Page 47 of Blood Marked

A diagram followed, circular symbols radiating from a central sigil.

She traced it with her fingertip.

This wasn’t legend. This washer.

This was her bloodline.

She flipped further, scanning until the words blurred.

They weren’t just keeping her for show. They weren’t marrying her off for political unity.,They were binding her because she waspower.

Not just Kael’s mate. Not just her father’s daughter. But something sacred. Something dangerous. And none of them had told her.

Not Kael or Elias.

Not even the council who’d drafted her into this charade with a smile and a signature.

She sat back against a stack of books, breathing shallow, heart hammering.

So this was the truth.

She was descended from Veilwalkers, those meant toconnectworlds, not be used as leverage in a war neither side fully understood.

She closed the book and stared at the ceiling her father’s vague warnings before he left her on her own, ringing in her ear.

“I’m a damn key,” she whispered. “And they’ve all been trying to turn me.”

The door creaked open behind her.

Nyra leaned against the frame, arms crossed, one silver brow arched.

“Took you long enough to find this place,” she said.

Selene gave her a look. “You knew?”

Nyra shrugged. “Not about your family, no. Though I assumed. But this room? It’s one of the few places they haven’t gutted for court records. My mother used to hide here when she didn’t want to be seen crying.”

That surprised her.

Nyra didn’t seem the type to talk about mothers. Or crying.

“Kael still out in the northern ridge?” Selene asked.

“He came back late last night,” Nyra said. “Didn’t say much. Looked... better. A little less like he was two seconds from tearing out someone’s throat.”

Selene nodded slowly.

She had done that.,And now she needed to decide if she could keep doing it. If shewantedto.

“What’re you going to do?” Nyra asked after a beat, nodding toward the book in Selene’s lap.

“I’m going to finish reading,” she said. “Then I’m going to figure out how to survive being the only damn bridge in a world built on fire.”

Nyra smiled.

Not cruel. Not sarcastic. Just proud.

Selene turned the page.

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