جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 90

ATHENA The dead fell all at once. Bodies struck the frost around me, some collapsing with their hands still raised, others crumpling on top of the guards they'd been fighting. For several seconds, I couldn't understand why.Then I heard Azai."Find her."I turned. He was still crawling.Ember was gone. There was nothing between the trees where the darkness had swallowed her, but Azai dragged himself towards the empty space anyway."Alpha.""We will.""FIND HER!"The roar ripped through the forest. Then his arm gave out. Azai hit the frost and didn't move again."Azai!"I reached him first.Blood covered his mouth and chin. More stained the frost beneath his face. His claws were still buried in the frozen ground, as though he'd lost consciousness trying to pull himself one final inch towards her.I rolled him onto his back. His eyes stayed closed."Azai."My fingers found the pulse in his throat. It was fast but weak. His chest barely moved."Get the carriage," I snapped. "Now."T

EMBER By the time the door opened again, I had tried to escape seven times.The first three attempts had been embarrassingly straightforward. I threw myself against the door until my shoulder started throbbing, tried picking the lock with one of the pins from my hair, then attacked it with the metal cup I'd thrown at Razan.The fourth attempt involved the bed. The fifth involved the fireplace.There was soot on my cheek, two of my fingers were burned, and I'd discovered that even a desperate woman with newly acquired supernatural abilities could not squeeze herself through a chimney barely wider than her head.After that, I'd searched every inch of the walls, pulled at stones until my fingernails hurt, and screamed for help until my throat turned raw.Nobody came.Now I sat on the floor with my back against the bed, wrapped in the blanket I'd briefly considered using to murder Razan.My body couldn't seem to decide whether it was freezing or burning. Sweat dampened the hair aroun

EMBER The room returned around me, but it wasn't the stone room where Razan had forced the bitter liquid down my throat.I was kneeling on a bed with a dagger in my hand.For a moment, I didn't understand what I was seeing. Moonlight slipped through partially closed curtains, catching on clothes scattered across the floor and the silver teardrop hanging from Azai's ear.He was asleep beside me.My heart sank.Azai lay on his stomach with one arm beneath the pillow, his long black hair covering part of his face. He was naked beneath the sheets, and for once, there was none of the constant tension I associated with him. His shoulders were loose, his breathing deep and slow.His rut had ended only hours ago after three days that had left both of us barely able to stand. Azai's wolf had finally settled, his senses were dulled, and even his healing would be slower until his body recovered.That was why I had chosen tonight. My fingers tightened around the dagger.I had planned this.

EMBER The memory shifted before I could make sense of Kairos's words.One moment, I was lying at the bottom of the ditch with rain striking my face and blood soaking through my clothes. The next, I was sitting in a chair somewhere underground, my wrists bound behind me. The wound in my side was wrapped so tightly that every breath pulled against it.I didn't recognize the room. There were no windows, only damp stone walls and several candles burning on a table nearby. My wet clothes clung to my skin, my hair was dripping down my back, and mud had dried in uncomfortable patches along my legs.Liora stood beside the closed door with her arms folded. Kairos was in front of me.He had changed out of his wet coat and rolled his sleeves to his elbows.I tested the ropes around my wrists. They didn't give."If Azai finds out you tied me to a chair, I'm going to ask him to kill you slowly."Kairos barely reacted. "You had him tonight."The words made me stop pulling at the ropes.He kne

RAZAN Ember had stopped screaming. She sat on the edge of the bed with both hands pressed over her ears, staring at the empty corner of the room. "No," she whispered. "I didn't hurt him." Teyan crouched several feet away from her. He had tried calling her name twice, but she hadn't looked at him. "I didn't hurt my baby." Her voice cracked. Teyan turned to me. "You knew this would happen." I leaned against the table and watched Ember instead. I hadn't known exactly what she would remember or how badly her mind would react, but I knew what too many memories at once could do to her. I'd seen it before. Months ago, after she stabbed Azai. Ember had disappeared into the forest covered in his blood. By the time she was found, she could barely tell what was real. She heard voices constantly. Sometimes they belonged to Azai or Kora. Other times they belonged to people who weren't there. She was convinced she'd hurt her son. That part had been useful. Because she hadn't.