Page 21

21

ERYSS

T he room explodes.

One second, Naranus is standing beside me, poised like a storm waiting to break. The next, he’s lunging forward, claws drawn, ready to tear the intruder apart.

No. The voice is too familiar, and their figures, despite being covered, are something I won’t forget. I need to confirm!

I throw myself between them, hands raised, screaming his name. “Stop!”

He’s mid-swing when my voice cuts through him.

His momentum halts, but barely. His claws graze my shoulder, the heat of his fury pulsing against my skin. His golden eyes burn, wild, flickering between me and the shadowed figure before us.

The figure moves.

Two figures. Two women.

The light shifts, and I see them clearly.

My chest clenches.

“Eryss?”

I barely hear the whispered name before I stumble forward.

Amelia and Catalina.

They’re my sisters.

Not by blood, but by bond. By the sisterhood forged in the cages of our youth, in the whispered rebellions beneath the moon, in the shared secrets and silent vows to never let the world break us apart.

They found me.

My pulse hammers in disbelief as Amelia steps forward, her dark curls half-wild, eyes scanning me from head to toe, looking for injuries, looking for proof that I’m still whole. Catalina, the quieter one, stands beside her, her gaze sharp, calculating.

“What—” My voice is raw, strangled. “What are you doing here?”

“We’ve been searching for you,” Amelia breathes, her hands gripping my arms. “You vanished from the stronghold. No word. No signs. Catalina’s been…” She hesitates, glancing at the woman beside her. “She’s been worried.”

I turn to Catalina, whose silver-blue eyes hold something unreadable. Unlike Amelia, she doesn’t rush to touch me.

She watches.

She always watches first.

Her voice comes, quiet but firm. “Do you need us?”

I freeze.

It’s a question loaded with meaning. Do I need them to help me finish what I started? To do what I haven’t been able to do myself?

To kill him?

My stomach twists violently.

The weight of their expectations, the purpose I was sent here for, the promise I made to our people, all of it is a chain wrapped around my throat.

He saved me.

Again and again, he saved me.

Naranus doesn’t speak.

But I feel his stare cutting through me, waiting for my answer, waiting for my betrayal.

Catalina’s fingers twitch near her side, where her dagger is hidden beneath the folds of her cloak.

She’s ready.

She’s waiting for my signal.

Amelia watches me carefully, waiting too. But her eyes are softer, her expression less certain. She sees something that Catalina does not.

I hate that she does.

“No.”

The word leaves me before I can stop it.

Catalina’s expression hardens instantly. “Eryss?—”

“I said no,” I repeat, this time louder.

Naranus shifts behind me. He’s tense, his body still braced for a fight, his molten gold gaze glued to the two women in front of him.

“You can’t kill him,” I say, turning to Catalina, my voice sharper now. “He saved my life. Time and time again. I won’t let you?—”

Catalina’s lip curls. “Then you will.”

Silence crashes through the room.

My heart stutters painfully.

I should.

I should say yes. I should take the dagger from her and finish what I was sent here to do.

But I don’t.

Her stare sharpens, realization flickering across her features. “You won’t.”

Something inside me twists. “I?—”

“No,” she cuts me off, stepping closer, voice dropping. “You had the chance. You’ve had the chance more than once. And you didn’t take it.” Her gaze flicks to Naranus, then back to me, disbelief hardening into something colder. “What has he done to you?”

Nothing. Everything.

I say nothing.

Her fingers tighten around her blade.

Amelia, sensing the tension breaking at the seams, reaches for Catalina’s arm. “Enough,” she murmurs, voice softer than usual. “She’s not our enemy.”

“She’s not acting like our ally,” Catalina snaps.

Amelia doesn’t argue. But she watches me. Sees too much. Feels too much.

After a long breath, she says, “We should at least heal them before we decide what to do.”

Naranus snarls immediately.

“You won’t touch me.”

Catalina lifts her chin. “Then you can rot in that body of yours.”

Amelia sighs, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Enough. He’s still a beast, Catalina, but right now, he’s her beast.” Her gaze flicks toward me, expectant. “Isn’t he?”

My lungs seize.

I don’t answer.

Amelia watches me for a long moment, then sighs again. “Fine. We’ll leave him be.”

Naranus doesn’t relax.

Not an inch.

The hostility still rolls off of him, his claws still unsheathed, his gaze drilling into mine.

I feel his rage, his betrayal still simmering beneath the surface, still waiting for a chance to consume me whole.

Yet, when I step toward him, placing myself firmly between him and them…

He doesn’t move away.