<b>Chapter </b><b>161 </b>
Damn it!
The chains rattled again as I wrenched against them, useless and stubborn, the metal biting deeper, slick with my own blood.
Each clink sounded like a countdown.
Each breath felt borrowed.
Henri hovered near the corpse he refused to name as such.
The Subus wore Cristina like a silk shroud–hair glistening, lips soft, eyes wide with a tenderness crafted to disarm. Even knowing what hid beneath, I had to force myself not to flinch when she tilted Cristina’s face and smiled–too perfect, too patient, all appetite.
Audreyy unconscious in the corner, silver chains biting into her limbs.
My chest squeezed.
Her wolf would never forgive me if I let her die here.
I won’t even forgive myself if I let her die here. Not my Audrey…
“He ising,” the Subus purred inside my head, the voice like velvet dragged over ss. “Your King. Your Lycan. He will see me, and everything in him will say I am you. He will choose me.”
No, I know he’s not!
I trust him!
“Francesco will know me,” I whispered, tasting copper. “He always knows me.”
“We’ll see.”
The door at the far end of the chamber groaned open.
Cold air breathed in–dank stone, old moss, the faintest trace of smoke. My lungs cinched tight. The bond inside me red like a spark fanned to me.
Francesco…
He filled the archway, shadow swallowing shadow. Gold caught the torchlight in his eyes; power prowled beneath his skin, barely leashed. The chamber shrank around him, as if stone itself remembered what it meant to face a Lycan King.
“What’s wrong? Luc mentioned you found something in the Lake after we got word there are rogues on the far eastern border. What is going on?!” His voice cracked like thunder–relief and fury entwined—and he moved.
But not seeing me, the real me.
His eyes didn’tnd where I knelt bleeding, straining against silver. They slid past me, as if I didn’t exist.
He crossed the floor to the Subus, who staggered forward with perfect mimicry, draped in my face, my walk, my trembling breath.
Shit.
“No, Francesco, that’s not me!!” My scream tore raw, but only the walls seemed to hear.
“Eine?” He frowned, then rushed to the woman who wasn’t me, gathering her into his arms.
Noo!!!!
“We don’t know what’s wrong with her or theke,” Henri lied smoothly. “I found her back in the water, my King.”
I thrashed, chains scraping bone. “No! That’s not true! I’m here!”
But my mate didn’t hear.
Didn’t see me.
Meanwhile, the silver chain weakened me further, each link bleeding my strength away. I could feel the current, my essence siphoned into the Subus wearing my skin.
Marlow, who followed close behind Francesco, paused. His sharp eyes scanned the chamber, lingering near Audrey’s corner. “Where’s Audrey?”
Yes. He knows something isn’t right.
“We don’t know where she is,” Henri lied again.
Francesco only nodded, too focused on the false me.
He cupped her face, eyes softening with something that wasn’t meant for anyone else. “You okay, Amore mio?”
The words gutted me.
My knees nearly gave.
a
No.
She’s not your Amore, Francesco.
I have to do something!
“Didn’t you see?” I spat at Henri, my voice ragged. “She wants him, not you!”
His head whipped toward me, eyes burning with hate.
Myugh was broken but bitter. “The Subus isn’t Cristina. She’s a liar. And now she wants my mate. Not you. Can’t you see it?”
12:06 Mon, 1 Sept A
His jaw tightened.
For just a flicker, doubt trembled in his gaze.
Then the bond siphon tugged harder.
A sharp gasp ripped from my throat. My fingers were turning translucent, edges fading into nothing.
“What-”
<b>日</b>菜包36%齒
The Subus turned her head slightly, her smile sweet, almost pitying. “Your soul is mine… so is your mate.”
Panic seared through me. “Francesco!” My voice cracked. “Francesco, please–look at me!”
But he only held her closer.
My fake reflection.
His arms were around her, not me.
His warmth, his protection–stolen.
My chest heaved, breath splintering into sobs.
I had never felt pain like this–not even the day Ruben rejected me.
Because this wasn’t rejection.
This was theft.
I couldn’t stop staring. Couldn’t stop praying. Somewhere inside, the bond must scream. Somewhere deep, he must feel <ol><li>me. </li></ol>
S
But then-
sh!!!!!
A de cleaved through the air, clean and final.
The Subus’s head snapped sideways, her borrowed face frozen in shock, lips still curved in that delicate smile.
For a heartbeat, silence reigned.
Then her body crumpled, lifeless, the illusion shattering like ss.
No one moved.
Not Francesco.
Not Marlow.
Not me.
12:06 Mon, 1 Sept
The torchlight flickered across the steel still dripping dark blood.
And the silence stretched, heavy as a death knell-
Until Henri’s scream ripped through it.
It wasn’t a battle–cry. It wasn’t fury. It was raw, guttural agony.
日时气36%號
“No! Noooo!” His voice cracked, shattering into something feral as he dropped to his knees beside the corpse that was no longer Cristina, no longer beautiful, no longer alive–just an empty husk. His hands trembled as he clutched the body, rocking forward as though he could shake breath back into it.
“Why?!” His eyes, wild and gleaming, lifted toward Francesco. Hatred and heartbreak tangled in his face, twisted into something monstrous. “She was mine! You had no right!”
But Francesco stood unmoved. Golden light burned in his eyes, cold and merciless, the sword in his grip still dripping with dark ichor.
The chains at my wrists pulsed with heat. The lungs, thick and ragged.
pell’s grip faltered as the Subus’s tether severed. Air rushed into my
I wanted to shout, to scream that it wasn’t Cristina at all, that she had been gone long before tonight. But Henri’s wail drowned everything else.
The chamber shook with his grief, his rage–an unholy sound that wed its way into bone and marrow.
And through it all, Francesco’s silence was the most terrifying thing of all.
He knows….