Chapter 128: Not Her
Kieran’s POV
I stood frozen, the note trembling in my fingers. My mind tried to make sense of what I’d just read, but it couldn’t. Elise had jumped. She was gone. And her last words, were stained into my memory like blood on snow.
Felix snatched the note from my hand, his eyes scanning the scribbled message with frantic urgency. He dropped to his knees with a guttural cry that shattered the silence. His fists clenched the paper, and he let out a sound so raw and broken it made my chest clench.
"No," he sobbed. "No, no, no..."
His voice echoed through the ward, loud and painful.
I didn’t move. I couldn’t. My brain was still wrapping itself around what Elise had written.
She’d been spelled. Programmed to fear Felix. She hadn’t betrayed him, she’d protected him, even when she’d been tortured and mutilated. Someone had forced her mind, controlled her like a puppet. Someone powerful. Someone terrifying. Someone connected to the Crimson Hunt. And now Elise was dead. Because she’d known something. Because she’d tried to hold on.
A predator was hiding in plain sight.
And they were coming for Lorraine.
My fists clenched at my sides. My wolf was a storm inside me, pacing, growling, enraged. We should have known. We should have stopped it.
"Lorraine," I muttered aloud, just as a voice called from behind.
"Prince Kieran." A nurse stood at the doorway, her eyes wide with a mix of nerves and urgency. "She’s awake. Lorraine is awake. She’s asking for you."