Someone wanted me dead?
I didn’t drink it.
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Instead, I stared at the swirling surface of the tea, heart hammering, and suddenly, everything around me felt too still. Too quiet. I set the cup down slowly, carefully, as if it might explode. Then I turned toward the door, mind racing.
Who was that girl?
Where was the regular maid who had helped me before? And why was she wearing Cassian’s crest? Did he want me dead after all? No, that can’t be. That’s impossible. He had seen my ability. Does he find it useless after all?
However, before I could process everything, the door opened again, and the girl walked in.
“My Lady… I apologize,” She gave me a shallow bow. “I forgot… but the young lord also wanted me to give you something,” she said with an innocent smile as she locked the door behind her. “The Lord wanted you to have this too,” she said, voice as sweet as honey. Her fingers slipped into the pocket of her apron.
And I didn’t see the blade until it gleamed.
Something primal kicked in. I stumbled back just as steel arced through the air where my throat had been. The slash missed by inches, but not by accident. She wasn’t rushing. She was playing.
I crashed against the couch, breath slamming out of me. “What are you doing?!” I gasped.
Her smile twisted. “Finishing what should’ve been done before you signed.”
Then she lunged,
The knife came at me again, this time aimed low. She was aiming for my gut. I pivoted just enough to feel the fabric of my tunic tear, a hot sting flashing across my side, I cried out, grabbed the nearest thing, a small stool, and flung it at her.
It hit her shoulder, enough to stagger her but not stop her. She hissed, more beast than girl, and came again. Faster. Like a wolf without a scent to track, just a single command: kill.
I dove toward the edge of the table. My hand closed around the silver tray she brought in, and I swung it with all the force I could muster. It smacked her temple with a metallic crack. She
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Chapter 9
stumbled sideways, but only for a heartbeat.
:
Where are the guards? I wonder. What about the servants?
Then she roared.
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The sound made my skin crawl. This was not the sound of a servant omega! This was not the sound a girl could make!
She wasn’t normal.
“Help!” I tried to scream as I ducked another blow and rolled toward the far wall, breathing hard. Pain pulsed from my side, wet warmth soaking through the fabric. She had cut me deep.
But I’d trained for this. I didn’t have a wolf, but I had spent years in the pack’s shadow rings, forced to keep up with my peers. Learning to fight wasn’t optional when you were surrounded by predators.
She slashed again, this time down my forearm. I blocked with my elbow, but the knife still grazed me. Another burn. Another wound.
I kicked her square in the stomach, and she reeled back but not far. I tried to run. She grabbed a fistful of my hair and yanked me back, forcing me to the ground. I twisted and drove my elbow into her ribs. She snarled, then raked the blade across my shoulder.
Blood splattered the floor.
She paused, panting, waiting for me to crumple. But I didn’t.
Because the gash, like the others, was already sealing. Her eyes widened, just for a second. “You…”
My healing. She hadn’t expected that.
She came at me harder, more desperate, the knife flashing again and again. My arms, my thighs, my stomach, cut after cut bloomed red. But each time, the wounds began to knit together. Slower than usual, but still enough to keep me alive.
“Why won’t you die?” she shrieked, her face twisted with fury, eyes wide with something beyond hatred, fear. She wasn’t just trying to kill me anymore. She needed to.
Because she’d seen it.
The wounds and the blood and the impossible way they closed.
She had seen my secret.
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Chapter 9
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“You’re a witch,” she spat, voice trembling now. “An abomination. That’s what you are.”
She raised the blade again with a scream and lunged. I threw myself sideways, but not fast enough, her knife plunged into my side and hit something vital. I felt the burn, the split of skin, the crack of something deep, but I didn’t die.
Not even close.
I gasped, choked, and writhed, the agony blinding. But even as she yanked the knife out, already, I felt the slow pulse of my body pulling itself back together. The searing pain dulled to a throb, and blood that should’ve spilled endlessly began to clot.
“No,” she whispered, stepping back like she’d just seen me rise from the grave. “No, no, no— this wasn’t supposed to happen!”
She turned toward the door as if to flee. As if to tell someone.
I couldn’t let her.
She knew my secret and I couldn’t just let her leave!
I couldn’t risk it.
My limbs shook as I scrambled to my feet, vision swimming. My body was healing, but it still hurt. My muscles screamed with every breath. Still, I grabbed the fallen silver tray again and flung it at her back.
It clanged against her shoulder. She staggered and whirled around, blade flashing, fury reignited.
“I’ll carve that magic out of you,” she hissed. “I’ll gut you until you’re too broken to heal.”
She pounced again, slashing wildly. I ducked, blocked, twisted, anything to avoid the blade. I wasn’t faster. I wasn’t stronger. And I sure as hell didn’t fight like a warrior. I fought like someone who didn’t want to die.
Blood sprayed my arms, my thighs, my stomach. My shoulder split open again. A gash opened over my collarbone. My vision darkened at the edges, but my body refused to fall.
She screamed in frustration. “Why won’t you just die already?!”
“Because I can’t,” I spat, surging forward and tackled her.
We hit the ground with a sickening thud. The knife clattered across the floor.
I landed on top of her, both of us gasping, chests heaving as our limbs tangled in a desperate fight for dominance. Her hands clawed for my throat, fingers curling with viciousness. I
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Chapter 9
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twisted away, reaching blindly for the blade she had dropped, but she wasn’t done, she raked her fingers across my face, aiming for my eyes.
I cried out and lashed back with my elbow, catching her square in the jaw. Pain shot up my arm, but I didn’t stop. I grabbed the front of her apron, fingers twisting into the fabric, and slammed the back of her head against the floor.
Once. Twice until I couldn’t count anymore. It created a sickening sound. Bone against stone.
For a moment, her grip faltered, hands falling to the side in a daze.
I didn’t wait. I scrambled away from her, slipping and skidding through the thick smear of blood coating the floor, some of it mine, some of it hers, I couldn’t tell anymore. My hand finally found the knife. Still wet with blood.
I turned.
She was already moving again.
Somehow, impossibly, she was back on her feet, eyes wide with fury, teeth bared like a feral animal. She lunged at me one final time, arms outstretched, shrieking.
I didn’t think.
I just reacted.
With a scream of my own, I thrust the knife upward, both hands gripping the hilt as I drove the blade into her chest.
Her body collided with mine, the weight of her crashing into me with brutal force.
Then- Her breath caught in her throat, a strange, broken sound that barely made it out.
Then nothing.
She collapsed on top of me, heavy and lifeless. Her face fell to the side, cheek pressed to my shoulder, blood soaking through both our clothes as silence reclaimed the room.
And just like that… it was over.
I lay there, gasping beneath her, the knife still lodged between us, my arms trembling under her weight. My body screamed, raw and battered. But alive.
Somewhere nearby, the tea cup still sat, untouched.
The only thing more deadly than what had been inside it… was me.
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Chapter 9
:
:
And now, I had a body and blood on my hands.
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As if summoned by the chaos, the window creaked open with a sudden gust of cold air. I flinched and spun around, heart still thundering, blood–slick hands clenched and ready to defend myself again.
But it wasn’t another attacker.
It was Cassian.
He stepped inside, and for one dizzying second, the sight of him, tall, steady, alive, made my knees nearly give out. Relief crashed into me like a wave, too fast, too hard, too much. My fingers loosened around the knife, and that’s when I realized I was shaking. My whole body trembled, not from fear anymore, but from the aftershock of surviving something I shouldn’t have.
He took one look at me, at the blood coating my skin, at the broken body on the floor, at the knife still glinting faintly in my grip and froze.
“My Lord…” My voice cracked. “I… I just killed someone.” For the first time in my life….. I just ended someone’s life.
Chapter 10
Chapter 10
