I run so fast that it feels like my heart’s about to burst out of my chest. The street blurs beneath my feet—wet stone, golden light, salt wind. I reach the high wall of my father’s estate just as the first tendrils of dawn begin to stain the horizon. Hauling myself up, I balance atop the fence, my breath ragged, before dropping down on the other side. The gardens below lie still and ghostly in the pale light.
A low rumble vibrates the air: Drakocircling above, unseen but near. I close my eyes, draw strength from the echo of his power, then drop silently into the courtyard.
Kat stands there—gaunt, pale, eyes hollowed by sleepless nights sitting beneath the giant oak tree.
“Kat.” I approach slowly, afraid to startle her.
“Selene,” she breathes, crossing her arms as if defending herself. “How are you here?”
I pull her into a fierce embrace. “I’ve missed you so much, sunshine.”
Her body trembles in my arms before stiffening. She pulls back, studying me like a ghost. “I thought you were gone forever.”
“I’ve only been granted one night,” I whisper. “I had to see you.”
Her expression hardens. “Well, you’ve seen me. And now you can go.”
“Kat…” I hesitate. “Tobias told me you’re engaged to…” I can’t bring myself to say his name. “Why? To him, of all people?”
She flinches but doesn’t look away. “Edric Greyisn’t who he was before your horse sent him into a coma. He brings me gifts and promises safety. Father says the match will secure my future.”
“Isecured your future,” I say, the words scraping my throat raw. “On the ranch. With Tobias.”
She doesn’t hesitate. “It wasn’t the life I wanted. I belong here—in the city, in society.”
The rage that follows isn’t immediate. It rolls in slow and suffocating, crushing my lungs as the truth sinks in. I see every choice I made for her laid bare—every compromise, every promise, every piece of myself I carved away so she wouldn’t have to live under our father’s shadow—discarded with a single sentence.
And with it comes the sick, unbearable realization that I wasn’t protecting her from him at all. I was protecting her from becoming exactlylikehim.
“You sound just like Father,” I whisper, heart cracking. “You don’t love him.”
“Love isn’t what ultimately matters, Selene.” Her voice wavers but stays sharp. “Father felt it could be a powerful alliance, restoring the Greys’ name and raising ours. And I said yes.”
“Kat, he tried to rape me!” The truth tears free at last, the long-unspoken words lifting a crushing weight from my chest.
She recoils as if struck. “Impossible.”
“It’s true. He’s a monster. You have to believe me—”
“I don’t.” Her voice shakes. “You twisteverything. You always have.”
The air leaves my lungs.
“What’s become of the ranch?” I ask, pivoting—grasping for something, anything.
“I sold it.”
“What? Why?” The betrayal stings hot. I sacrificed myself to save my sister. I outsmarted our father. I nearly died—only for her to throw everything away.
“All you ever cared about was that stupid ranch,” she says. “It was your dream, not mine.”
“That’s not true. You loved the ranch. The good times we had there—”
“Yeah, well, times change.”
“And so do people, it seems.” I stare at my sister, searching for the carefree girl I helped raise. The girl I tried to shield from our father.
“Go,” she whispers. “Before Father returns.”
