บททั้งหมดของ A Deal With The Lycan King: บทที่ 41 - บทที่ 50

“You can't be thinking of doing that."
 Samkiel didn't even slow. "I am."
 "He specifically said—"
 "I know what he said." Samkiel's voice had turned hard. "I was there." 
 They'd been at this for minutes now, circling each other like wolves deciding whether to bare teeth. Yrene stepped into Samkiel's path. "Then you know he doesn't want her to see him like this. You know what he'll do to you when he finds out—"
 "If he finds out." Samkiel's green eyes glinted. "Which requires him to wake up. And last I checked, that wasn't looking likely."
 Yrene flinched. Just barely. "That's not—"
 "That's exactly the point." Samkiel moved around her.
 "I want to respect his wishes!" Yrene's composure cracked. She stopped. Swallowed hard. "He's trying to protect her."
 "From what? The truth?" Samkiel's laugh was bitter and sharp. "She's a Binder, Yrene. He dragged her into this the moment he brought her here.

'Why did you ask for the ring?'
 Sirius didn't answer immediately, which was unusual. Her wolf rarely hesitated. When she did speak, her tone had shifted, 'The ring of the Great Lycan King isn't some ornament.' Saeris could almost feel her wolf sorting through thoughts, weighing words. 'It keeps him from the madness of the Cradle-Eater.'
 Cradle-Eater. The name alone made her stomach turn.
 'But it won't hold much longer. The corruption spread too far before the ring was returned to him.'
 Saeris closed her eyes, breathing through the weight of that information. 
 She opened them to find herself standing in the stable yard, watching Samkiel run an assessing hand down a white mare's flank. A black stallion stood beside the mare, already saddled, pawing at the ground with barely contained energy: Samkiel's mount, no doubt. The creature looked as wild as its rider.
 They won't be needing a carriage. Samkiel had made that cle

“What are you?” Nyx shrieked again, stepping away from Saeris, ferocious laceration clawed across her forearm all the way up her arm. Saeris didn't answer. She was already waiting—a wolf sizing enemy—ready for when Nyx would pick the fallen Syringe. She was still tied up but her left arm had broken through the rope somehow, had inflicted that damage on Nyx's arm— Another roar sliced through the camp. Nyx bolted for the door, swearing as she tore a sleeve from her clothes. ‘What did you do?’ Sirius’s voice was like hot iron. ‘She came for you. But Binders are not prey.’ Saeris didn't understand. Outside, the yelling intensified. Roars. The wet thunk of metal meeting flesh. Saeris didn't waste time. She threw herself sideways, chair and all, hitting the floor hard enough to rattle her bones. The impact jarred her shoulder, but the chair splintered, not enough to break free, but it gave her leverage. She twisted, st

Tea had turned cold in Saeris's hands by the time she'd finished explaining. Caelthrien had listened without interrupting, and when Saeris finally ran out of words—ran out of ways to describe the black veins crawling across Vaelen's chest, the way his body had convulsed, the sound he'd made when the beast tried to claw its way out—Caelthrien had simply set down her own cup and said, "I need to see." Caelthrien had told Saeris she could walk through memories. Hers, if she permits it. Invasive or not, letting someone rifle through her head seemed like exactly the kind of blunder she didn't want to permit. She allowed it. That's how Saeris found herself standing in front of the tree that made absolutely no sense. It dominated the southern pavilion’s rear, trunk wider than three men standing shoulder to shoulder, bark twisted in spirals that hurt to follow with her eyes, and branches spreading so far they created a canopy of blossoms—vivid

The liquid gold spat Saeris out into a chamber. She stumbled, caught herself on nothing, and would've dwelled on the fact that she'd just traveled through an actual gods-damned portal, one that only Binders could use, one that had folded distance like paper, or maybe she would've spent time turning over Caelthrien's parting words ‘use the bond’ except her brain didn't have room for any of that because Samkiel had gone rigid the second his boots hit stone. Every line of his was rigid. Saeris looked past him. Kaan stood near the far wall, and the shock on his face would've been funny under different circumstances. She really did get one on him … might’ve enjoyed too much how those amber eyes went wide as they watched them materialize out of the silver spiral. But that wasn't what made Saeris's heart stop. Vaelen was on his knees. Chained to the wall like a fallen angel someone had tried to crucify, thick iron links ru