All Chapters of His to protect, theirs to sacrifice : Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

I ran without direction, without a plan, just moving deeper into the trees and away from the house, my bare feet finding roots and uneven ground in the dark that I could not see but had to trust were not going to take me down. A few minutes in I slowed, breathing hard, and realized I had no idea where I was going. The trees all looked the same in the dark and I could not call out because sound carried in a forest and I did not know who else was in it. "Over here," a voice said from my right, barely above a whisper. I froze. "Priya is that you," I said, my voice hushed, my eyes sweeping the dark tree line in every direction. Rustling from the bushes to my right and then Priya stepped out, pushing a branch aside, her eyes finding me immediately. "You made it," she said, moving toward me, something releasing in her expression when she saw me standing there in one piece. "I did," I said. "All thanks to you." I looked at her. "Why did you help me." "Because you are my best f

I turned around to face him. "So what happens tomorrow now that I am not available," I asked. He looked at me with that expression that gave nothing away. "They have already raised an alarm. Now that you cannot be found the ceremony will be postponed until you are located." He paused. "And when they find you you will be chained and locked up. Properly this time." He said it the same way you would say it might rain tomorrow. Completely unbothered. "Are you sure I am safe here," I asked, looking around the room and then back at him. "There is no need to worry about your safety in my quarters," he said. Something about the certainty in how he said it loosened something in my chest. I looked at him standing there in his own space, dark and contained and completely unbothered by the fact that he had just smuggled a wanted human through a tunnel under his own palace. "Why are you helping me," I said quietly. He walked toward me slowly, unhurried, hands sliding into his pocket

Every moment I spent with her made it harder to pretend I did not know what she was to me. I had spent years being certain of very few things. My father's loyalty. My own strength. The particular satisfaction of a world that stayed exactly where I put it. That damn seer. She had sat across from me when I was nineteen years old and told me with complete confidence that I would never find my mate, that my nature made it impossible, that the moon goddess did not make bonds for creatures like me. I had believed her because it was easier than hoping and being wrong. I wondered now what else she had failed to see. I pushed the thought aside and knocked at my father's chamber door. "Come in." The voice that answered was not the one I was used to. Thin. Careful. Like someone measuring how much effort each word cost. I went in and closed the door behind me and crossed the room to his bedside. He looked smaller than the last time I had seen him. Not in height or frame but in the p

"Everyone was aware you would be there," he said. "After the vampire attack attendance was mandatory." "Priya said the same thing," I said, turning my cup slowly on the table without drinking from it. He nodded slowly and then looked down at his fingers with the particular casualness of someone about to say something that was not casual at all. "Besides that I know who is responsible for the poisoning." I set the cup down and stared at him. "You know who poisoned your father." "Yes." "And you are sitting here eating and you are not doing anything about it." "When dealing with enemies," he said, still looking at his fingers, unhurried, like we were discussing the weather or the contents of the meal in front of us, "always let them believe they have the upper hand. The moment they know you know, you lose the advantage." I sat back in the chair and looked at him and understood. It did not make it easier to sit with but I understood. "But why poison him at all," I said, tur

Zara pov We were still at the table when it happened. Caius had been mid sentence, something about the palace schedule and what the day was likely to look like, when he stopped. His eyes went white, completely, the dark blue replaced by nothing, and he sat completely still the way Riya's eyes had done in the car that night. I waited. It lasted maybe ten seconds. Then the color came back and he blinked once and was already on his feet before I had fully processed that the conversation was over. "We need to move you. Now," he said, already crossing the room. I stood up from the table. "What happened, what is wrong." "Priya just mind linked me." He was moving through the room with a purpose that was different from his usual unhurried quality, not panicked but accelerated, the way someone moves when they have a specific problem and a specific window to solve it. "They brought Maren to the house." "Who is Maren." "The white witch coven leader." He stopped in front of the far wall