Iwake in my bed sometime during the night, drenched in sweat, my head pounding like war drums. My muscles ache as though I’ve run for days. I rub my hands down my face. The last thing I remember is heading to the Taste trial.How did I get here?
Then the memory drifts in on a cloudy haze: a pink flower in black raven hair. Sweetness. Then darkness. I missed the Taste trial.
“Fuck.” My fist slams into the mattress hard enough to make the frame groan. The one thing I’d been waiting for, the one trial that brought me back to that night with her. They took it from me.
No.Shetook it from me. I know who the real mastermind is. It’s not Aura, or Rue. It’s Lucia.
Lucia is cleverer than Olcan or Steele ever were. She can’t challenge me directly, so she cuts me where I’m weakest — through Ember. Every trial, she finds a way to twist the knife. She had Aura pull me away just to talk nonsense, keeping me from talking to Ember. Now this. Drugging me, stealing my chance at tasting her.
I grind my teeth until my jaw aches.
And gods, what if Ember thinks I didn’t show up for her? What if she takes this as a sign I’m not interested?
The thought rips something raw inside me. Maybe I’m the fool, still clinging to the idea that she’s mine. After all, she denied me last year. Maybe she found someone else in the year apart. Or worse, she truly doesn’t want me as a mate. I don’t see her busting down my door looking for me, checking to see if I’m okay.
I inhale deeply.
I drag a hand over my scars and let the fury settle into something colder, sharper. If the gods give me one more chance, I’ll prove it to her in the Chase. I’ll burn the world down before I let anyone else take her from me.
As for Aura and Lucia...or anyone else who thinks they can stand between me and Ember, I’ll make sure they regret ever breathing my name.
Chapter 44
EMBER
How dare he touch another female. How dare he let Aura press close when every part of me still aches for him. Maybe I deserve it. I let him go last year. But that wasn’t because I didn’t want him. Gods, I wanted him. I just couldn’t choose him then.
I can’t take it anymore. My chest feels caged, every breath scraping like fire. I need to speak to Thorn. To see him. To look into his eyes and know. The problem is that if we attend the Ceremony tonight, Lucia and her crew of widows will never give us a chance to speak. So, I have another idea.
The ache comes again, twisting so sharply I can’t breathe. So I grab a scrap of parchment, scratch one desperate line, tip toe to the first floor, and slide it under his door before I can lose my courage:
Midnight. First Floor. Alcove with faded picture.
By the time I creep down the corridor hours later, the candles are burning low, shadows spilling long and jagged across the stone. My heartbeat is louder than my footsteps. It was easy to sneak past the temple doors while the ceremony is in full play. The hush of the rest of the castle feels alive, like it’s holding its breath for us.
He’s already there. A breath of relief escapes me.
Leaning against the alcove wall, silver hair catching in the candlelight, those ice-blue eyes pinning me through the dark corridor.Oh, eager wolf, isn’t he?
I expect him to smirk. To taunt. At the very least, drag me into his arms. Instead, he grabs my wrist and pulls me into the shadows with a force that steals the air from my lungs and — just stops.
His chest heaving, his jaw clenching tight, as if he’s holding back something feral. His gaze rakes over me, not hungry, but searching.
“You abandoned me once.” His voice low, raw. “If you’re going to do it again, tell me now.”
The words cut me open. “I’m not leaving.” I breathe, sliding my hand up his chest, feeling the thunder of his heart. “Are you?”
His grip tightens on me, almost painful. “Never,” he states it like a vow, a command.
My throat bobs. “I don’t care what went on between you andher, I just need to know you’re mine now.”
His brow furrows. “Who?”
“Aura…I saw you two. During the Taste trial.” My voice cracks, the words taste like ash in my mouth. The thought of him with another female makes me want to vomit.
He flinches, as though struck. Then snarls, quiet and lethal. “There is nothing between me and any female. Also, I don’t remember the Taste trial. I woke up in my bed after…whatever they did.” His fingers cup my jaw, rough and shaking. “But hear me, Ember. I have been yours since last season. Since the moment you first looked at me like I was more than a beast.”
Something inside me shatters. The tension, the doubt, the lonely ache of a year apart — all of it breaks under the weight of his words.