Page 42 of Branded By Shadow
Damon whirled toward me, and a growl rumbled from his chest, vibrating through my bones. He positioned himself between me and the intruders, shielding me with his own body.
But nothing Damon did could really hide me from the eyes of House Artemis. The guards assessed us with predatory precision, cataloguing every detail. They searched for signs of abuse, confinement, or distress, their gaze lingering on the unhealed mark at my throat.
“Are you here against your will?” the taller guard asked, stepping forward. Her hand had moved from her bow, the immediate threat of violence receding with my appearance.
“I’m here by choice.” The lie came easily. Not the truth, but not entirely false either. The complexity of my captivity couldn’t be explained to these strangers. My relationship with Damon existed in shades of gray that Olympian law had no framework to address.
“Are you certain about that answer?” the guard insisted, studying my face.
“I’m certain.”
Damon’s body radiated a heat unlike anything I’d felt from him before. His scent had changed, growing heavier, more demanding, filling my lungs with each breath. If I didn’t sway, it was purely because I knew what a display of weakness would mean.
“Both of you need to appear before the Council at dawn tomorrow.” Swift extended the glowing document toward me, careful to maintain distance from Damon. The parchment pulsed brighter as it neared me, responding to my presence.
“She stays with me.” Damon snarled, the message meant not just for the Olympian Council, but for anyone who might try to separate us.
“Damon,” I said quietly, touching his arm. “It’s okay.”
It really wasn’t, but I had to pretend. Brushing past Damon, I reached for the summons. The document hummed with power, ancient and binding.
The moment I touched the glowing seal, a tingling sensation shot up my arm. The parchment flashed, changing from neutral gold to blue. Its overwhelming weight settled in my hands, heavier than mere paper had any right to be.
“Your acceptance has been recorded,” Swift announced. “Dawn tomorrow. Missing the summons means automatic judgment against you.”
He backed toward the door, never turning his back to us. His quicksilver hair caught the light, creating strange patterns across the walls. “The Council chamber will be prepared for your arrival.”
“We’ll be there.” It was a promise that meant nothing. The binding nature of the document left no room for refusal, no loophole to exploit.
“We’ve noted everything we’ve seen here today.” The Artemis guard stepped backward toward the door. Her warning clear, their testimony already prepared.
The moment they disappeared, Damon’s control slipped further. His breathing grew ragged, his body rigid with tension. The darkness around us pulsed with each labored breath he took, expanding and contracting like the beating of some great heart.
“This is trouble,” Elara said, her voice echoing too loudly in the vast entrance hall. “Alexander knew exactly when to schedule this.”
The summons document burned against my palm. Damon’s gaze locked on mine, his eyes darker than I’d ever seen them. He leaned heavily against a marble column, shaking. And in that moment I understood exactly what Alexander had planned.
By tomorrow, Damon would be in full rut, stripped of control before the entire Council. My strongest ally wouldn’t be able to protect me. It had never been my vulnerability Alexander had sought, but Damon’s. And he’d achieved his goal.
17
Into the Ice
Damon
Rut. It was the one thing all Alphas were defined by, no matter their House, no matter their nature. It was possibly one of the few things House Hades had ever learned to fear.
I was no different.
The messengers were gone, but the ghost of their presence clung to the air in the entrance hall. Normally, the intrusion would have merely irritated me. But something else filled my lungs with each breath, something that fractured my control.
Cora. Her scent had changed during the confrontation, her fear mingling with a deeper, more primal response. The combination clawed at the last threads of my restraint.
I tightened my hold on the column, and the crystalline structure of the stone groaned and fractured under the pressure. A coldness that had nothing to do with temperature radiated from my skin, frosting the polished surface of the floo. It spread not as a color, but as an absence of it, a void that left the air tasting of nothingness.
The intricate gold inlays of the House Hades crest seemed to recoil, their metallic sheen dulling as if tarnished by corrosive age. In the high ceiling, the chandeliers began to vibrate, emitting a low, discordant hum. The light wavered, bending and warping at the edges of my vision, struggling against a physical pressure in the room.
My security team fidgeted, the subtle scrape of their boots on the marble sounding like a landslide in the ringing silence. A sharp, coppery spike of adrenaline tinged their sweat, a temptation to the predator awakening in my blood.
