All Chapters of BOUGHT BY THE BEAST: Chapter 61 - Chapter 70

The Council chamber felt different this morning.I noticed it the moment I walked through the doors. The usual tension was there, the careful positioning of bodies around the glass table, the weight of old rivalries pressing down on every conversation.But underneath it all, a new energy hummed through the room. Electric and dangerous, like the air before a storm finally breaks.Caspian was already seated at the head of the table. He didn't look up when I entered. A document held his full attention, his jaw set hard, his posture rigid with the kind of focus that shut out everything and everyone around him.I took my seat beside him without speaking.Morgessa sat across the table, dressed in deep burgundy today, her dark hair swept into an elegant twist that exposed the long curve of her neck. She wasn't looking at me. Her attention was fixed on Caspian, patient and proprietary, and when he finally glanced up from his document, she caught his eye and offered him a small, private smile.

The announcement came at dinner.I was seated beside Caspian at the long table, surrounded by nobles who talked over me and around me and through me like I was a decorative piece they had grown tired of noticing. The food was rich and beautifully arranged, the kind of meal that cost more than most people made in a month, but I couldn't taste any of it.Caspian hadn't looked at me since the Council session. He sat in his chair like a statue carved from ice, responding to questions with clipped, mechanical answers, his fork moving from plate to mouth in a rhythm that suggested habit rather than hunger. The fog in his eyes was thicker tonight. Whatever progress I had made this morning, whatever crack I had found in the wall around him, had been sealed shut again.Morgessa was seated across from us, resplendent in emerald silk that made her eyes glow like something poisonous. She was laughing at something Draven had said, her hand resting casually on the stem of her wine glass, looking for

I didn't sleep at night either.I lay in the dark beside Caspian, listening to the rhythm of his breathing, feeling the faint pulse of the bond that still connected us despite everything trying to sever it. He had come to bed late, slipping under the covers without a word, his body carefully positioned on his side of the mattress with inches of cold sheet between us.He didn't reach for me. He didn't turn toward me. He just lay there, breathing, existing in the same space without actually being present.I watched the ceiling and thought about the map hidden in my jacket. I thought about the winding path that led down into the dark. I thought about the piece of his soul trapped in a chamber a mile beneath my feet.Tomorrow. After Ezra leaves. That's your window.The hours crawled by. Three in the morning. Four. Then the first grey hints of dawn began to bleed through the windows, painting the room in shades of ash and silver.Caspian stirred.I felt him wake, felt the shift in his breat

Morgessa moved like smoke through water.One moment she was at the edge of the chamber, half-swallowed by shadow. The next she stood between me and the pedestal, close enough that I could see the emerald flecks in her green eyes, close enough that I could smell the lavender and metal that clung to her skin like a signature."You found it faster than I expected," she said, her voice carrying the warmth of someone greeting an old friend. "I thought it would take you at least another week. Perhaps two. Even more. But here you are, bleeding and crying in my sanctuary, reaching for something you do not understand."My hand was still extended toward the sphere. I lowered it slowly, curling my fingers into a fist to hide the trembling."I understand enough," I replied. "You stole a piece of his soul. You buried it down here like a battery and you have been draining it to power whatever poison you planted inside him."Morgessa's smile widened. "Battery. What a crude word for something so elega

I went to Seraphine that night.The corridor to the north wing was quiet, the staff having retreated to their quarters hours ago. My footsteps echoed softly against the marble as I walked, my mind still reeling from everything that had happened in the chamber below and everything that had happened after in the suite with Caspian.He trusted me.Even with the fog pressing down on his mind, even with Morgessa's poison whispering lies into his thoughts, some part of him still trusted me. That had to mean something. That had to be enough to build on.Seraphine's door opened before I could knock.She stood in the doorway, her silver hair loose around her shoulders, her ice-blue eyes sharp with concern. She took one look at my face and stepped aside without a word.I walked in and collapsed into the chair that had become mine."You found it, didn't you?""I found it. And I found her waiting for me."Seraphine's expression didn't change, but I saw her fingers tighten on the arm of her chair a