Alle Kapitel von The Beta's Forsaken Daughter : Kapitel 131 – Kapitel 140

Isabella POVGreywater Abbey was uglier than I expected.I had imagined a dark fortress with black towers and ravens. Instead, it was a sprawling wreck of gray stone, half-burned and half-rebuilt, squatting on a bare hill above a frozen river. The old chapel had lost its roof. A crooked bell tower leaned to one side. New wooden palisades had been thrown up around the courtyard, and smoke rose from a dozen cooking fires.It looked like a ruin that was trying to pretend it was a home.“Down,” whispered Morrigan.I dropped flat on my belly in the snow. We were lying on a ridge about half a mile from the Abbey walls, hidden behind a clump of dead juniper. Beside me, Morrigan had a spyglass pressed to her eye. On my other side, Wren, in her wolf form, lay with her nose between her paws, white fur invisible against the snow.Seven towers, said Wren, in my head. Three gates. A dozen sentries.I see them.And a strong smell of sulfur.That is the dragon.I know. I hate him.I almost smiled.

Isabella POV The river tunnel smelled like wet stone and dead leaves.It was narrow, barely wide enough for two people to walk side by side, and low enough that Aelion had to stoop. Water dripped from the ceiling. The floor was slick with ice. We moved in single file, with only a faint gold glow from Aelion’s marks to light the way.“Left,” whispered Edmund, at the front. “There is a step.”I stepped. My boot slipped. Thane’s big hand closed around my arm, steadying me, and let go.“Thank you,” I breathed. “Mind the wall, Your Majesty. It is sharp.”I minded the wall. Behind me, Morrigan muttered something rude under her breath. Up above us, a thin Sunlit guard named Ferris Cole was wearing my hooded gray cloak and walking in the open toward the front gate, and I did not want to think about it.He will be fine, said Wren.He is not even a wolf. He is only a boy in a borrowed cloak.He is very brave.That is what worries me.We walked for what felt like hours. The tunnel curved, narr

Killian POV The moon rose over Greywater like a wound.It was huge and red-gold, hanging low above the broken towers, and it painted the snow the color of old blood. I stood at the head of my army on the frozen field below the Abbey, in my wolf form, with four hundred wolves at my back and three hundred Sunlit riders drawn up in perfect lines on the flank. Nobody spoke. The only sound was the wind and the soft snort of horses.Across the field, the great front gates stood closed.It is time, said Marcus, in the pack link.Not yet.The Queen’s decoy is at the gate.I see him.A small figure in a gray cloak was walking slowly across the snow, alone, toward the Abbey. His hood was drawn low. He moved stiffly, and from this distance, he looked exactly like her. I had to look away.Please, I thought. Let it hold for ten minutes.The figure reached the gate. It stopped.For a long moment, nothing happened.Then, with a groan of iron, the gates began to open.They swung inward, slowly, and

Killian POVI ran.I do not remember deciding to. One moment I was standing over the dragon’s body with gold on my claws. The next, I was across the courtyard, past the burning barricades, through the broken inner gate, with my wolf screaming in my head.Isabella.Isabella!The bond lay silent. It was not broken. I could still feel the thread, thin as a hair, stretching away into the dark. But there was no pulse in it, no warmth, only a vast, heavy stillness.“Killian!” Marcus’s voice cracked across the courtyard. “Wait! The Abbey is full of rogues!”“Hold the gate!”“Alpha!”I did not stop. A rogue sprang at me from behind a pillar. I tossed him aside without slowing. Another swung a sword. I snapped it in half. The great doors of the old chapel loomed ahead, and I hit them with my shoulder and burst through.Inside, the roofless nave was full of snow and moonlight. The pews had been burned. A stone staircase, half hidden behind a toppled statue, led down into darkness.The cellars,

Killian POVI carried her out of the Abbey in my arms.I do not know why I would not let anyone else touch her. Aelion offered. Morrigan offered. Even Darius, swaying on his feet, with blood running down his arm, said, “Brother, let me.” I shook my head. I held her closer. She was so light. Her head lay against my shoulder, her short hair tickling my chin, and she breathed slowly, evenly, like a child asleep.She was alive. She was warm. I had to keep reminding myself.The courtyard was full of dawn.Gray light crept across the snow. Smoke rose in thin black lines from the burned barricades. Everywhere, wolves and Sunlit riders moved among the bodies, helping the wounded, gathering the dead. The rogues had surrendered an hour before. Three hundred of them knelt in a long row beside the gate, their wrists bound with Sunlit rope, staring at the ground.At the head of the row stood Queen Corisande, in her green cloak, with Marcus on one side and Rowan Pike’s second on the other.