Chapter 25 · Under the Red Crown

The thing wearing the crown wanted blood.

I could feel it pulsing behind my eyes, hot and hungry. Red threads crawled across my vision every time I blinked. The wolves were still arguing, voices bouncing off the sanctuary walls like they had all the time in the world. Silas kept glancing at me. He knew.

"Kade." Lyra's hand found my arm. "We need to—"

"Get them out." My voice came out wrong. Scraped. "Now."

Silas moved fast. Started herding the others toward the door. But Garrett wouldn't budge. Young, stupid Garrett who thought he had something to prove.

"You just bound us to a vampire." He stepped closer, and I could smell the fear-sweat on him. "You expect us to—"

The crown flared.

It wasn't a real crown. Not metal or jewels. It was the curse, the piece we'd torn out of me and bled into the altar. Except it hadn't died. It had changed. Solidified. Now it sat in the crack like a living thing, pulsing red light across the stone.

And every time my wolf surged up to protect, to defend, to lead—the crown fed.

I felt it happen. The pull.