Todos los capítulos de Surrogate for the Lycan King : Capítulo 71 - Capítulo 80

Chapter Seventy-Two — The House That WaitedKelsey’s Pov Zeus didn't answer Eira's letter with surrender. He answered it with a hunting party."The Council hears the King is taking a guest out to the eastern grounds," he'd told Marcus that morning, buttoning his cuffs like he was discussing the weather. "Nothing more.""And the guest?" Marcus asked."Is a human woman who happens to dislike sitting still."I'd pretended not to hear that part.So we rode out, the four of us: Zeus, Marcus, Lucian, and me, packed into a carriage that felt too small for the amount of silence in it. Lucian sat across from me with his jaw set, staring out the window like he was memorizing the road. Marcus watched Lucian. Zeus watched me.I kept my eyes on the stone in my palm.It was cold, even after an hour of my holding it, and the Queen's mark on my wrist gave a faint, steady pulse whenever my thumb crossed the black surface. I turned it over and over, trying to fit two things together that wouldn't quit

Chapter Seventy-Four — The Seventeenth Cofferkelsey's pov Zeus's aura hit the courtyard like a wall of cold water.I felt it in my teeth. Every torch on the walls leaned sideways at once. The riders in grey staggered in their saddles, horses screaming and rearing, and for one long breath not a single crossbow fired. Men who had been ready to kill me were suddenly fighting just to stay upright."Move!" Zeus roared, without looking back. "Marcus, the stairs!"Marcus was already there, sword out, planting himself on the steps below me. Zeus stood beside him, shoulders squared against the whole courtyard, the gold in his eyes visible even from where I stood.Then a hand closed around my wrist."This way." Lucian was breathing hard, his face the color of paper. "Now, Kelsey. Please.""Zeus—""He can hold them. He cannot hold them and watch you at the same time." He was already pulling. "There's one door in this estate Roderick's men can't take by force. I'll show you."I let him drag me.

Kelsey’s POV Lucian looked like he hadn't slept since the east wall blew.I knew that look. I've seen it in the mirror every morning since the coffee. He stood in my doorway with his coat creased and his hair pushed back like he'd dragged his hands through it a hundred times, and when Rowan took the tray and slipped out, he didn't even try for a smile."Thank you for seeing me," he said."You asked nicely." I pointed at the chair by the window. "Sit before you fall over."He sat. I stayed on the edge of the bed, because the couch felt too much like a conversation and I wasn't sure I could afford one. Mid-morning light came through the glass, thin and grey. Somewhere below, guards were still sweeping the courtyard."Zeus doesn't know I'm here," Lucian said. "I told Marcus it was about the estate paperwork. He gave me a look.""He gives everyone a look.""This one was worse."That nearly made me laugh. It died before it reached my mouth. "Tell me what happened with your father."He rub

kelsey's Pov Edmund led us back through the cellar corridors with a lantern, and nobody spoke.It was late evening, and the estate had gone still in the strange way a house does after a siege. Burned timber still hung in the air. Zeus walked half a step behind my shoulder, close enough that I could feel the heat of him. Lucian came last, silent, his eyes on the back of his father's head.The sealed room sat at the end of the lower wing, behind a door so plain I would have walked past it. Edmund laid his palm flat against the wood and said something under his breath. The air shivered, like a held breath let go, and the door opened.Inside was a small stone chamber with one table and one iron case set on it. Edmund unlocked the case with a key he wore on a chain beneath his shirt. His hands were shaking. I had never seen that from him, not at the dinner table, not in the courtyard with crossbows aimed at me.He lifted out a ledger bound in dark, cracked leather and set it down in front

kelsey's POVWe didn't go back to my chambers.By the time we climbed out of that stairwell, the bells were still ringing and half the palace stood in the garden with their faces turned up to the blazing tree. Zeus put the crown under his cloak and Marcus walked us out the long way, through the kitchens. Varian stayed behind to say the light was a natural flare of old magic and he'd been studying it all week. I don't know if anyone believed him. I know nobody argued.Zeus didn't speak until we were in the carriage. Then he said, "Edmund's house. Tonight. If someone bled on that wall, I want his seal and his portraits in front of me, not a day from now."I didn't argue either. There was a girl on that wall in the dining hall I couldn't stop thinking about.---Edmund received us in the same cold hall where he'd fed us dinner. Lucian stood beside him, pale, with the look of a man who hadn't been allowed to sit down in days. The long table was bare. Someone had lit every torch on the far