He wanted 1,095 days to claim me

down in Denver, a suffocating

was just a cold, crushing reality that

y paralyzed in

livered through the phone right before my world shattered: "H

nearly split. The official story sent out by the family's inner circ

y father's oldest advi

right with me. It

always carried a receipt. He had too many enemies, too many blood debts, and a throne that everyone c

gnored while lost in a phantom nightmare of my ex. My father had tried to reach me right before the ambush. What if he had been trying to wa

yr

d over mine, warm, steady, and grounding. "We're

safety. But there was a vast, dangerous ocean of secrets between us. Magnus didn't know who my father really was. He didn't know that the "impor

a den of wolves. And he certainly didn't know th

had 1,095 days ago. The same towering stone walls, the same blacked-out SUVs, an

a single breath. My childhood training took over before I could stop it. I scanned the perimeter without even trying. I clock

how to read a room, and how to spot a threat before it struck. Standing on the gravel driveway, a

didn't completely stop talking, but their eyes shifted. I could feel the weight of a hundred stares trac

n the small of my back, leaning d

augh bubbled up in my th

wl. The finality of it hit me like a physical blow. My steps felt like lead as I approached the altar, where Rona

me, his eyes glassy. Then, his pro

last three years cracked wide open. I threw my arms a

t the terrifying truth was that I had never stopped loving my father.

n, prayers were whispered, but I couldn't process any of it. My attent

he faces of several prominent captains. My stomach turned completely over. It wasn't grief filling the courtyard-it was relief. They we

my temple, but the comfort was instantly sha

electric heat flared deep within my core. I looked acro

a

casket. He wasn't looking at the priest. His piercing, predatory gaze was locked entirely on me, exactly like the visceral nightmare I h

was actually here, and h

s. Raze closed the distance with a slow, deliberate stride until he stopped a mere brea

ty cadence of his voice dragged over my name

pure ice, desperately trying to stea

eside me, stepping slightly

t. A silent, lethal promise of violence passed

is eyes dismissive, before flicki

rately stepping into Marcus spac

o hard a muscle ticked in his cheek, and his dark eyes turned pitch black. But then, a s

" he said, ex

visibly firm, his knuckle

izzying, and the entire time, Raze's eyes never left mine. He w

story between us with a simple sentence. But what Raze and I had shared wasn't simple. It was

smissal, but he kept his composure perfectly. The look he gave me sp

g Marcus hand and stepping back just an inch. "It's a dangero

rave, an old memory flashed unbidden in my mind. I was seven years old, struggling to balance on a b

to fall, Pa

," he repl

you won't

ook back." And then, without warning, he had let go. I hadn't realized it until

nd whipped against my face. My father was gone. He h