Semua Bab The Phoenix Wolf's Awakening : Bab 101 - Bab 110

Mona's POV Althea's friends were still smoking when we found them—their clothes burned away, their skin covered in frost-patterns from Vesna's corrupted fire that burned cold instead of hot."She came out of nowhere," the first girl whispered through cracked lips, her eyes unfocused with shock. "Althea was laughing about something, showing us a new spell she'd learned, and then... and then there was ice-fire everywhere."Seven days. Seven days since we'd found the mountain caves empty except for Cassian's blood on the walls and Viktor's claw marks in the stone. Seven days of nothing while Vesna moved through shadows we couldn't pierce. Now this—Selena's daughter taken right from a protected witch path, in broad daylight, with witnesses left alive on purpose."The note," the second girl said, holding out a piece of parchment with shaking hands. "She made us memorize it before she'd let us go. Said if we didn't deliver it word for word, she'd come back."The parchment was ordinary, the

Mona's POV Cassian's eyes were completely white when Vesna made him deliver the message—not blind, but empty, like looking into fresh snow that had never been touched."Three days," my son said in a voice that wasn't his anymore. "The old granite quarry where grandmother died. Come alone. We discuss terms."Then he collapsed, his small body hitting our courtyard stones with a sound that made my phoenix heart stop. Derek caught him before his head struck granite, but when Cassian's eyes opened, they were still wrong—flickering between his normal brown and that terrible white, like he was fighting something inside his own skull."Mom?" One word, barely whispered, before the white took over again and he stood up, walked to the eastern gate, and disappeared into the forest before any of us could stop him. We tried to follow. His scent vanished after ten feet. His footprints ended at the tree line. Even Rose's empathic gift found nothing—like he'd stopped existing the moment he left our s

Mona's POV "Your mother screamed my name when she died," I said, and watched Vesna's composed face crack like ice under spring sun."Don't—""Not in anger. In regret. Her last word wasn't your name—it was mine. 'Tell Mona I understand now.' That's what she said while her phoenix fire ate her from inside." I kept my voice level, factual, the way you'd read a grocery list. "I didn't kill her, Vesna. Her own corrupted power did. I just broke the circle that was holding it back."Vesna's hands clenched in her lap, knuckles white as exposed bone. "She crawled fifty miles—""After poisoning me for three years." I pulled back my sleeve, showing the old scars that never fully healed. "Nightrose extract in my food. Small doses. Every meal from age thirteen to sixteen. Your mother wanted me weak but alive, ready to harvest when my phoenix matured. Did your Bloodrose remnants tell you that part? Or did they edit the story to make her more sympathetic?""You're lying.""I'm not." I reached into

Mona's POV The orphanage basement smelled like forty years of mold and regret, but Cassian and Althea were breathing—that's all that mattered.Derek carried Cassian while I held Althea, their small bodies limp but warm, hearts beating steady against our chests. Nova led the way out, phoenix fire lighting the collapsed corridors. We didn't speak. What was there to say? We'd found them, but the victory felt hollow as Vesna's hatred—present but weightless, real but empty.Sophie met us at the safe house, medical kit already open. "Put them here," she said, indicating two cots she'd prepared. Her hands moved with practiced efficiency, checking pupils, pulse, breathing. "Sedated, not poisoned. They'll wake naturally in a few hours.""You're sure?" Derek's voice cracked with father-fear."I'm sure." Sophie glanced at me, reading something in my face. "What happened with Vesna?""She let them go. Just... let them go." I sat down hard, exhaustion hitting like a physical weight. "She's tired,

Mona's POV The message reached me at the cottage on the fourth morning, and it broke something open in my chest.Sophie's handwriting, carried by one of Vesna's own runners — a strange mercy in itself. *The children woke. They aren't ours. Two frightened orphans, drugged and dressed in Cassian's coat and Althea's ribbons. A decoy. Bloodrose remnants left them to make us stop looking. Mona hasn't slept since. Don't tell her you know. Just come home.* I read it three times. My hands wouldn't stay still. We had celebrated over the wrong children. We had held two strangers' babies and whispered *safe now* into hair that wasn't theirs. Somewhere out there, the real Cassian and Althea were still gone, still afraid, still counting days in the dark. I folded the paper very small and slid it into my boot, and I did not let my face change. Vesna was watching me across the room, her tea gone cold, her eyes sharp as broken glass. She had told me she was hollow. But hollow people notice everythin