Chapter 161
Soria Stormclaw POV
Dining Room of The Crucible
Montana
(30
I used to dream about turning eighteen. I thought it’d feel like freedom. Like being old enough to finally choose who I wanted to be. Not
this.
Not a silk draped dining hall lined with crimson candles and humans chained gently but willingly to velvet chaise lounges, heads tilted, waiting for their turn to be drained like wine bottles. Not a cake shaped like a fucking blood rose with red icing and daggers for candles.
But this was my life now. I love my sister. I thought this was what I wanted. Since my wolf Sierra left me, I’ve felt empty. Hollow. A shell of my former self. I miss her so much.
Vaela sat beside Lucien, her fingers lazily tracing the rim of her goblet while her eyes flicked to me with this proud, possessive gleam that made my stomach turn. She looked happy. Really fucking happy. Like all her sick little dreams had finally come true.
And maybe they had.
Lucien raised his glass. “To the future queen of blood and beauty, Soria, daughter of wolves, chosen of Raelith, mate of Varek.”
I smiled because I had to. Because if I didn’t, he’d notice. And when Lucien noticed anything he didn’t like… people screamed.
But my eyes found Varek across the table and that’s where the smile became real. He was beautiful. Sharp features. Those black red rimmed eyes boring into my soul. His shock white hair striking in the moonlight coming in the window. I sighed internally. I was lost for
him. I knew it. He knew it.
He was quiet tonight. Brooding, watching me like he could feel every single heartbeat inside my chest. His black eyes rimmed in red hadn’t left me since I walked in, and I knew..with primal certainty that burned hotter than fire…
He was mine. And I was his. The bond pulsed between us, no longer a whisper. A roar. He stood as Lucien raised his glass again and leaned across the table toward me, brushing his fingers over mine. His voice was low and soft, like a stolen secret. “Happy birthday,
Soria.”
I flushed, but before I could respond… Lucien’s phone buzzed.
He checked it. Then everything fucking snapped.
“What do you mean they’re in the Fae Realm?!” he bellowed, slamming the crystal into the wall so hard it shattered. His chair flew back, metal screeching, as he stood with wild, murderous fury in his eyes. “That bitch has no right to stand before the High Crown!”
Vaela was up in a flash, her hands on his chest, trying to soothe him, cooing soft poisons into his ear.
“They must’ve used a seer,” she murmured. “It doesn’t matter. We’ll handle it. Let them play at politics. When Raelith rises, they’ll all
burn.”
But I couldn’t even hear her anymore. My blood was pounding too loud in my ears.
1/2
19:07 Fri, Oct 10
Chapter 161
I stood too. “I..I’m not hungry. Varek?”
30
He was already there, his hand on the small of my back, guiding me out with a quiet urgency like he’d been waiting for an excuse to get
us the hell out of there.
We made it to our shared chamber, the door clicking shut behind us as I sagged against it. Varek didn’t say anything. Just crossed the room, sat on the edge of the bed, and stared at me with a look I’d never seen on his face before.
“Sor,” he said, and it was so gentle, I could’ve cried.
“You alright?”
I sank into the chair across from him, hugging my knees. “No.”
He nodded, like he understood that answer too well.
“I don’t think I want this,” I whispered. “Any of it. The blood. The worship. The cruelty. I thought it would feel powerful. But it just feels… wrong.”
“I know,” he said. “I never wanted to follow them. I just want you.”
My heart cracked clean down the middle. “Vaela’s too far gone. She likes it. She loves Raelith. She loves Lucien. She’s not coming back.”
Varek clenched his jaw. “Then we don’t go back either.”
My eyes widened. “What are you saying?”
“I’m saying we leave,” he said, his voice suddenly fierce.
“We leave this hell. We find a way out. I don’t care where we go. We’ll run if we have to. Hide. Fight. I’ll follow you to the ends of every realm if it means you don’t have to smile like that again.”
Chapter Comments
凸2
Write Comments
SHARE
