Chapter 23

Cassian’s POV

The palace thrummed with whispers, each thread of gossip carefully spun from my hand. It didn’t take much effort, wolves were predictable creatures. They thrived on hierarchy, scandal, and blood. And Nadine Hart was the perfect spark to set the halls aflame.

I leaned against one of the marble pillars in the eastern corridor, watching a pair of noblewomen slither past. Their voices lowered, but not low enough.

“Did you hear? She fainted in the training grounds again. Such weakness…”

“And to think the Alpha parades her like she could ever be Luna.”

I smiled faintly, tilting my head as if I hadn’t heard it all before. Weakness. Fragility. An outsider pretending to wear a crown that was never meant for her. Exactly the poison I had fed them, drop by drop.

Nadine didn’t realize it yet, but I had already carved a chasm beneath her feet. And soon, she would fall right into it.

It was really fun making up stories and turning them into rumors. It was like a craft that was worth recognizing. Nadine would hate having to stay in this palace. She should be take black to where she had come from..

After I was done with feeding them with whatever Information I wanted them to hear, I dey out to look for Nadine. She should be somewhere around the palace. She wasn't allowed to go around much so places she could step foot on was limited.

So much for being Luna.

I walked aroung the castle but she was nowhere to be found. Where would she be at? She sure knows how to disrespect the orders of the Alpha. Walking around like she owns the place. She is just some dummy waiting to be discharged and discarded.

I found her in the gardens later that night, moonlight spilling over her hair. She looked pale, shaken, as though she had just woken from a dream she couldn’t escape. Her arms wrapped tightly around herself, her gaze fixed on the roses that grew wild along the stone wall.

Perfect.

“You really should be more careful wandering alone,” I said softly, stepping from the shadows. Her shoulders stiffened, but she didn’t turn right away. When she finally did, her eyes narrowed, guarded.

“What do you want, Cassian?”

I let the question hang, savoring the edge in her voice. “Want? Oh, Nadine, I want nothing… except to warn you.” I crossed the grass slowly, deliberately, until I stood just a breath away. Her scent was faint, tangled with fear and defiance. I inhaled it like wine. “The court is a dangerous place. People here don’t forgive weakness. And Madden… least of all.”

Her chin lifted. “I don’t need your warnings.”

I chuckled under my breath. “Don’t you? You think he’ll ever forgive you for what you’ve done? For running, for defying the bond? For humiliating him before the eyes of every noble who matters?”

Her lips parted, but no words came. Good. My blade was sinking deeper.

“He may kiss you. He may even claim you,” I went on, circling her slowly, watching the tension coil in her shoulders. “But forgiveness? No, Nadine. Madden Vale does not forgive. He takes. He consumes. And when he’s done, there will be nothing left of you but ashes.”

Her breathing hitched, almost imperceptibly. She tried to mask it with a glare, but I saw the flicker of doubt in her eyes. That was the crack I needed.

“You’re lying,” she whispered. Her eyes said something different from what her mouth was relaying.

“Am I?” I leaned in close, close enough that my words brushed her ear like a secret. “Look around you. The nobles mock you behind silken fans. The courtiers smile to your face and spit when you turn. Who do you think fuels those whispers, Nadine? Madden? Or perhaps someone with more… subtle hands?”

Her eyes widened then, realization sparking, but not enough. Not yet.

“You?” she breathed.

I smiled, slow and sharp. “Rumors are the easiest weapons. They don’t draw blood, but they wound deeper than steel. And I have been very busy.”

She stepped back, shaking her head. “Why? Why target me?”

I tilted my head, letting a sliver of truth slip free. “Because you are the crack in his armor. The one thing that unravels him. And I cannot allow Madden Vale to stand unchallenged forever.”

The moonlight caught the faint shimmer on my hand as I spoke, the mark that burned when his name left my tongue. I curled my fingers into a fist before she could notice. Not yet. That secret would come later.

“I don’t believe you,” she said finally, though her voice lacked conviction.

“You don’t have to.” I stepped back, giving her space, though my eyes never left hers. “You’ll see it soon enough. The moment he turns on you. The moment you realize that what burns between you is not love, it’s a leash.”

Her throat bobbed with a swallow, and she looked away, staring hard at the roses as though they might anchor her.

I almost pitied her. Almost.

But pity was weakness. And I had no room for weakness.

\---

Later, as I slipped back into the great hall, the whispers followed me like obedient hounds.

“She fainted again.”

“She’s not fit to rule.”

“She’ll never be Seraphine.”

Each rumor I had planted had taken root, growing wild, choking out whatever fragile hope Nadine might have clung to. And Madden? He would rage, of course. He always raged. But even he could not silence the whispers forever.

I poured myself a glass of wine, the ruby liquid catching the candlelight, and allowed myself a rare smile.

Let Nadine run. Let her resist. Let her cling to the hope that Madden could ever truly love her. In the end, all paths led to me.

Because I knew the truth she hadn’t yet seen.

The dead weren’t always dead. And Seraphine’s shadow was longer than she realized.

And when the time came, Nadine would either owe me, or be devoured by the bond that chained her.

Either way, I would win.

Nadine’s POV

The words Cassian left behind clung to me long after he vanished into the shadows. His voice, smooth as silk and sharp as a knife, replayed in my mind like a curse. Madden does not forgive. Madden consumes.

I pressed my hands to my arms, nails digging into skin as though I could scratch away the unease. I wanted to dismiss it, Cassian was a manipulator, a serpent who thrived on venom. But something inside me trembled, because part of me feared he wasn’t lying.

Did I truly know Madden at all?

The boy I once dreamed of, the one whose eyes had softened when they lingered on me, seemed like a ghost now. In his place stood an Alpha who humiliated me in front of nobles, who dragged me into chambers lined with Seraphine’s lingering scent, who commanded my body even when I fought to deny him.

And yet, my wolf keened for him. Every brush of his presence unraveled me. Every look set me aflame. If he hated me so much, why did his hands tremble when he nearly touched me? Why did he prowl my nightmares as if protecting me?

I sank onto the cold stone bench in the garden, burying my face in my palms. Maybe I was the fool here, clinging to the memory of a boy who no longer existed. Maybe Cassian was right, what burned between Madden and me was not love, but chains.

Still, I remembered the flash in Madden’s eyes when he kissed me before the court. Not the Alpha’s fury, but something rawer, wilder. A plea.

Was it possible for both to exist inside him? The man who wanted me destroyed and the man who wanted me whole?

The doubt was a sickness spreading in my veins. I couldn’t tell where my fear ended and the bond began. I couldn’t tell if Madden’s touch meant salvation, or ruin.

All I knew was this: if I had ever truly known him, that knowledge was slipping away now, buried under layers of cruelty, power, and the shadow of Seraphine’s ghost.

And the terrifying thought whispered in the back of my mind was that maybe I didn’t want to know who he had become.

Because if I did, I might not survive it.