جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 10

Chapter: 1The growl faded into silence, but the darkness stayed thick enough to choke on. I stayed on my feet for as long as I could, chains dragging against the stone, until my legs gave out and I sank to the floor. The cold bit through my clothes immediately. I pulled my knees up and pressed my bound wrists against them, trying to make myself smaller. The iron had already worn raw patches into my skin, and every small shift sent a fresh ache up my arms.“I know you are there,” I said into the black. My voice sounded thin. “Whatever you are. Just get it over with.”Nothing answered. The only sound was my own breathing and the faint drip of water somewhere deeper in the temple. I closed my eyes even though it made no difference. The dark was the same either way. I could still smell the damp stone and the faint metallic trace that might have been old blood. My pulse thudded in my ears hard enough that I wondered if the thing in the dark could hear it too.I thought about the pack hall

The horn sounded again, closer this time, the note sharp enough to cut through stone. Drake rose to his full height and the air around him seemed to tighten. Even standing he stayed inside a rough circle of darker rock at the center of the chamber, as if an invisible line held him there.“I cannot cross the inner marks,” he said. His voice stayed low. “The curse keeps me inside this sanctuary. If they come for you beyond that line, I will not reach you in time.”I looked at the chains on my wrists, then at the sealed doors. “Then what am I supposed to do? Sit here and wait for them to finish what they started?”“Stay close to me.” He stepped back a fraction, making space inside the circle. “As close as you can. They will expect bones. Finding you alive will make them act fast.”Boots struck the outer steps. Voices carried through the heavy doors, casual at first, then sharper when no one answered their calls. Something heavy scraped against the stone. The doors groaned open. Torchligh

Smoke woke me before the heat did.It slid into the chamber in thin gray ribbons at first, then thicker, carrying the sharp smell of burning oil and scorched stone. I pushed myself up on my bound hands, heart already racing. Drake was on his feet in an instant, head turned toward the sealed doors.“They lit the mountain,” he said, voice low and rough. “We have to move.”The chains still linked my wrists. He broke them with one hard twist of his hands, the iron snapping like dry wood. I rubbed the raw skin as he pulled me toward the back of the sanctuary. Heat was already rising through the floor.“There are older tunnels,” he said. “The curse kept me from using them before. It may not hold the same way now.”We slipped through a narrow crack behind the altar that I would never have noticed on my own. The passage beyond was low and tight, walls pressing close on both sides. Drake went first, his broad shoulders nearly scraping the stone. I followed, one hand on the rough wall, the othe

I kept my glowing hand pressed to the rubble and called his name again. On the other side of the collapse I heard stone grinding, claws scraping, and Drake’s low, furious growls. He was tearing the barrier apart with nothing but strength and desperation.“I’m here,” I shouted once more. “I’m all right.”The white light still pulsed faintly under my skin, softer now but steady. Every time I breathed it answered, as if it had finally woken and refused to sleep again. I did not fully understand it yet, but I knew one thing with absolute certainty: this power belonged to me. It had never been absence. It had been waiting.A large slab of rock shifted. Dust poured down. Then a bloodied hand punched through the gap, followed by Drake’s scarred arm and finally his face. His eyes found me instantly. Relief and something fiercer burned in them.“Aria.”He forced the opening wider and climbed through, ignoring the sharp edges that cut his skin. The moment he reached me he dropped to his knees a

Chapter 11 Serena was still on her knees, one hand pressed to the shallow cut on her neck, staring at me as if she no longer recognized the girl she had once called friend. Maya lay several paces away, stunned and gasping, the silver dagger out of reach. White light still flickered around my fingers.I did not have time to comfort either of them.Across the field Drake was already moving again. The moment Maya’s threat ended, he turned his full attention on the center of the army. Ethan tried to rally what remained of his forces, but the sight of the First Alpha—unbound, protected, and no longer a story—had broken something fundamental in the ranks. Wolves who had been ready to die for the royal line only minutes earlier now looked uncertain.Drake reached Ethan’s horse in three powerful leaps. The animal reared in terror. Ethan swung a silver sword in a desperate arc, but Drake’s massive shoulder slammed into the horse’s side and sent both rider and mount crashing to the ground. Etha