All Chapters of The King's Hart : Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

40 Chapters

The Serpent's Den

The list of five suspects burned in my pocket, but it was the name not on the list that kept me awake. Margot Valcourt. The woman who'd offered us an alliance. The woman who'd revealed my father was alive. The woman who'd sworn her family were archivists, not hunters. And all along, the Ashfords had been inside her network. The text from the unknown enemy had said it plainly: the Valcourt leak wasn't a leak at all. It was Margot herself.I stood in the library at dawn, the pale winter light bleeding through the windows, staring at my phone. The message was still there. The Ashfords have been inside the Valcourts all along. If that was true, if Margot was the real threat then everything we'd built in the past few weeks was a house of cards waiting to collapse. The protection. The safe houses. The intelligence network. All of it compromised. And Helena Frost, the Valcourt agent who'd broken cover to warn me, might already be dead."Sophie." Jace's voice pulled me back. He was standing i

The Poisoned Truth

The Valcourt compound was dark when we pulled up, every window black as a dead eye. No guards at the gate. No security lights. Just the iron fence glinting under a sliver of moon and the hum of something wrong in the air. Diane's message was still glowing on my phone: Come alone. Or Margot dies. But Jace was beside me, his jaw set like granite, his hand wrapped around mine so tight my fingers were numb."She'll know I'm not alone," I said."She knows we don't follow orders." He killed the engine and turned to face me. "We go in together. We get Margot out. We end this.""And if she's already killed her?""Then we make sure she never hurts anyone again." His eyes flickered gold—just for a heartbeat. "But she won't. She wants the flash drive. She won't kill her leverage."I looked at the compound. Somewhere inside, Diane—the woman who'd been my supervisor, my supposed protector, the person who'd assigned me to Jace and watched over me for years—was holding Margot hostage. And somewhere

The Short List

The list was wrong. It had to be. Seven names stared back at me from my notebook—Sophie, Jace, Celeste, Margot, Helena, Marcus, Ava—and every single one felt impossible. I'd spent the past three days watching each of them like a hawk, cataloguing conversations, tracking movements, searching for the silver glint of Volkov eyes that would mark them as a traitor. But I'd found nothing. And the draft was now eleven days away.Jace stood at my apartment window, his silhouette sharp against the pale morning light. He'd been quiet since we left the compound—not withdrawn, not pushing me away, but thinking. I recognized the look now. The same one he wore before a big game, calculating angles and probabilities, searching for the opening that would win everything."You've been staring at that list for an hour," he said without turning around."I've been staring at it for three days. It's not giving me any answers.""Then maybe we're asking the wrong question." He turned to face me. "We've been

The Enemy Within

The suspicion followed me home like a shadow I couldn't shake. Jace had dropped me at my apartment with a quiet "get some sleep" and a look that lingered a beat too long, and now I was sitting on my bed at three in the morning, staring at the unknown number's message until the words blurred. The agent is standing right in front of you. Not beside me. Not watching from the shadows. In front of me. Every day. Someone I saw so often I'd stopped seeing them at all.The next morning, I found Celeste at the arena. She was sitting in the stands exactly where she'd always sat—back row, corner seat, invisible to everyone who wasn't looking for her. Her gold eyes tracked Jace on the ice below, watching him run drills with the focused intensity of someone who'd spent fifteen years protecting him from a distance."You're up early," she said without turning around."Can't sleep.""Neither can he." She nodded toward Jace. "He's been on the ice since four. Says it's the only thing that quiets the no

The Friend Who Wasn't

Marcus's silver eyes reflected the warehouse lights like mirrors, and in them, I saw every moment he'd been there—every study session, every coffee, every time he'd told me Jace was dangerous and I should walk away. He wasn't protecting me. He was isolating me. The same way Gregory had isolated Jace. The same way Diane had isolated Margot. All of them, working different angles of the same terrible plan."Say something," Marcus said. His voice was calm, but his hands were shaking at his sides. "Scream at me. Tell me I'm a monster. I deserve it.""You're Volkov." The words scraped out of my throat. "The whole time. From the very beginning.""From before the beginning. I was assigned to watch the Kingston heir when I was sixteen. The Volkovs knew Gregory was trying to activate the Aegis. They wanted to see if he'd succeed before they made their move." He took a step closer, and Jace moved to block him. "I never wanted to hurt you, Sophie. That part was real. Everything I felt for you—""

The Edge of Control

Nine days before the draft, Jace's power nearly killed him.I was in the stands at dawn, watching him run drills alone on the empty ice. Helena had given the team a rest day, but Jace never rested. He skated in brutal circles, slapshots echoing through the rafters like gunfire, his breath coming in harsh white bursts. Then he stopped. His stick clattered to the ice. His body went rigid, and a sound escaped him—half growl, half scream—as gold light bled from his eyes and poured down his cheeks like liquid fire.I was on the ice before I knew I'd moved, my sneakers slipping on the frozen surface. "Jace!"He didn't answer. He couldn't. His whole body was shaking, muscles locked, the veins in his neck standing out like cords. The air pressure dropped. The lights flickered. Somewhere in the tunnel, I heard Celeste shout a warning—she'd been watching from the shadows, always watching—but I didn't stop. I grabbed his arm, and the heat of his skin burned through my gloves."Look at me. Whatev

The Volkov Assault

The first Volkov agent crashed through the glass before anyone could move. Shards exploded across the ice like frozen rain, and then they were everywhere—pouring through the shattered doors, their silver eyes cutting through the dark arena like cold fire. Twelve of them. Maybe more. I grabbed Marcus by the front of his bloodied jacket and dragged him behind the boards as a wave of pressure slammed into the spot where he'd been standing."They sent a kill squad," he gasped, pressing a hand to the gash on his forehead. "Not a recruitment team. The voided contract triggered a full termination order. They're here to eliminate everyone."Jace was already moving. His eyes flared gold, and the air around him shimmered with heat. "Celeste, protect Sophie. Helena, get Margot to the Valcourt safe house. Marcus—""I'm fighting." Marcus pushed himself upright, his silver eyes steady despite the blood streaming down his face. "I burned my life for this. Let me finish it."Jace didn't argue. He jus

The hours before

Six hours before the draft, Marcus stopped breathing.I was in the safe house hallway when the machines screamed. Doctors burst through the doors, shouting words I didn't understand, and I pressed myself against the wall as they wheeled him past—his face pale, his silver eyes closed, the binding agent's poison still burning through his veins. Jace caught my arm before my knees gave out."He's not going to die," he said, but his voice was rough, uncertain. "The Valcourt doctors know what they're doing.""He took that syringe for you.""I know.""Why would he do that? After everything he did—all the lies, all the manipulation—why would he sacrifice himself?"Jace was quiet for a moment. The same question had been eating at him since the arena. "Because he meant what he said. Everything he did, he did because he loved you. Even the betrayal. Even the lies." He met my eyes. "Love makes people do terrible things. It also makes them do brave ones."I stared at the closed doors of the medica

The Draft

The draft venue glowed like a cathedral of glass and steel, every window blazing with light against the dark winter sky. We stood at the edge of the crowd, Jace's hand wrapped around mine, the roar of ten thousand voices rumbling through the walls. Somewhere inside, scouts and cameras and three Volkov agents were waiting. Somewhere inside, my father was in the front row."You ready?" I asked."No." Jace's eyes flickered gold, but steady. Controlled. "But I'm done letting fear make my decisions."We walked through the side entrance together. The hallway stretched ahead, lined with framed jerseys and championship banners. Halfway down, Celeste emerged from the shadows. "The Volkov agents are in position. Security, media, one scout. They're watching every entrance.""Let them watch." Jace's voice was calm. "I'm not their weapon anymore."Helena met us at the tunnel entrance with a clipboard and a grim expression. "Ava's story just went live. Every major outlet is picking it up. The blood

The Ashford Shadow

The celebration roared around us, but I couldn't hear any of it. Diane's name pulsed on my phone screen like a wound that wouldn't close. She'll be seeing you soon. Jace took the phone from my hand, read the message twice, and his jaw tightened until I could see the muscle jumping in his cheek."She's bluffing." His voice was quiet, controlled, the Aegis steady behind his eyes. "The Ashford network is shattered. She's on the run. This is desperation.""You don't believe that.""No. I don't." He handed the phone back. "But the draft is over. We're alive. Marcus is recovering. The Volkovs are retreating. Whatever Diane is planning, we have time to prepare."I wanted to believe him. The locker room was full of laughter and champagne and teammates clapping Jace on the back. Ava was in the corner, already filing her follow-up story. Celeste stood guard by the door, her gold eyes scanning every face. My father was somewhere in the building. For the first time in months, we'd actually won so

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