Chapter 73: Jab...

**~ Caspian’s POV ~**

What in the name of the Crescent is happening...?

I stood in the aftermath, heart pounding, eyes stuck on Hazel’s collapsed body like it had personally betrayed me. Lilith lay nearby unmoving. Not a sound. Not a single breath from her chest. I didn’t even know if she was dead or just passed out, but something inside me twisted at the thought that maybe she was gone.

But that wasn’t even the worst of it.

Hazel...,My mate. My everything. Cold. Unfeeling. Gone.

She wasn’t Hazel anymore. She was something else.

I turned toward Aurora, who was still steadying herself after stopping Hazel’s attack. She nodded. We didn’t need to speak. We knew what we had to do.

Cayden moved first, dropping to his knees beside Hazel, pressing his fingers to her neck. "Still breathing," he muttered. "She’s alive."

Alive—but barely holding on.

I reached down and scooped her up in my arms, her body limp like she’d been drained of everything. Her head lolled against my shoulder. For a moment, just one damn second, I thought I saw a flicker of recognition in her closed eyes...but no. Just more emptiness.

"She’s not gone," Cayden said.

"I know," I replied, tightening my grip. "Lily almost brought her back. That’s the only reason Hazel would’ve fought her. She was close. Too close. That means we’re getting somewhere."

Cayden didn’t argue. He just nodded, letting the idea become his own. I didn’t blame him. We didn’t have time for pride. We didn’t have time for anything but survival.

Aurora helped me steady Hazel as we moved fast, slipping through the High House halls, avoiding anyone who might question us. I chose our Her chamber Because if anything was going to wake her up, it was this room. The place where she spent most of her days in here in the high house.

She lived in this room. She loved in this room.

Maybe... maybe it could remind her of who she was.

We laid her down gently on the bed. I brushed a strand of hair from her face, just like I used to when she fell asleep in my arms. The softness was still there. Somewhere.

I just had to find it again.

"I brought some things," I said.

Cayden and Aurora turned to me. I pulled a small bag from the corner of the room and opened it carefully.

Inside—Ariel’s favorite toy.

little doll with crooked button eyes and tangled red yarn

had been

too long, and then

Gilberts are holding funerals today," I said quietly.

down, eyes

clenching

"So have the rest of them. They’re all rotting

smelling faintly like cinnamon and vanilla. She wore it back when

pieces of her life would break through

I whispered. "Come back

his chest. "We’ve

My jaw clenched.

know," I said.

outburst, dozens of wolves had fallen. Dahlia’s traps. Hazel’s power spike. View the

this vulnerable? That we didn’t have enough

We’d be challenged.

"Other packs will come. They’ll

stood, turning toward him

out our mate was human or so we thought. They teamed

the wall—the one still blackened with the blood

what happened?" I asked. "We burned them. Tore them apart. Made an example

try again,"

might," Aurora said. "But if they

looked

So still. So quiet.

took her hand, curling it around

going to open those eyes, slap me

like he knew. Like he knew

to pull her back before we

walked toward her with slow steps, lifting two gowns in my hands—one soft and small,

eyes fluttered open, her expression unreadable. She pinched the bridge of her nose, then slammed her palm across her face in

back on," she said with a dark chuckle. "Really? Holding up these two

gaze darted to the

she

wearing it when

in her face—something that looked like a crack.

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