Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 1 - Chapitre 7

Nyra's POV"I don't know what you're talking about."My voice came out steadier than I felt. Under the veil, my nails were cutting crescents into my palms.Lyra laughed softly, like I'd told a sweet little joke. "Of course you don't." She smoothed a crease from her red sleeve. "Let me make it simple for you, since Ashfall never did teach its girls to read. Keep your mouth shut, stay out of his way, and nobody needs to visit that sad little cottage at the edge of your stepfather's land."My blood went cold. "If you touch him...""Him?" Her eyebrows lifted. "Him who? I thought you didn't know what I was talking about."I said nothing. I'd already said too much."That's what I thought." She leaned in again, and the smell of roses made my stomach turn. "Five years ago, nobody believed you. Do you really think anybody will believe you now?""Lady Lyra."A man's voice cut in from behind us, calm and polite. Lyra straightened at once, her smile snapping back into place."Silas," she said. "I

Nyra's POV"If they catch me, they'll skin me alive, my lady."The stable boy couldn't have been older than fourteen. He was all elbows and freckles, and he kept glancing at the stable door like the Alpha himself might walk through it."Nobody is going to catch you, Pip." I pressed the ring into his palm and folded his fingers over it. "This was my mother's. It's real silver. Sell it in the market and you'll have enough to feed your family for a whole winter."He stared at it. "Why me?""Because you're the only one who's smiled at me since I got here." I tried to smile back, but it came out shaky. "And because you know the back roads."It was past midnight. The stables smelled of hay and leather and warm horse, and the only light came from a single lantern I'd turned down so low it barely glowed. My burned hand throbbed under its bandage. I hadn't slept. I couldn't. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw Silas riding through the gates of Ashfall."Say it back to me," I whispered.Pip swal

"You wouldn't.""Try me."Lucan said it so simply. No anger, no shouting. Just a fact, like telling me it would rain tomorrow.Pip was still on his knees, rubbing his raw wrists. He looked up at me with wet eyes. "My lady, don't. It's all right. I can take it.""You're a child," I snapped. "You can't take forty lashes. Nobody can.""Then talk," Lucan said.I looked at him. Really looked. At the scar on his temple, the hard set of his mouth, the grey eyes I had loved since I was seventeen. Somewhere inside this cold stranger was the boy who used to skip stones with me on the river and laugh when mine sank. I had to believe that. If I stopped believing it, I'd have nothing left."There's an old woman in Ashfall," I said slowly. "Her name is Odette. She took me in when I had nowhere else to go. She's the closest thing to a mother I have.""The aunt.""Yes. She isn't really my aunt. I only said that because..." I swallowed. "Because I thought you'd let me write to family.""And the messag