Ardyn POV

The boy’s blood still stained the floor.

Even after the servants carried his body away, even after the torches were relit, the stench of it lingered. Wolves avoided looking at Kael as if he were a monster chained in their midst.

And maybe he was.

I watched him kneel on the stones, trembling, his scar dim but still glowing faintly. His hands shook. His lips, still wet with blood, whispered only one word over and over.

“No.”

He said it like a prayer, like a curse. His wolf ...