Chapter 78

ALINA

I couldn’t shake the feeling of betrayal gnawing at my heart as I walked away from the palace with my mother by my side. The sting of Kai’s rejection, the way he hadn’t backed me in front of Aunt Arya weighed heavy on my chest. I’d expected him to stand by me, to protect me like he always had, but instead, he chose fear over love.

After all, I did. I risked my mother’s life and mine to save him from the skinwalkers. I was a newbie witch so I possibly could not do all of that. But my mother helped me siphon magic from some of the artifacts that contained magic. She told me that it could kill me, doing that, but I still went ahead to do it because I could not stand Kai getting hurt when there was something I could do about it.

How he had driven me out of his house simply because of something he saw, not knowing that my mother was trying to wield back strength after what I went through while killing the white walkers. As we made our way through the winding streets, the evening ai