Chapter 43 Failsafe
Sebastian’s POV
2 hours before entering portal
Braden stood in front of me, posture perfect, expression polished into that smooth, unreadable calm he wore like a second skin. I’d seen men try and fail to read him. They left the encounters feeling as if they’d shaken hands with a smile that had teeth.
“You intend to leave,” he said. Not a question. He already knows the answer to that. “To walk into vampire territory and abandon your kingdom because of some wolf you hardly know.”
I leaned back into my throne. The one sitting right next to her smaller, empty throne. The crown’s weight burned like frost against my skull. “She’s not just some wolf. She’s your queen. My queen. My goddess given mate. I don’t abandon what’s mine.”
Braden’s lip curved. “Your kingdom is yours. Your throne is yours. Your people are yours. Or have you forgotten?”
He didn’t care about the people. Only that they bowed.
“She isn’t dead.” The words scraped out from somewhere deep, thick with the bond’s pulse. That faint, aching tug that never stopped. Distant, like the echo of a heartbeat through walls.
Alive.
Waiting.
Mine.
For a split second, real emotion cracked his mask.
Annoyance.
Not at my pain.
At my defiance.
Then it vanished, sealed away. “You’re a fool, cousin.”
He took a slow step closer, shoes whispering against the marble like secrets. His eyes flicked briefly to the empty queen’s throne beside me. His voice lowered.
“If you walk away, you leave this seat vulnerable. Power cannot appear uncertain. People must feel it. Fear it. Or they will tear at it like dogs at a carcass.”
There it was.
Not loyalty.
Control.
He didn’t want a stable kingdom.
He wanted a submissive one.
“I won’t be lectured on rule by someone who has never held its weight,” I said.
“Cousin. All I’m saying is I don’t think it’s a very good idea. Maybe this is exactly what Leviath wants! To pull you away from the kingdom to attack & lay waste to everything you know. How could you possibly risk this?”
“Be careful, cousin,” he murmured. “Vacancies tend to fill themselves.”
I’ve known for a long while now he doesn’t have the best interest for the kingdom. He doesn’t care about anything really other than power.
So it leaves to question why he’s so hellbent on me not leaving.
“If anything happens while I’m gone,” I said softly, “pray the gods reach you faster than I do.”
For the first time, his smile reached his eyes.
Not with warmth.
With promise.
“We’ll keep the kingdom.. obedient.”
He bowed just enough to mock the gesture and walked out, leaving the air behind him sharpened like a blade.
The bond tugged again.
Alive.
Afraid.
Mine.
I stood.
Let him stare at the empty throne.
Let him taste the idea of power on his tongue like blood.
If he wanted obedience, he’d learn the difference between it and loyalty.
•••••••••••••••••••••••
Sybil’s magic always smelled faintly of storms. Cold rain. Expectations. I felt as if I was getting used to it based off just how often she’s been around lately.
“Straight to the barrier,” she murmured. “As long as there is no interference.”
“Interference?” Edgar asked behind me as we stepped closer.
And there was exactly that.
The portal opened like a wound.
And it betrayed us.
Cold swallowed us as we stepped through.
I’m coming Amara. I’m coming.
The portal sealed itself with a tired hiss, like an old door closing forever. The air hugged my lungs too tightly. Metallic. Damp. Stagnant. No birdsong. No life. Just the heavy sound of my own heartbeat and breathing.
“Interference.. as in blocking us from getting past the dark forest. He must’ve had a failsafe.” Sybil shook her head and closed her eyes.
“So what now? Where are we?” Luther turned around and stopped, his eyes widening at the sight behind us.
“Dear goddess.” He murmured.
We all turned.
And there it was.
The Dark Forest.
On my side of it.
Still miles from the barrier.
Still miles from her.
The trees loomed like blackened pillars, their trunks twisted as if something inside them had tried to break free and failed. Bark cracked in jagged lines, seeping sap the color of old wine. The canopy above had knitted itself so thick that the sky was nothing more than a smothered bruise.
The forest didn’t move.
It waited.
“For the spell to collapse like that..” Sybil’s voice thinned. “Someone didn’t stop it. They shortened it. Cut the tether mid‑cast.”
My jaw tightened. “Cassian?”
She shook her head slowly.
“No. This came from the origin point. From our side.”
A slow, angry heat spread through my chest.
“Someone in my castle.”
Someone who walked my halls.
Someone who bowed.
Someone who smiled.
And sharpened knives behind their back.
The image of Braden’s eyes flickered like a cruel joke.
Not yet, I told myself. But the suspicion dug its claws in anyway.
“Why the Dark Forest?” Aven asked quietly.
“Because it delays you,” Sybil said. “Because it swallows armies whole. Because once you step inside.. it decides who leaves.”
Her gaze slid to me.
“It makes me wonder why they want her. Why they’d go through all this trouble to kidnap her and not kill her.”
The bond throbbed. Hard. Painful.
She was there.
Scared.
Alive.
I took a breath that scraped against my ribs like broken glass.
“Let’s not waste time trying to figure all of that out right now Sybil. All that matters is getting these artifacts and getting my mate back.”
The forest exhaled as we turned to it.
Leaves whispered like a warning. Roots flexed beneath the soil. The air thickened, tasting faintly of iron and rain. And as we stepped forward, I could swear the trees leaned closer, listening.
Measuring us.
Choosing.