Outside the town hall, there’s absolute chaos. People are rushing everywhere. I spot the uniform of the first order soldiers in the fray, but my eyes swim over the crowd. There’s no lycan where the screaming man was standing. Only a mess of blood remains. My vision goes past that and to the alley
The sounds of the festival are deafeningly loud. Sitting cross-legged on top of one of the taller inns in the market square, I look down at the people laughing and chattering below without a care in the world. Whatever else I can say about the Crown’s safety measures for the Empire, they’ve done a
A plethora of screams bang against my eardrums. I let the spine fall from my hand at his side. I move on to the next one. This one’s farther away, nearly at the edge of the market, and by the time I see him the shift is almost complete. It would be a mess if they shifted completely. The weight of
Zen and I stare at each other, stunned. What’s he doing here? Is the only dumb thought in my mind when I already know what he’s doing. He’s doing his job. He’s hunting the Lycans. But the fresh corpse lying between us is not a lycan. Was he about to shift? Can Zen tell? Can he even tell what I’m
“Three minutes.” Lukas says, though his hand tightens on the hilt of his sword Three minutes left until the twenty minutes Zen asked for are over, I realize with a jolt, my anxious eyes snapping back to the man in question. The beast prowls in front of him, the thrum of its growl in the air. In the
The hotel Lukas booked for the soldiers and us to stay in isn’t as grand as I expected. In fact, it’s a homely little place. My room is separate from Zen’s, a small space with a little bed in one corner and a side table as the only other piece of furniture. I’m grateful that it at least has a bathr
“There was no casualty after all,” Lukas shrugs a shoulder, staring into his drink, an almost lost look on his face “The difference between two hundred causalities and zero is almost unreal. Before tonight, a single lycan would’ve taken hours to deal with.” He laughs, a little dazed “To think someo
On the second floor hallway of the hotel, my eyes drift to the room where Zen is supposed to be. My room is just at its side. I wonder if I knock on his door right now, would he be annoyed? He did ask not to be disturbed. The image of his bloodied arm flashes in my mind. Just a moment. I just want
I barely manage to find a waste bucket before everything I had for breakfast retches out. My throat burns. My vision is blurry. I dry heave every single thing in my stomach, warmth seeps out of the corners of my eyes. I can’t breathe. The smell of blood is everywhere. I sit there, holding the edges
The smell of rotting flesh is disgusting. Its muscle memory to pull the gloves over my hands, pick a scalpel off the medical tray. The body on the metal table in front of me has no head. ‘You have to take a sample of flesh, a sample of blood and take a look at the internal organs.’ Aunt Cynthia’s
How adorable. Apparently, I’m the only one who thinks so, since when I turn back around, everyone from the fourth prince and the first order to passing strangers and our coachman is looking on in disbelief. Is it so difficult to imagine Zen would get along with children? “Don’t leave your mouth ha
“My Lady, am I mistaken or is the fourth prince avoiding me?” I look up from knotting the satchel to my belt to face Zen. There’s a slight furrow in his brows, and he looks at Lukas, standing far, far from us and talking with the first order soldiers. The fourth prince has indeed, been avoiding Ze
I need to move. But even as I think that, I cant bring myself to move. He’s holding me too firmly, I think, entirely reasonable. I won’t be able to slip away like this. Even the most critical part of me can’t find that to be entirely an excuse. After last night, I doubt there’s anyone who would lik
I wake up to the sound of a door knock. My sleep hazed brain registers the sound, recognizes it, and promptly ignores it in favor of cuddling into the warmth of my bed once more. I don’t want to wake up just yet, since last night I fell asleep so late— Last night? My eyes open, blurry with sleep,
But he’s looking at me now, as if the answer might crush him, as if he’s bracing himself for it. I reach out to drape my arms over his shoulders gently, they hang down in front of his chest lightly. “Why? Because you did your job?” I ask quietly, hold his gaze “Or because you didn’t hesitate to do
“Lift your arm, please.” I say, and my voice comes out soft If we weren’t sitting so close to each other, I would’ve missed it. His shoulders tense up, the even breathing stilled into nothing. “You don’t have to do that, Dinah.” Zen finally says My brows furrow. Zen might be a warrior among warri
On the second floor hallway of the hotel, my eyes drift to the room where Zen is supposed to be. My room is just at its side. I wonder if I knock on his door right now, would he be annoyed? He did ask not to be disturbed. The image of his bloodied arm flashes in my mind. Just a moment. I just want