Chapter 97

Chapter 97
Sera POV

The morning came too soon, dragging me from a restless sleep into a reality I wasn't ready to face. My hand still throbbed where the clay had cut me; when I looked down at it, there was a white bandage against my skin. I smiled, knowing Jade must have put it there.

I found him in the main hall, his jaw tight as he read a piece of parchment that trembled slightly in his grip. The tension radiating from him was palpable, dangerous, like lightning gathering before a storm.

"Jade?" My voice came out smaller than I intended.

He looked up, and the rage in his eyes made me take a step back. I wasn't scared of him. What frightened me was what could put that expression on his face.

“What is the matter?” I asked carefully.

"Lucien." The name came out like a curse. He crumpled the parchment in his fist, the paper crackling like bones breaking. "He issued a formal challenge. A duel for your hand."

The world tilted. I gripped the doorframe despite my injured hand protesting the pressure.

"A duel?" I whispered. "He can't…"

"He can. It's the ancient pack law. Any alpha can challenge another for the right to claim an unmated she-wolf, especially if she's one marked by prophecy." Jade's laugh was bitter and sharp enough to cut. "Clever bastard. He knew I couldn't refuse without looking weak, without undermining everything I've built here."

I moved toward him, my feet carrying me forward even as my mind screamed against it. "Then don't accept. There has to be another way."

"There isn't." He threw the parchment aside, his hands coming up to frame my face with a gentleness that contradicted the fury burning in his eyes. "If I refuse, the council can overrule me. They can hand you over to him legally or bind you to him through pack law. At least this way, I have a chance to end this."

"Or he has a chance to end you." The words tasted like ash. I thought of the prophecy, of Elara's reflection commanding me to take back what was stolen, of the fire that had woken in my veins with such a terrible purpose. "Jade, please. The prophecy…"

"Fuck the prophecy." His thumb traced my cheekbone, and I saw something break behind his eyes, some wall he had kept carefully maintained crumbling. "I'm not losing you, Sera. I won't lose you to Lucien, to fate, or to some goddess who thinks she can dictate how this ends."

"But what if…"

"What if nothing?" He pulled me closer, his forehead resting against mine, and I could feel the tremor running through him, the barely leashed violence. "I'll kill him before I ever lose you. Do you understand me? I will paint the ground with his blood before I let him take you from me."

The vow should have frightened me. Instead, I felt something hot and fierce unfurl in my chest, tangling with the fire the goddess had planted there. This was wrong. I knew it was wrong. The prophecy whispered that Jade was the one I was meant to destroy, that his life was the price for whatever power Elara promised.

But in that moment, with his hands on my face and his breath mingling with mine, I couldn't remember why that mattered.

"When?" I asked, my voice barely audible.

"Tomorrow night. Under the full moon." His jaw clenched. "He wants it to be a spectacle. He wants the whole pack to witness either my victory or my defeat."

Tomorrow night. I swallowed hard. That was less than a day to prepare, to plan, to figure out how to keep the prophecy from swallowing us whole.

"There is something you should know," I said, pulling back just enough to meet his eyes. "Last night, at the river, I wasn't alone. Elara… her reflection appeared in the water. She spoke to me."

Jade went very still. "What did she say?"

I hesitated, because how could I tell him that the goddess had commanded me to kill him? That every instinct I possessed was being twisted toward his destruction?

"She told me to take back what was stolen. To reclaim a life." I swallowed hard, forcing the rest out. "Your life, Jade. She wants me to end you."

The silence stretched between us, heavy and terrible. I waited for him to push me away, to see the threat I represented, to finally understand that keeping me close was suicide.

Instead, he laughed.

It wasn't a sound of amusement but something darker, edged with a recklessness that made my pulse quicken.

"Let her try," he said, his voice dropping to something rough and dangerous. "Let her send her prophecies and her visions and her commands. You're not hers, Sera. You're mine. And if she wants to change that, she will have to pry you from my cold, dead hands."

"Jade—"

"No." He kissed me then, hard and claiming, stealing whatever protest I was about to make. When he pulled back, his eyes blazed. "Tomorrow night, I will fight Lucien. I will win, and you will stay with me. If I lose..." His jaw worked. "Please run. Do you hear me? You take whatever power the goddess gave you, and you run as far and as fast as you can."

"I won't leave you." The words came automatically, a truth I hadn't known I believed until I spoke it.

"You will if I command it." His hands tightened on my shoulders. "As your alpha, as your…" He stopped, the word hanging unspoken between us. "You'll run, Sera. Promise me."

I wanted to argue, to fight, to tell him that running was impossible when everything in me seemed designed to orbit around him. But I saw the desperation in his face, the fear he wouldn't name.

"I promise," I lied, and watched relief flicker across his features.

He pulled me close, tucking my head under his chin, and I felt his heartbeat racing against my cheek.

"One more night," he murmured into my hair. "Give me one more night before everything goes to hell."

I closed my eyes, breathing in his scent: pine and smoke and something wild. The mark at my throat pulsed with heat, and I felt the fire in my veins stir restlessly, as if it knew what was coming, as if it was preparing.

Tomorrow, Jade would fight Lucien under the full moon. Tomorrow, the prophecy would take another step toward whatever end Elara had planned.

But tonight… tonight was ours.