جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 120

JAX'S POVThe screams wouldn't stop even after the prisoners were dead. The blood had stopped flowing, silence had settled over the chamber yet, I could still hear the screams. I could see the terror spreading from their eyes to their entire faces. All because the cult had forced Lena into an impossible choice and all because of me.My wrists burned against the silver restraints as I watched Lena standing in the center of the ritual circle.She looked devastated, lost and broken altogether. The glowing crimson symbols under her feet pulsed like a heartbeat, the cult members surrounding us continued chanting.Something was changing. I could feel it, my wolf could feel it too.The cult leader watched Lena with open fascination like a scientist observing an experiment. He watched her like she was a weapon rather than a person. I hated him, I hated every single one of them.Lena slowly lifted her head, tears streaking her face. Then her silver eyes locked onto mine.Something inside he

CULT LEADER POVThey had told me Jax was the sacrifice. That was what I wrote in the book. That was what I preached to three hundred faces in the dark, with candles dripping wax and sigils burning into the stone floor. 'The boy with the gray eyes had to bleed so the goddess would wake.'I believed it. I believed it so hard I carved the words into my own forearm. But faith had bent and that night, standing in the chamber I built with my own hands, watching the moon bleed through the skylight, I realized I had read the scripture wrong my whole life.Jax was never meant to die, he was meant to live because he was the key. I saw it then, clear as the markings glowing under his skin. He was on his knees in the circle, his wrists were bound, but he wasn’t afraid. He was looking at Lena. My vessel and my endgame, Lena who was now shaking from power. Power that wouldn’t come out because I missed one line. One faded line at the bottom of the third tablet. 'Only through the tethered one

JAX'S POV Just when I thought this would be freedom for I and Lena. I felt two heavy hands clamp down on my shoulders and yank me away from Lena with full force. They drag me away to tie me to a chair this time, they made me stand then bound my hands behind my back, and chained my feet to the floor. The cult called it 'witnessing' I called it hell. Lena was in the center of the circle. The same place I’d been two days ago. The torches made the sigils on the floor look like they were moving and breathing. She was quiet, with her head down, her shoulders rising and falling top fast. The guards had cut her wrists and let the blood drip onto the stone. “Look,” the leader said. He was back. Of course he was back. “Watch what love does.” I didn’t answer. My jaw hurt from how hard I was clenching it. My mind kept replaying the last time I saw her eyes, it was a steady silver. Now they were flickering brown then back to silver. “Do you see it?” the leader whispered, like this

LENA'S POV I should felt fear or rage but the only thing I felt was just pain, tearing through me like molten silver running under my skin, and for a few terrifying seconds I couldn’t breathe, think, or even remember my own name. Then I began screaming, the sound ripping out of me and echoing through the ritual chamber and bouncing off stone walls that had probably heard a thousand other prayers before this one. The cultists didn’t run. They didn’t even flinch. They just stood there, watching, like they’d been waiting their whole lives for this exact moment. The crimson symbols carved into the floor burst into light, and something inside me answered. The chains around my wrists shattered. The silver-black restraints exploded like glass, and the force of it knocked several cultists off their feet. I stumbled forward, convulsing, because it felt like my bones were breaking and rebuilding at the same time. Every nerve in my body was on fire. “No!” I screamed, and the roo

DANTE'S POVI’ve been in rooms with dead men before but this one was different. Three bodies, Marcus, Cole and Rafe. There was not a single bullet wound on them or knife wounds, just blood dried under their noses and in the corners of their eyes. The cult leader didn’t need guns to kill them. He just needed to think about it. Jax was the only one still breathing. He was in the back of the truck, curled around Lena’s jacket like it could keep her warm. His shoulder was dislocated. Three of his ribs were cracked and there were burns from the silver in lines across his forearms. “Don’t let go,” he kept saying. “Don’t let go of her.” “She’s gone, Jax,” I said. “The cult took her.” He didn’t hear me. He looked like he was going out of his mind, I had to get him the healers quickly. I knew I had to call Dr. Arin immediately. “I'm ten miles east of the ridge. I need you now And bring Kade. I need the both of you.” I said the moment she picked up the phone. “Alpha, I’m not...”