Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 121 - Chapitre 130

Lord Vane maintained his ground.He stood in the central aisle of the High Assembly Hall, surrounded by his forty guards, holding the black-wax scroll like a shield. His pale grey eyes flicked from Caspian’s broad, leather-clad chest to the silver Seal resting over my heart."You can threaten me with violence, Caspian," Vane said, his voice ringing against the black granite walls. "You can slaughter my guards in this hall if your temper demands it. But you cannot murder the law of the High Assembly without turning every noble house in the realm against your throne.""Watch me," Caspian purred.He moved before Vane’s guards could react.Caspian crossed the distance between the dais and the central aisle in a single, blurring stride, his heavy boots crushing the stone. He did not draw his broadsword. He reached out with his bare right hand, caught the captain of Vane’s guard by the collar of his iron armor, and slammed him into the nearest stone pillar.The iron breastplate cracked under

The tiny red laser dot sat right over Caspian’s heart.It burned against the pale, scarred skin of his bare chest like a drop of wet paint, perfectly still, perfectly steady. Somewhere in the dark pine branches around us, a sniper had his finger resting on a feather-touch trigger.My breath locked in my throat. Every cell in my body went ice-cold.I didn't think about Marcus Thorne. I didn't think about Kieran hanging by his wrists above the roaring, half-frozen river. I reached out with my left hand and pressed my palm flat over Caspian’s chest, covering the red dot with my own flesh."Caspian," I whispered, my voice trembling so hard the word barely formed.Caspian didn't flinch. He didn't even look down at my hand covering the laser. His left arm remained wrapped around my waist like a steel band, holding me flush against his hip, his heavy body shielding my ribs from the dock ahead. The heat radiating off his skin was searing, his pulse steady and slow under my palm, a heavy, arrog

Caspian carried me off the loading dock, his boots crunching through the slush and shattered timber. He didn't set me on my horse. He headed straight for the line of armored supply wagons that Ezra had brought up from the valley floor.At the center of the convoy was a heavy wooden command carriage... a black-timbered beast on reinforced iron wheels, draped in thick wolf pelts to trap the heat. Ezra was already there, holding the door open, his silver eyes wide with relief as he saw us approaching.Caspian stepped inside, carrying me into the dark, warm interior as if the mud of the mill were a personal insult he refused to let touch my skin.The carriage was lit by a single glass lantern swinging from the roof. He set me down on the wide bench, but he did not step back. He crowded into the small space between my knees, his massive, bare chest still streaked with soot and the dark blood of the men he had killed.He didn't speak. He reached for a basin of warm water and a clean cloth si

The giant executioner looked down at the thin steel blade in my hand, and a deep, rumbling laugh tore from his throat."That is what you bring to a Trial of Blood, girl?" Varg asked, his voice sounding like two grinding millstones. He lifted his double-headed battleaxe with one arm, the dark steel catching the orange glare of the braziers. "A paring knife?"On the elevated dais, Lord Cedric and the five Assembly lords smiled. It was a cold, arrogant sound that echoed off the black granite walls. They saw a woman in a plum velvet dress standing before a seven-foot pit killer, and they believed the outcome was already written in stone.I did not answer him. I did not smile.I took a slow breath, letting the cold air of the hall fill my lungs. Then my wolf, who had been kept small and quiet for so many weeks, finally stirred in the deepest part of my ribs. She lifted her head, her golden eyes opening behind my eyelids, her ancient instincts aligning with the First Moon Seal resting over

His mouth closed over mine before I could form another word, but only for a moment.Caspian kissed me deep and slow, tasting the salt of my skin, the leftover fear, the victory still trembling through both of us. Then he pulled back just enough to look at me properly in the firelight. His silver eyes dragged over my face, my torn sleeve, the soot along my collarbone, the dried blood still streaked near my hairline.His jaw flexed."No," he murmured, voice rough. "Not like this."I blinked up at him, still breathless. "Caspian...""You are covered in war, sweet girl." His thumb brushed my cheek and came away dark. "Ash. Blood. Dirt. I will not take my Queen while the battlefield is still on her skin."Before I could argue, he lifted me again as if I weighed nothing and carried me through the arched doorway into the bathing chamber attached to the royal suite.Steam already curled from the wide stone bath set into the floor, fed by heated pipes beneath the Keep. The water glowed faintly