Page 74 of Blood Marked

Nyra stared. And for once, her sarcasm failed her.

“You really love her,” she said quietly.

Kael closed his eyes. “She’s the only thing that makes me feel human.”

Silence stretched between them.

Nyra stood and offered him her cloak.

“Then maybe stop treating her like a liability.”

He looked up.

“She’s stronger than you think,” she said. “And right now? She thinks you’re the threat.”

She turned, her voice trailing behind her like a dagger in his ribs.

“If you want to fix this, start acting like the Alpha she believed in. Not the coward who chose the throne over her.”

Once Nyra vanished, Kael sat there a long time. Alone in the blood and dirt. Until the sun finally rose above the trees, staining the horizon in red.

He knew what he had to do.

THIRTY-TWO

SELENE

Selene had only meant to clear her head.

The citadel had become stifling—every corridor echoing with whispers, every glance a blade. She neededair.Needed space from walls that once promised safety but now only reminded her of Kael’s voice, cold and calculated, and the way the court had looked at her like she was less than nothing.

So she slipped away.

Nyra’s spies had secured a narrow passage that led beneath the east hall ruins—half-collapsed, forgotten, but still walkable. It was supposed to lead to the outer ridgeline.

She told herself she’d be gone for an hour, maybe two.

She never made it to the ridge.

The trap was clever—silent, quick, masked in the scent of Veilroot and old blood.

She stepped into the passage and the world went dark.

Selene woke to firelight and stone.

She was on her knees, wrists bound in iron and Veilthread, her ankles lashed to the base of a blood-stained altar. The scent hit her first—damp earth, incense, and copper. Her head throbbed from whatever drug they’d used to knock her out.

And then she saw him.

Lord Varyn stood a few feet away, cloaked in ceremonial black and red, the sigil of House Duskthorn now gilded with a symbol she recognized from the attack in the citadel. Rising Flame symbols.

He smiled when she stirred.

“Well,” he said, voice like spoiled silk. “The vessel wakes.”

Selene’s stomach churned. “You’re a coward,” she rasped.

Varyn crouched in front of her. “I’m a visionary.”

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