Lorraine’s POV
My fists slamd against the door and over again, the pain splintering up my arms, but I didn’t stop.
"Please! Soone open the damn door!" I scread, my voice hoarse, throat raw.
Adrian’s cries echoed in my head.
Tell your prince to bring her out. I want to see Lorraine!
My chest clenched so hard I thought my ribs would crack. The sound of fists pounding flesh outside was growing louder, bloodier. I scread again, this ti so forcefully it stole all the air from my lungs. I was suffocating in this gilded cage while soone bled for . Again.
Then I heard it.
A soft, cold click.
The lock turned.
The door unlatched and slowly creaked open.
Kieran stepped in.
Everything about him was composed, too composed. His eyes landed on without surprise, without softness, without any sign that he’d heard screaming myself raw behind the door.
I scrambled to my feet. "You have to save him," I said breathlessly. "Kieran, your people are killing Adrian!"
I made to run past him.
But he didn’t move to follow
"And why should I?" he asked, standing still.
I blinked. "What?"
"Why should I save that blonde-haired noble?" he asked, voice bored.
"He’s nothing to ." He shrugged
I stared at him like I was seeing a stranger. "He ca here.... only to save ."
"And that was his mistake," Kieran said coolly. "He wss already dead the mont he stepped foot in front of the dorm gates. Even the elites think twice before they co close to this place. Yet your noble friend, he ran in like an animal looking for his own slaughter."
He tilted his head, expression unreadable.
"He was foolish," he added, "and he will pay for it with his life. That’s how it has always been."
He turned to walk away.
I grabbed his arm. "I’m not going to let him die."
He stopped and slowly turned his head.
"And what is a weak little wolf like you going to do?"
His words slamd into like a backhand.
"The mont you step into that courtyard," he continued, "you’ll die too. You won’t even last a minute."
I lifted my chin. "Then I’ll die. I’d rather die than let soone else suffer because of again."
His eyes flared, just for a mont, and then dimd into sothing darker. Crueler.
"Too bad," he said. "Because your life doesn’t belong to you anymore."
I froze.
"For the next month," he said slowly, deliberately, "your life belongs to ."
His voice dropped to a whisper, lethal and sharp.
"So no, you don’t get to die. Not without my permission."
"Kieran...." I started, but he cut off with a raised hand.
"You stay here. You stay still. And you wait until I say otherwise. You don’t get a choice. You don’t get freedom. You don’t even get to bleed unless I allow it."
I stared at him, heart racing, hands trembling with fury. I wanted to claw at him, scream, anything.... but I stood frozen. Because he ant every word.
He turned, stepped out.
Then he slamd the door behind him, hard enough that the fra rattled, and I heard the lock slide into place again.
I hurled at the door but it was already too late.
I jamd the and I scread
My fists were raw from pounding on the door.
My throat burned from screaming.
I stumbled back from the door, chest heaving, heart breaking, lungs caving under the weight of helplessness. My eyes found the window again like a reflex, and I dragged my aching body forward.
The courtyard below opened up like a stage, vivid, brutal, rciless.
And there he was.
Adrian.
On his knees, swaying, blood pouring from his split brow and swelling jaw. He tried to speak, tried to breathe, but a lycan’s boot smashed into his stomach and folded him forward with a sickening sound.
The crowd laughed.
They laughed.
Another fist ca, and another. His head snapped sideways like a rag doll.
I pressed my palm against the cold windowpane, trembling violently. "Please...." I whispered, not even sure to whom.
My vision blurred. I tasted blood, I’d bitten my own lip without realizing.
Why was this happening?
Because of .
He ca for .
Because I’ve beco the curse that poisons everyone I touch.
I thought of Callum, how warm his hand had felt when he died for .
I thought of the pile of feral corpses they’d thrown out like trash.
All of them....
Gone.
Because of of .
I backed away from the window, hands curling into fists. "No more," I whispered to the room. "I’m not letting anyone die for again."
I turned, heart pounding harder than ever before.
There was only one way out. And I was going to take it.
I took three steps back.
My breath hitched. The pain in my body scread warnings. My ribs ached from the white room’s horrors, and every muscle in protested.
But none of that mattered.
I ran.
And I jumped.
***********
A Lycan’s fist raised once more, poised to drive into Adrian’s bloody face.
He didn’t flinch.
He couldn’t.
His eyes, swollen shut, had long stopped tracking the movent of his attackers. His body barely responded to pain. He was broken, bruises on top of bruises, bones dangerously close to snapping.
The courtyard was alive with amusent.
Cheers. Smirks. Echoing cruelty.
"Tell your noble council they raised a weakling!" one lycan sneered, cracking his knuckles.
But then.....
There was a crashing sound
The sharp shriek of shattering glass tore the air.
Everyone froze.
The sound hadn’t co from a weapon. It hadn’t co from a voice.
It ca from above.
A loud thud followed, like flesh colliding with stone.
All heads turned.
And gasped.
There she wss.
Lorraine Anderson.
Her body lay in a mangled heap near the broken remains of the second-story window. Her shoulder had slamd into the ground hard, and blood was already seeping from a gash on her forehead. Her ankle was twisted unnaturally, and her arms trembled as she tried to push herself up.
She didn’t scream.
She didn’t beg.
She moved.
Her eyes fluttered open and locked onto Adrian’s bloodied form just a few feet away.
"Adrian....." she whispered through gritted teeth.
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