead, his palm cold against my cheek, achingly familiar. "I thought—"He didn't finish the sentence. He didn't need to."How long,"

The words hung over the courtyard like something physical, heavy enough that even Darius seemed to lose his footing for a moment, his cruel amusement faltering into something closer to genuine surprise."What did you say," he asked, turning sharply toward the old man."You heard me." The old man didn't look away from me, his gaze steady, unblinking, cataloguing something in my face that I couldn't begin to guess at. "The prophecy has circulated among the elder families for generations. A wolf born of Springvale's line, appearing when the great families stand at their most divided, said to bring their downfall with her.""That's a story," Darius said, though his voice had lost some of its earlier confidence. "A myth used to frighten children into obedience. Nothing more.""Perhaps," the old man said. "Or perhaps myths persist because there's truth buried somewhere beneath them." His eyes finally left mine, sweeping instead toward Ethan, still doubled over a few feet away, his claws ful

He towered over me, close enough now that his breath, hot and heavy, stirred the loose strands of hair around my face. Every instinct screaming through my body told me to run, to do exactly what Andy and Matthias had begged me to do only moments before. I didn't move. "Ethan," I whispered, my voice barely audible over the chaos still rippling through the courtyard behind me. "It's me. It's Selene." The massive head tilted, golden eyes narrowing, studying me with something that might have been curiosity, might have been the last flicker of recognition buried somewhere beneath instinct and rage. A low growl rumbled from deep in his chest, but he didn't lunge, didn't strike, just stood there, powerful and trembling, caught in some invisible tug of war I couldn't see but could feel radiating off him in waves. "Selene, get away from it," Andy hissed from somewhere behind me, his voice tight with barely controlled panic. "That's not him anymore