جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 40

ASK KAEL WHO RECEIVED THE MONEY.I stared at the message until the letters blurred into a smear of white and black. My fingers had gone numb around the phone, like my own body had decided it didn't want to be holding this thing anymore.Kael stood a few feet away, watching me with that careful stillness he got when he already suspected something was wrong."What did they send you?"I didn't answer right away. I couldn't make my mouth work."Serena." His voice sharpened. I turned the screen toward him without a word. His eyes moved across the message, then dropped to the financial document still lying open on the desk between us. Something in his face went hard."I don't know what this is."I laughed — short, ugly, nothing like an actual laugh. "Of course you don't.""I genuinely don't know, Serena.""Then let's find out. Right now." I snatched the document off the desk before he could stop me.He stepped closer, and for a second I thought he might actually try to take it back from me.

The phone slipped from my hand.For several seconds, I could only stare at the last message glowing up at me from the cracked screen.THE NEXT ONE IS CLOSER THAN YOU THINK.Kael stood beside the car, phone pressed to his ear, and something in his face had already changed before he even hung up. Not the usual irritation. Not the low simmer he wore when his Frenzy threatened to surface. This was colder. Sharper. The kind of quiet that made the air around him feel dangerous to breathe."Where?" he asked. A pause. His jaw tightened until I could see the muscle jump. "Keep everyone away from the body. Don't touch anything until I get there."He ended the call instantly. "It's true?" My voice came out smaller than I wanted.He looked at me. "His accountant is dead."The words landed harder than they should have. I'd never met the man — hadn't even known his name until tonight — but his death felt personal after everything that had come before it. The photograph. The money. The bracelet. The

SERENA POVThe first scream came from the training grounds.I was still holding the document when it happened — the numbers on Kael's father's old ledger blurring in my hand as a sound tore through the estate. A scream, sharp and terrified, followed by the crash of something heavy splitting through wood.Kael's head snapped toward the window.I watched his whole expression change in less than a second. Not fear. Recognition. Something colder."The Frenzy," he whispered. Then he ran."Kael!" I was already moving, my heels catching on the stone floor. "Kael, wait—"He didn't stop. He never stops when it matters, and that's exactly the thing I love and hate about him in the same breath.We crossed the courtyard and reached the Blackwood training grounds just as three guards were thrown backward like they weighed nothing. One slammed into a wooden barrier and didn't get up right away. Another rolled through the dirt, gasping. The third didn't move at all.In the center of the ring stood E

SERENA POVKael stared at my pocket. My phone vibrated again, and this time the sound seemed louder than a gunshot in the quiet room.His eyes stayed fixed on me, unreadable in a way that scared me more than shouting would have."Who is it?"I forced a smile onto my face. "Probably Mia.""At this hour?""She has terrible sleeping habits. Always has.""Then let her sleep."His voice was calm. Too calm. I could feel the tension rolling off him in waves, pressing against my skin like heat off a fire.The phone buzzed a third time. Kael's jaw tightened."Serena."I took a step back. A small movement, barely noticeable, except Kael noticed everything. He always noticed when I pulled away from him, when I hid my thoughts, when I smiled without meaning it. And now, with his Frenzy simmering just beneath his skin, I knew he could smell my fear on me like perfume."Give me the phone," he said.My heart slammed against my ribs. "Excuse me?""Give me your phone."I laughed, but it came out britt

SERENA POVThe massive wolf stepped through the flames, and every sound in the courtyard died with it.Even the warriors around me seemed to forget how to breathe.Its fur was black, darker than the smoke curling off the burning gate. A silver collar circled its throat, engraved with the same broken-circle insignia I'd seen on the assassin who'd come for me days ago.But the collar wasn't what frightened me.It was the way the wolf looked at me. Not like prey. Not like an enemy. Like it had been waiting for me specifically, for longer than I'd been alive.Kael moved in front of me before I even registered him stepping close."Stay behind me, Serena."I grabbed his arm anyway. "Don't provoke it."His head turned, just slightly, enough that I caught the gold already bleeding into his eyes. "It's standing in our territory.""And you're already this close to losing control. That's not a coincidence it's counting on, Kael, that's a trap."His gaze sharpened on me, and I knew I'd touched so