Chapter 130
Chapter 130
Damon
The report in front of me blurred.
I wasn’t tired—at least, not in the way that sleep could fix. But something shifted. A crack across the inside of my chest. Cold. Empty. A distant pulse of wrongness that made my hand still above the page.
I hadn’t felt the bond like this in days. It had been quiet, subdued. Like Lila was trying to protect herself by pulling back.
But this wasn’t a retreat or some emotional wall. This was a full collapse.
A low hum started in my ears, and for a moment I thought it was just the blood rushing faster through my skull–until the door to my study opened hard.
Ronan barged in. He never did knock when it was urgent.
“Lila collapsed,” he said, breath clipped with controlled urgency. “Inside the doors to your rooms. Not for long. Emma was with her–caught her before she hit the ground. She’s conscious now, but dazed.”
The breath I took didn’t make it all the way in.
“She–what?”
Ronan stepped fully into the room, already anticipating the question. “She’d just left the East corridor. A servant Ella spoke to her, offered her something.
A tonic.”
A sharp, metallic taste rose in my throat. No.
I should have stopped her from ever coming near Lila.
“She drank it?”
Ronan gave a single, grim nod. “Didn’t question it. Said it helped ease the tightness in her chest. But-” he hesitated, then forced the words out. “She’s fading, Damon. Like someone slowly siphoned the life out of her.”
The bond trembled under my skin again–no message, no words. Just intense pressure. A panicked twitch from her wolf, buried too deep to surface.
My vision narrowed.
I stood slowly. Deliberately. “Where is Ella now?”
“Still in her quarters. She requested tea,” Ronan said with disgust. “Shall I detain her?”
“No,” I said coldly, walking around the desk. “She’s mine.”
Ronan didn’t argue. He just followed me to the door and fell into step at my side.
The corridors blurred past. I didn’t remember giving the order, but someone must have passed the message, because guards stepped aside, heads
bowed, faces pale. No one asked questions. No one met my eyes.
Good. Because I wasn’t sure I had any words left
I had given Ella one chance. One quiet exit. One sliver of mercy. She’d poisoned it with ambition and gone after my mate.
She’d hurt what was mine.”
At the end of the hall, the ornate guest wing doors stood half–open, golden lamplight spilling onto the carpet.
1/3
00:38 Sun, O Jur
Chapter 130
The bond pulsed again. Faint. Fragile. It was all I needed.
I shoved the doors open so hard the hinges screamed, and stepped into the room without pause.
Ella looked up from her place by the hearth, where a delicate teacup steamed in her hands. Her robe was soft lilac, tied perfectly. Her hair twisted into a braid of practiced elegance.
She smiled. “Your Majesty. What a surprise.”
I opened my mouth now, it wouldn’t be words that came out–it would be a roar. But that was fine. She’d hear it soon enough.
I closed the distance in three long steps and snatched the teacup from her hand. It shattered against the wall behind her
Ella didn’t flinch. She merely turned her head to watch it break, fragments scattering across the floor like tiny broken bones.
“You poisoned her,” I said, voice low and shaking with rage I barely kept contained. “Say it.”
She looked back at me, her face the picture of serenity. “It was a tonic, nothing more.”
I moved before the word finished leaving her mouth.
One hand braced her shoulder against the wall. The other slammed into the paneling beside her head, hard enough that dust rained from the crown molding. “You dosed her with a suppressor.”
“A mild one,” she said evenly. “Something to quiet the strain. Your little mate looked so tired. I offered her strength.”
“You offered her silence,” I snarled. “You buried her wolf.”
A flicker of satisfaction passed through her eyes before it vanished behind the mask. “And yet she drank it willingly. Perhaps that says more about what
she wants.”
I growled, low and dangerous, my body vibrating with fury.
“I should kill you.”
“You won’t.” She smiled faintly. “Because that would be messy. And you, my dear Damon, are nothing if not strategic.”
I tightened my grip on her shoulder, resisting the urge to snap the bones beneath my fingers. “You’ve made a mistake.”
“No, Damon.” Her voice was soft now, growing dangerous. “You have. You let your judgment falter over a girl with my daughter’s name, no true lineage, and a wolf that’s barely there. And now you’re watching her unravel.”
I stepped back, just enough to see her clearly. “What was in it?”
Ella brushed her gown smooth where I’d gripped her. “I’ve already told you.”
“Not enough. I want every ingredient. Every ratio. Every ritual you tied to it.”
She laughed–a delicate, amused sound. “You think this was alchemy? No. This was insurance. Mine. You can’t undo that with a list of herbs.”
I surged forward again, and this time she did flinch. “You are going to write down everything. Or I swear, Ella, I will make sure your name is carved into the palace walls as a warning.”
She stared at me then–truly stared. The edge of her mask cracked. Something cold gleamed beneath it.
“And if I refuse?” she asked quietly.
I bared my teeth. “Then you’ll watch me tear down every legacy you’ve tried to stitch your name into. I’ll make you irrelevant before the world ever learns your secrets. And then I’ll hunt you for sport and kill you. Slowly.”
2/3
00:38 Sun, 6 Jul
Chapter 130
Ella’s chin lifted. “You wouldn’t dare.”
“Oh, I would,” I said, deadly calm. “Because I don’t need you alive to undo what you did. I just need the right confession. And trust me, I’ll get it.
For a moment, we stood locked in silence. The only sound the fire snapping beside us, casting shadows across Ella’s cheekbones, her mouth, her perfectly composed eyes.
Finally, she moved. Not out of fear, but resignation. She stepped toward the writing desk and pulled open a drawer, fingers trailing across the fine parchment.
“I won’t give you the full recipe,” she said. “But I’ll give you enough to ease the symptoms. She won’t recover fully. Not yet. Not without…” Her voice trailed off, deliberately unfinished.
“Without what?” I growled.
She looked over her shoulder, something cruel and amused curling her lips. “Without the antidote I crafted. I only ever made one.”
The rage that surged in me threatened to split my skin. “Then give it to me.”
“I don’t have it.”
“You’re lying.”
“Perhaps.” She turned fully. “But you’ll never know for sure, will you? That’s the cost of choosing a nobody and calling her queen.”
I lunged-
Ronan grabbed my arm. “Damon,” he said sharply. “Don’t.”
I stood there, hand clenched around Ella’s wrist, every muscle trembling with restraint. Her pulse fluttered beneath my fingers.
And then I let go. Because if I killed her now, I’d lose whatever leverage I still had and any relief my mate might find.
But the war between us? It had just begun.
AD
