Chapter 18

Chapter 18
Selene's POV

A silence fell over the grand hall.

“What?” Evander echoed, sounding so shocked and horrified. Either he was good at acting, or he really didn’t know about it.
“Her wings were cut off,” I repeated, the horrific image flashing behind my eyelids as tears burned my eyes again. “They were severed at the bone, left on the floor of a cave near our border, and there was blood everywhere.”

The councilors immediately erupted into panicked murmurs, leaning toward one another in shock, while the colour drained entirely from Evander’s face.

“You found her body?” he asked, his voice losing all of its previous authority. He sounded extremely worried now.

“No,” I said, shaking my head as the realization began to claw its way through my panic. “I didn’t find her body. I only found her wings.”

Nobody in the chamber spoke as Evander slowly stepped toward me, looking completely shaken.

“Selene…” he whispered, his hands trembling slightly.

I looked at him, searching his face for any hint of deceit, but all I saw was fear.

“You really didn’t kill her, did you?”

“No,” he answered honestly. “We swear it upon our magic.”

My stomach twisted as the pieces began to rearrange themselves in my mind. If the Fae council hadn’t tracked her down, then who had cornered her in that cavern?

The hollowed.

My eyes widened in terror as I connected every piece of the puzzle. “They got to her first.”

Evander frowned, leaning closer. “What did you say?”

“The hollowed,” I repeated, taking a hasty step backwards toward the entrance. “They didn’t kill her in that cave.”

They hadn’t slaughtered her because they hated her; they needed her alive to complete the resurrection ritual, and they needed every drop of angel blood running through her veins. The severed wings weren’t proof of her execution or an act of senseless cruelty—they were proof that Svetlana had finally captured her, removing her ability to fly so she couldn’t escape while they drained what they needed to bring Azythar back from the dead.

“Oh God,” I gasped, feeling the terror seize my chest.

I spun around on my heel and sprinted toward the open double doors.

“Where are you going?!” Evander called out after me, his voice echoing down the corridor.

“To find her!” I shouted back, not stopping for a single second as I raced out of the palace to save the woman I loved before it was too late.

Lyra nearly killed me when I returned to the packhouse the night of the next day, and the moment I pushed through the doors of her quarters, she marched straight across to me with her eyes blazing in pure fury.

“What the hell were you thinking?” she shouted, so loudly that several guards turned their heads. “I contacted your parents and they said you went home only to disappear. Only for me to receive a letter detailing what you were actually up to.”

I shrugged while she paced back and forth as if she were a mother scolding a stubborn child.

“You went into the Fae Realm alone,” she said, stopping right in my face and pointing an angry finger at my chest.

“I had to, Lyra,” I said quietly, refusing to back down.

“You could have been captured by their palace guards!” she yelled, her frustration mounting with every word.

“I know.”

“You could have started a full-scale war between our people if they found you trespassing in their council chambers!”
“I know.”

“You could have died, Selene!”

I looked straight into her eyes, feeling the exhaustion and fear from the entire thing settle. “I know.”

She stopped pacing, and as she looked at the dark circles under my eyes and the desperate expression on my face, her anger slowly began to fade, replaced by a deep, weary concern.

“You found her wings?” she asked, her voice dropping to a low, troubled murmur.

I nodded slowly, swallowing past the knot in my throat. “Yes, in the cavern near the waterfall.”

“And you still think she’s alive?” Lyra pressed, searching my face for any hint of delusion.

“I know she is,” I replied without a single second of hesitation.

Lyra stared at me for a long time, crossing her arms over her chest. “How can you be so sure after seeing that much blood, Selene?”

I pulled her into the private side room and told her everything I had learned from Evander and the Fae council, reminding her of the truth about Svetlana, the hollowed soldiers, and the stolen amulet. Lyra remained silent for several minutes, staring at the floor for a while.

Then, she let out a long, heavy breath and looked up at me. “Fine.”

I blinked, caught completely off guard. “Fine?”

“I’ll help you track her down,” Lyra said. “We leave right now. I might have an idea if our hunch about the hollowed is right.”

“What do you mean?”

“I am going to tell Kade to prepare some standby. We will go to Azythar’s old grounds… remember where they took me? They might be hiding out there.”

“Oh?”

She nodded. “In case we meet danger, we have a whole army behind us. I am only doing this because it’s you, Selene. Please you need to stop making reckless decisions.”

“It’s not reckless.”

“It is,” she scoffed. “You made enough of them when I was in danger. Give yourself a break for goddess’ sake.”

My lips twitched. “I’ve given myself a four-year break.”

Lyra smiled despite herself. “You are one of a kind, Selene.”

We traveled east toward Azythar’s old abandoned lands, moving as fast as our legs could carry us through the desolate, rocky territory. The men that Kade had prepared traveled through different routes because we didn’t want anyone spotting us at all and being prepared.

There was almost nothing left of the place as the entire region had been burned to the ground during the war four years ago, leaving blackened ruins scattered across the hills.

However, ahead of us, tucked between a cluster of pine trees we found an active encampment. There were several dark tents that had been pitched between the trees, but the entire area was in absolute ruin, and dozens of hollowed soldiers were lying motionless across the dirt, their bodies torn apart and surrounded by wide pools of fresh blood.

This was very recent.

Lyra raised her hand instantly. “Wait.”

I stopped beside her, drawing my daggers, and then my eyes locked onto the figure standing in the middle of the carnage.

Violetta was standing right in the center of the camp, her back hunched and her cloak shredded, with blood coating her clothes, her arms, and her hands. Her hair was completely dishevelled and tangled with leaves, and her chest was heaving with rapid, shallow breaths, but when she slowly lifted her head, the sight of her face made my blood run completely cold.

Her eyes were not their usual brilliant, warm colour, but a vivid, terrifying shade of dark red that glowed faintly in the shadows. They were not the eyes of the woman I remembered, and certainly not the eyes of the queen who had stood in our council room desperately trying to prevent a war, but something completely untamed, hungry, and vicious.

“Violetta,” I called out softly, my voice trembling.

Her head snapped toward us so fast. Her hair was falling across her face as she locked her eyes on mine. For a brief second, she simply stared at me without recognition, and then her lips curled into a cold, menacing sneer that sent a chill down my spine.

Goddess…

She grinned evilly and walked towards me as if she’d seen some sort of prey. This wasn’t the Violetta I knew. She looked so bloodthirsty and there was something else in her eyes. “Dear me, you look so fearful. It’s so… beautiful.”

I took a slow step forward into the clearing, keeping my daggers lowered so she wouldn’t see me as a threat. “It’s me, Violetta. We came to find you.”

She smiled. “It’s beautiful seeing you like this.”

Shit. She was going to feed on my fears, and maybe my soul.

She had completely lost control, and it might have had to do with the hollowed cutting off her wings. If a demon had been suppressed, it only took something small to release that evil from inside them.

Something flickered in her eyes and she looked normal and kind for a brief second. “Selene. Leave.”

“No, I’m not leaving you here,” I said, taking another step.

Her eyes flashed dangerously, and she was back to that same state again. “You never listen, Selene. Good for me anyways… your soul seems so… perfect for consumption.”

I gulped. All the hollowed she had killed so bloodily, she had likely taken their souls as well… fed on them. And now she wanted to feed on mine.