Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 51 - Chapitre 60

•Shaun•I found her curled against the wall in a side room off the main hallway, knees pulled to her chest, tear tracks still wet on her face, and every ounce of the satisfaction I'd been carrying since that interrogation evaporated the second I saw her like that."Faye." I dropped to my knees in front of her, reaching for her hands before I'd even fully registered doing it. "Hey. Look at me. What happened?"She flinched.Small, barely there, but I caught it, the same way I'd caught it that first morning in the driveway, except this time I didn't have the luxury of brushing it off as nerves she'd eventually outgrow. This was something else. Something that had her curling tighter into herself the second I got close, like my hands reaching for her were the last thing in the world she wanted right now.I pulled back immediately, giving her space, and the flash of guilt that followed hit harder than I expected."I'm sorry." I kept my voice low, steady, forcing every protective instinct sc

•Mimi•I watched Shaun disappear down the hallway, shoulders set in that particular way that told me he wasn't actually going anywhere useful, just walking until the weight of tonight stopped pressing so hard against his chest, and I turned to Luke the second he was out of earshot."That's bad," I said quietly."That's really bad," Luke agreed, running a hand through his hair, something troubled sitting heavy behind his eyes. "I've never seen him look like that. Not after a fight, not after losing warriors on patrol. He looked like someone had actually gutted him.""Because someone kind of did." I leaned back against the wall, arms crossed, thinking it through properly now that the initial shock had settled enough to let me actually process it. "Think about it from her side, though, Luke. She's spent her whole life hiding what she could do. Years of pretending to be normal, and the one person she finally trusted enough to tell the truth to turned around and used that truth to pull her

•Faye•"No. No, please don't."The words tore out of my own throat before I understood I was the one saying them, dream-logic thick and suffocating, pinning me somewhere between the hallway of my childhood home and somewhere else entirely, walls that didn't belong to either place bleeding together at the edges."Please. I'll be good. I'll be a good girl, I promise, just—"The voice above me shifted midsentence, slurred and familiar one second, cold and precise the next, my stepfather's shape dissolving into something taller, broader, a face I knew just as well wearing an expression I'd only seen once, calm and methodical, patient in exactly the way that made my whole body understand there would be no reasoning with whatever came next.Shaun's hand closed around mine, gentle, almost tender, the same way he always held it. Except this time there was a blade in his other hand, and when he looked at me his eyes held nothing I recognized, no warmth, no patience, just that same terrible, fo

•Faye•I woke again sometime before dawn, not screaming this time, just drifting up slow out of something murky and uneasy, and found Shaun exactly where he'd promised to stay, slumped against the wall by the door, eyes closed but not quite asleep, the tension still sitting visible in his shoulders even in rest.Hey.The thought slid into my head soft and careful, and I blinked, recognizing the particular rumble of it immediately even half-awake.Thunder?You're awake. Good. Something relieved threaded through the words. I wanted to check on you, but I didn't want to just barge in without asking first. Given everything.I glanced over at Shaun again, still slumped against that wall, breathing slow and even. Does he know you're talking to me right now?Yes, actually. A small pause, almost sheepish. I told him. After everything that happened tonight, it didn't feel right keeping it from him anymore. Not after watching what fear can do when it's left to grow in the dark without anyone ac

•Vikky•"The human is of no use anymore."I kept my eyes down as I said it, knees pressed hard against the cold stone floor of the chamber, not daring to lift my head and meet the gaze I could feel boring into the top of my skull regardless. The air itself seemed to grow heavier the longer I knelt there, thick with the particular kind of silence that always preceded something far worse than shouting."When I asked you to bring her to me," Queen Mother said, slow with each word carrying weight enough to crush stone, "you told me to wait. You told me there was a bigger plan in motion. And now, after months of patience I did not naturally possess, all you have to report back to me is that the human is of no use anymore?"Her voice curled around my own words, mimicking them back at me with a mocking precision that made my stomach twist tighter than the fear already sitting there."I'm sorry, Queen Mother."I didn't even see her hand move.One moment I was kneeling, bracing for whatever ca