Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 111 - Chapitre 120

The wind from the north pass tasted like salt and ice as we descended into the hidden gorge.Below the snowline, carved directly into the living rock of a coastal cavern where the mountain met the icy northern sea, lay the Sunken Altar of the First Moon. Giant stone pillars rose from the dark water, their tops glowing with the light of dozens of iron torches.Thirty Northern Alphas stood around the outer ring of the cavern.They were massive men and women, wrapped in thick furs and heavy iron armor, their yellow and grey eyes tracking us as Caspian carried me down the stone steps. They did not bow yet, but their eyes stayed fixed on the heavy silver Seal resting against my chest, and on the bare-chested Lycan King who held me against his side as if he were ready to slaughter every person in the environment.Caspian did not care about their stares. His hand remained locked on my hip, his broad body shielding my left side, his silver eyes flashing with a dark, territorial warning every t

The lie hung in the damp air of the cavern like a cloud of rot.Marcus Thorne was inside our home. He had walked through the gates of Thorncross, occupied the inner fortress, and taken the children of the noble houses as shields.But it was the other part... the lie he had dredged back up from the auction house... that made Caspian’s silver eyes turn into two pits of liquid death.Caspian did not roar this time. He did not throw his sword or shatter the stone beneath his boots.He reached out, his big, blood-stained hand locking around the back of my neck, and dragged me flush against his chest. His thumb pressed hard into my pulse point, feeling the frantic, hammering beat of my heart against his palm. The heat coming off his bare skin was suffocating, wrapping around my shoulders like an iron furnace."He tells the city you are carrying his blood," Caspian murmured, his voice dropping into a low, terrifying rasp that only I could hear."It is a lie, Caspian," I whispered, my hands gr

The air around the center cage tasted like ozone and scorched terror.I could see the red light on the detonator box from fifty yards away... a small... steady blink that looked like a heartbeat in the grey afternoon light. Below it... wired into the very frame where three toddlers were huddled together in the dark... the block of C-4 sat like a grey brick of death.Marcus Thorne stood on the battlements with his thumb hovering over the red button. He didn't look like a man who was bluffing... he looked like a man who had realized the world was no longer under his control and had decided to take everything down with him."Drop the chain... Valdyr!" Marcus’s voice shrieked through the speakers... the sound distorted and ugly. "Three seconds! One... two..."Caspian’s fingers were buried deep in the iron links of the master chain. His muscles were swollen to the point of tearing... the skin of his forearms split open in long, bloody gasps as he fought to hold three tons of steel and human

His fingers were an iron collar around my neck.He lifted me clean off the crushed marble, my boots dangling six inches above the slush. The air in my lungs was cut off in an instant, my throat closing under the sheer, brutal weight of his grip. My hands instinctively flew to his wrist, my fingers digging into his broad forearm, trying to find leverage that didn't exist.He was so big... so impossibly strong."Caspian..." I choked out, the word barely a rasping whisper against the cold air.He didn't answer. His face was a mask of dead stone, his posture rigid and unnatural. But as I looked into his eyes... those terrible, sickly green eyes glowing with Helene's spell... I saw it.Deep behind the green fire, buried under the dark magic controlling his muscles, his silver spirit was thrashing.A single tear tracked down his cheek, cutting a clean line through the dried blood and soot on his face. His fingers were locked around my throat, forced by the bolt in his neck, but his whole arm

The silence in the grand foyer was so heavy I could hear the draft from the broken doors whistling through the broken oak.Helene stood at the top of the marble staircase, holding the silver dagger to the young girl's throat, waiting for Caspian to crumble. The three children were trembling in their chains, their small faces grey with fear, their eyes wide as they looked down at the blood spattered across the foyer floor.Beside me, Caspian's whole body went still.He did not pull back. He did not loosen his grip on my waist. His arm stayed locked around me like a bar of forged iron, his bare chest rising and falling in slow, heavy surges against my shoulder. The heat coming off his skin was blinding, a constant, possessive wall that kept the cold of the Keep from touching me."You have five seconds, my King," Helene called down, her voice cold and smooth. "Yield your mate to the Covenant... or watch this girl's blood run down these stairs."I felt the tension in Caspian's frame. I fel