Chapter 25: 25

Nadine’s POV

The heavy doors of the Luna’s chambers shut behind me with a dull thud, and the silence that followed was suffocating. My heart still hammered from the confrontation in the hall, from the way Madden’s eyes had burned when I smirked back at him.

I pressed my back to the door and drew in a shaky breath. The air inside felt different, thicker, humming faintly like a pulse beneath the walls. At first, I thought it was my nerves, the echo of the bond still clawing at me. But when I stepped closer to the frame, I saw it.

The faint shimmer of runes.

They pulsed faintly along the wood and stone, curling in patterns older than I could read. My stomach dropped.

I wasn’t just locked in.

I was sealed.

I pressed my palm to the surface. Heat tingled up my arm, sharp as needles. My wolf snarled, trying to push through, but the barrier shoved her back with ruthless precision. It wasn’t ordinary magic. This was crafted to bind Lycans, to trap even a wolf’s spirit inside.

I stumbled back, clutching my hand to my chest.

So this was his game. He hadn’t dragged me to his bed, hadn’t shackled me in iron. No, Madden Vale had done worse, he had carved spells into the very walls of his chambers to keep me caged like a prized wolf in a gilded den.

My throat tightened. I had thought I was clever, smirking at him, pretending to have the upper hand. But I was nothing more than a bird in a cage with bars invisible until I pressed against them.

I moved through the room, testing the windows, the balcony. Every arch, every pane of glass glimmered with that faint, hateful light. Runes etched into the stone. Protection or prison? Both. Always both, with him.

My chest burned with fury, but beneath it something colder spread, a kind of dread that seeped into my bones.

Because if he had gone to such lengths, then it meant he wasn’t going to let me go. Not now. Not ever.

I kicked the corner of the bed, the thud echoing in the chamber. “Damn you,” I hissed, my voice cracking.

The bond shivered through me as if it had heard, whispering his name back inside my head. Madden.

I sank onto the edge of the bed, gripping my knees, fighting the sting in my eyes. I wouldn’t cry. Not here, not where his presence lingered strongest.

But the weight of it pressed down on me. The memory of his eyes tonight, fierce yet tired. The sound of his laugh, jagged and wrong. The heat of his breath when he leaned close enough to steal mine.

And now this. The invisible chains carved into every corner of his chambers.

“You can’t keep me,” I whispered into the silence, even though some part of me knew he could.

The air shifted faintly, as if mocking me, and the runes flickered once, like they’d heard and laughed.

I curled onto the bed, pulling the covers around me though sleep would not come easily. My wolf paced inside me, restless, caught between fury and longing.

We were both trapped, and no amount of smirking or sharp words could change that.

Not while he held all the keys.

The runes still glimmered faintly in the walls when I heard the sound.

Soft. Too soft for the guards.

A faint click against stone, then a whisper of air as though the shadows themselves moved. I stiffened, heart thudding, every instinct screaming danger.

Then his voice came, smooth as a serpent’s slide through grass.

“Clever, isn’t it? His cage.”

Cassian.

He stepped from the corner, where the candlelight barely touched, his presence sharp as broken glass. His glacier-blue eyes gleamed in the dimness, and that ever-present smirk curved his lips. He looked perfectly at ease in the Lycan King’s chambers, as though he had every right to be here.

My stomach dropped. How did he even get past the wards?

“Get out,” I hissed, backing away from him. “If he finds you here, ”

Cassian chuckled low, shaking his head. “If he finds me here, he’ll assume I’m doing what I always do, watching his back. Besides…” His gaze swept over me, sharp and invasive. “You’re the one who should be afraid, little wolf. Not me.”

I curled my fists. “Why are you here?”

“To tell you the truth,” he said simply, as if truth were something he dealt in.

I barked a laugh, brittle. “The truth? You’ve done nothing but weave poison since I arrived.”

“Poison,” he mused, tilting his head, “is simply truth too bitter for the tongue. But I’ll offer you something sweeter.”

I didn’t move, but my wolf prowled inside me, uneasy.

Cassian stepped closer, his voice lowering, drawing me into the snare of his words.

“Seraphine was never your enemy, Nadine.”

My breath caught, a cold spike of confusion running down my spine. “What are you talking about? She’s dead.”

“Is she?” His smile deepened, almost pitying. “Or is that just the story Madden likes to tell himself, so he can pour his fury into you instead of admitting how completely she betrayed him?”

I shook my head, backing into the wall. “No. I saw… I heard… he told me she died because of me.”

Cassian’s gaze sharpened, ice cutting through me. “And you believed him? After everything? The great Lycan King, maddened and broken, clinging to the lie of his dead Luna. Convenient, isn’t it? That her ‘death’ absolves him of fault, keeps the nobles whispering about his grief, while you bear the stain of guilt.”

My pulse pounded in my ears. No. It couldn’t be. If Seraphine were alive,

“He would know,” I said, forcing strength into my voice. “He’s not a fool.”

Cassian stepped closer, his cane tapping softly against the stone floor, eyes never leaving mine. “He is a fool, Nadine. A fool in love with the wrong woman. But I…” He leaned in, so close his breath ghosted against my cheek. “…I know where Seraphine truly is. And I know what she plans.”

Every instinct screamed at me to shove him away, to snarl, to demand more. But I froze, every word settling like acid in my stomach.

Alive. Seraphine alive.

“No,” I whispered, shaking my head. “You’re lying. This is another one of your games.”

“Maybe,” he said softly. “Or maybe you’ve just been playing his game so long, you don’t know how to tell when you’re already losing.”

The runes on the walls pulsed faintly, reminding me I was trapped. And suddenly the chamber felt colder, the air tighter, Cassian’s words sinking into the cracks of my heart.

Alive.

If it were true, then everything I thought I knew was already unraveling.