Chapter 76

• Celeste’s POV
• Michael’s eyes were bloodshot, wild with panic and disbelief, the raw scent of fear and desperation radiating from him like a wolf cornered. His half-swollen face, the remnant of my slap, twisted with an emotion I couldn’t even name—fear, guilt, and frantic need all entangled. “What do you mean I’ll never see him? What do you mean… he went to heaven? Tell me… tell me what happened to him!” His voice cracked, clawing at the air, trembling as much from dread as from anger.
• I stood there silently, watching him flail, letting his wolf-instincts burn themselves out. And then, slowly, deliberately, a shadow of a smile curved across my lips. “If Angel Reform Academy were truly as simple as a prison,” I said softly, letting each word sink into him like a fang into soft flesh, “do you think Kane… your brilliant brother… wouldn’t have found a way to send messages out?”