Chapter 36 · The Alpha Unleashed

Twenty bows. Twenty strings creaking in the cold.

I knelt on the ledge with my forearm still bleeding and Vane's head heavy against my knee. His mouth was red with my blood. Ice dust was falling in my hair.

"Step away from the beast, Seraphina," Garrick called down. He crouched at the lip of the broken ceiling, silver blades gleaming in both fists. He sounded almost kind. "Do it now and I'll make it quick. Cross my heart."

"You don't have one," I said.

"Fair." He lifted two fingers.

The archers drew.

I didn't move. I couldn't. Vane's chest wasn't rising like a man's. It was a slow, deep drag, like something enormous was waking up under my hand.

Then his fingers closed around my wrist. Not hard. Almost careful.

"Sera." It came out gravel and smoke.

My throat locked. "Vane? Look at me. Are you in there?"

His eyes opened. Gold, burning, pupils blown wide. But they found my face first. Before the bows, before Garrick. Me.

"Mine," he said. Then he looked up, and the gold went flat and cold.

"Fire!" Garrick screamed.

I don't remember him moving.