Todos os capítulos de BETWEEN DEATH AND DESIRE : Capítulo 11 - Capítulo 17

"Zevran."His name comes out of me broken, half question, half accusation, because it cannot be him. It cannot be.He sat across from me in the library three days ago with sad eyes, talking about a promise he kept for five years.He gave me a name. He looked like a man carrying guilt, not a man carrying blood."Hello, Elara," he says again, and his voice is right. Every bit of it — the same lazy calm, the same warmth underneath the careless tone.Only his eyes are wrong. They catch the silver light off the altar and hold it too long, too still, like something behind them is watching through a window instead of living in the room."What are you doing here." My voice shakes even though I fight to keep it flat. "How did you even find this place?""I have always known where it is." He steps closer, unhurried, hands loose at his sides like we are still just two friends talking in a quiet library. "I have known since before you died the first time."The fog presses in tighter around us, clo

Time stops.That is the only way I know how to explain it, the world does not move for one long, endless second, everything frozen in place like a painting nobody finished.Kael, still on his knees. Seraphine, still smiling. The blade, still resting light against his throat, close enough that one small shift of her wrist would open him the same way something opened the throats of three dead wolves this past month."Do not move," Seraphine says, soft, almost bored, like she is talking about the weather instead of a man's life. "Wolves heal fast, Alpha, but not from this. Not fast enough.""Let him go." My voice comes out shaking, present tense and desperate, every word scraping past the light still wrapped warm and terrible around my throat. "This is between me and the forest. He has nothing to do with it.""Oh, but he has everything to do with it." Seraphine's pale green eyes slide to me, and there is real delight in them now, sharp and hungry. "You were about to finish the vow, litt

We run.Nobody gives the order. Nobody has to. The moment that howl fades off the mountains, every wolf in the clearing turns toward the castle at the same time, like we are all one animal instead of a dozen separate ones, and then we are moving boots slamming into wet grass, torches swinging wild shadows across the dark, Kael out in front with his wolf half-shifted and his eyes burning bright enough to light his own way."Faster!" he shouts, and nobody wastes breath arguing.I run beside him, chest already aching, because Rue's body has never had to move like this before and it is learning the hard way, right now, in the worst possible moment. Riven keeps pace on my other side, jaw locked tight, his bandaged arm pressed close against his ribs.Behind us, Zevran and Nyra run without looking at each other, both of them carrying grief too raw to deal with on top of everything else happening tonight.The castle comes into view over the last rise, and my stomach drops all over again.Smo