Chapter 296

AURELIA’S POV “Because you are,” I said, and my voice did not tremble. I could feel my wolf under the surface now, a hot drumbeat at my throat, every hair along my arms lifting in answer. “You spread fear. You feed on them. You claim protection while feasting on their lives.” Something shifted in the ranks of listeners. A woman near the stair clutched her child tighter. One of the junior captains—someone who had been uneasy around Draven for months—exchanged a look with another man and swallowed. Draven’s nostrils flared. He threw out one hand as if to hush the whole world. “Guards!” he barked. “Seize her. Bring her to the post. She will learn obedience with rope and rod.” A dozen pairs of heavy boots moved like a tide. Two guards crossed toward me, faces impassive, hands reaching for the ropes they always kept at their sides. I was not naïve enough to think this would end without violence. But there’s a moment before action when the air tastes different—electric, expectant—and in that