All Chapters of BOUGHT BY THE BEAST: Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

"Get the healer," Caspian called out, his voice deadly calm. "Now."He was staring at my wrist where the shadows moved beneath my skin. Slow. Deliberate. Like something alive.Through the bond, I felt his terror."It doesn't hurt," I said. Which was true. The pain had dulled. That should've been reassuring.It wasn't."That's worse." Caspian carefully rewrapped the bandage. "If you can't feel it spreading, we don't know how far it's gone."The healer arrived within minutes. The same older woman who'd treated me after the blood ritual. She took one look at my wrist and her face went pale."Shade corruption," she said quietly. "I was afraid of this.""What does that mean?" I asked."The Shade's touch doesn't just damage flesh, it leaves behind... fragments. Pieces of the void it came from." She unwrapped my wrist fully, examining the blackened skin. "It spreads slowly. Quietly. Until it reaches something vital.""How do we stop it?""I don't know." Her honesty was refreshing if terrifyi

The temple ruins sat on a hill outside the city walls.Ancient stone. Crumbling columns. The kind of place where bad things happened in stories.Perfect setting for a trap.I rode alone, as instructed. My corrupted arm throbbed with each heartbeat. The shadows had spread to my collarbone now. I could feel them creeping toward my throat.Days. I had days left.Through the bond, I felt Caspian nearby. Hidden in the tree line with Ezra and a dozen warriors. Close enough to intervene. Far enough not to be seen.Supposedly.The moon was full, casting silver light across the ruins. Making the shadows deeper. More threatening.I dismounted. Tied my horse to a fallen pillar."I'm here," I called out. "As requested."Silence.Then movement in the shadows.A figure stepped into the moonlight.Not Morgessa.A woman I'd never seen before. Young. Beautiful. Dark hair and darker eyes. Dressed in robes that seemed to absorb light."Your Majesty," she said, her voice smooth. "Thank you for coming.""

The power felt like being torn apart from the inside.Not pain exactly. Worse. Like every cell in my body was being rewritten. Replaced. Transformed into something else entirely.I couldn't stop screaming.Through the bond, I felt Caspian's terror. His desperate need to intervene."Don't move," Nyx called out to wherever he was hiding. "If you disrupt the ritual now, she dies. Painfully."The ritual circle pulsed brighter. The symbols on the ground began to crawl up my legs like living things.The void corruption in my arm reacted violently. The frozen shadows started moving again, fighting against whatever Nyx was doing.Two types of darkness warring inside me."That's it," Nyx murmured. "Let them fight. Let the void burn out against the shadow. That's how purification works.""You said... you said you'd cure me," I gasped between screams."I am curing you. The void will be gone. Completely." She circled the ritual space, chanting in a language I didn't recognize. "But nature abhors

The dungeons beneath Thorncross Keep smelled like desperation and old stone.I descended the spiral stairs slowly, my ribs still aching from the battle. Caspian wanted to come but I'd refused.This was something I needed to do alone.Two guards stood outside Morgessa's cell. They bowed when they saw me."Your Majesty. Are you sure you want to--" "Open it."They exchanged glances but obeyed.The cell door swung open with a rusty groan.Morgessa sat on a stone bench, wrapped in silver chains covered in suppression runes. She looked up when I entered."Your Majesty," she said mockingly. "Come to gloat?""Come to get answers.""I have nothing to say to you.""You attacked my kingdom. Sided with the Shadow Court. Nearly got hundreds of people killed." I leaned against the cell wall. "You're going to die for this. The only question is whether you talk first."She laughed. "Threatening me? How delightfully predictable.""Not threatening. Stating facts." I studied her. "What did they promise

"We need to start with Isolde," Ezra said.We'd gathered in the war room. Me, Caspian, Ezra, and Seraphine. The four of us against whatever conspiracy was brewing in the Council."Isolde voted to support the coronation," I said. "What changed her mind?""Fear," Seraphine said simply. "She's pragmatic. Calculates risks. And right now, supporting you looks riskier than opposing you.""So we change the calculation.""How?" Ezra asked.I thought about it. "We show her that removing me creates more problems than keeping me. That the instability of a succession crisis is worse than the chaos I've supposedly caused.""That might work if she's acting rationally," Caspian said. "But what if she's being coerced? Threatened? What if someone's forcing her hand?""Then we find out who and eliminate the threat.""In three days.""In three days."Seraphine leaned back. "There's something else you should know. Isolde's daughter was at the east wall during the siege. Injured but alive. The girl's only