Chapter 25 Finding Answers

• Raya’s POV
• I didn’t let go of Kael’s arm until we were back inside the cold, impersonal grandeur of his keep, far away from the judgmental eyes of the remaining guards. My hand was shaking slightly, not from fear, but from the sheer white-hot rage that was coiling in my gut. What I had just witnessed—Kael, the invincible King, humiliated by a junior guard and crippled by a spell—was far more devastating than any physical wound.
• It was one thing to hear he was cursed; it was another thing entirely to see the raw, desperate terror in his eyes when he couldn’t fight back. I had felt the entire agonising sequence through the bond, too. The savage, primal instinct to rip the guard’s throat out was a massive spike of aggression that hit me first, followed immediately by the cold, crushing vice grip of the curse. I felt his Lycan soul scream as it was forcibly restrained, and the rebound pain left me breathless. It was a violation so profound, so absolute, that it felt like they were trying to sever a part of me as well.