Semua Bab MOONBOUND: THE HUMAN HEART: Bab 11 - Bab 20

The photo arrived at noon.I was sitting in the dining hall, pushing food around my plate, trying to ignore the way everyone was staring at me. The whispers had been constant since the arena—she's not human, her eyes glowed, she threw Freya across the room—but today felt different.Today, the whispers had teeth.I looked up.A girl at the next table was holding her phone. She was looking at me. Smiling.Not a nice smile.She turned the phone toward me.And my blood turned to ice.The screen showed a photo.Me. Nikolai. In my room. His hands in my hair. My hands on his chest. Our faces inches apart, lips almost touching, the moment frozen forever in perfect, damning clarity.When was this taken?How did someone—And then I remembered.The window.The shape in the darkness.Lukas's green eyes gleaming in the shadows.Got you.I found him in the library.He was sitting in a high-backed chair by the window, a book open on his lap, looking for all the world like he didn't have a care in ex

The photograph slipped from my fingers.Floated down to the stone floor like a fallen leaf.I didn't pick it up.Couldn't.Because my hands were shaking too hard, and my vision was blurring at the edges, and my brain was screaming at me to make sense of what I'd just seen.Nikolai's father.My mother.Together.Intimate."What is this?" My voice came out strangled. "Thorne, what the hell is this?"Thorne bent down and picked up the photograph. He looked at it for a long moment, his gray eyes unreadable, then handed it back to me."Your mother," he said, "and Dmitri Volkov. Nikolai's father.""I can see that." I stared at the image. At the way my mother was leaning into him. At the way his arm was wrapped around her shoulders. At the way they were both smiling—not the polite smiles of acquaintances, but the real smiles of people who knew each other. Really knew each other. "Were they...?""Lovers?" Thorne shook his head. "No. Something more complicated than that.""More complicated tha

The announcement came three days later.I was sitting in the dining hall, pushing food around my plate, when the screens flickered to life. Dozens of them, mounted on the walls, showing the face of Headmaster Vane.He looked older than before. Thinner. The shadows under his eyes were deeper, and his hands trembled slightly as he gripped the edges of the podium.I hadn't spoken to him since I'd walked out of his office.I hadn't opened my mother's letter either.It was sitting in my desk drawer, still folded, still sealed, waiting for me to be brave enough to read it."Students of Silvermoon Academy," the headmaster said. "As you know, the annual Alpha Tournament begins in one week."A murmur rippled through the hall. Excitement. Anticipation. A few students howled."This year's tournament will be different," he continued. "The stakes are higher than they've ever been. The winner will not only become the sole leader of this academy. They will also claim—"He paused.His eyes found me.

The door clicked shut behind Kai.His footsteps faded down the hallway, slow and heavy, each one a small death. I stood in the middle of my room, my hands shaking, my lips still tingling from his kiss.Nikolai hadn't moved.He was still standing by the door, his back against the splintered frame, his golden eyes fixed on me. The firelight caught the angles of his face—the sharp jaw, the hollow cheeks, the scar above his eyebrow."Kai," I said. "Is he—""Gone.""You shouldn't have—""I know."He pushed off from the door.Walked toward me.

I didn't answer Lukas.I couldn't.His words hung in the air between us, heavy and poisonous, and all I could do was stare at his green eyes and try to find the lie beneath them.Nikolai used you for power.He used your body, your blood, your bond.But I would love you."Ela." Lukas reached for me again. "Say something.""No.""No?""I don't believe you." My voice was shaking, but my words were steady. "I don't believe you, and I don't trust you, and I need you to leave.""Ela—"