Chapter 11: A Crack in the Ice

The hours after Cassandra left and the King’s footsteps faded were the longest of my life. The truth was a burning brand in my mind, searing away the last vestiges of my anger and leaving behind a raw, aching landscape of guilt and regret. Lycan’s defiant words, “My life is hers,” echoed in the silence, each repetition a hammer blow to the wall of ice I had built around my heart. The bond, no longer fighting against my resistance, now hummed with a different frequency. It carried the...