Dangerous.
"Why would you say that?" His voice is cold, controlled, but I've known him long enough to hear the tension underneath.
Seraphine's grin widens.
Blood-stained and terrifying and absolutelyunhinged.
"Only a narcissist can order for his own son... heir to be assassinated with his entire pack... at an academy like this."
The words land like bombs.
Silence.
Absolute silence.
I feel Kai go rigid behind me.
Feel the shock radiating through the pack bond—not just from him, but from Jett and Blaze too.
Assassinated.
His own father.
Us.
"What?" The word escapes me before I can stop it.
Seraphine smirks.
"Don't believe me?" Another weak giggle—that sound that used to be manic and bright now reduced to something fractured and fading. "Aphrodite... I'm... just gonna take a little... nappynap... so you just repeat... what those fuckers... said... pretty please..."
The small robotic sphere I noticed before—the one she called Ro, her AI companion—hovers closer, its sensors blinking.
"Blood pressure dropping," Ro announces, its synthetic voice carrying clinical concern. "Risk of seizures and decline is imminent."
No.
No, no, no?—
"Jett?" I demand.
"One more minute. It's almost at boil."
"She'll be dead in a fucking minute!"
Seraphine's eyes are fighting to stay open.
I can see the battle—can feel it through the bond, the desperate struggle to cling to consciousness when her body is trying so hard to shut down.
"Ro," she whispers, and her voice is barely audible now, slipping away like water through fingers. "Tell them... please... and thanks... for being my friend..."
She trails off.
Her eyes roll back.
Her body goes limp in my arms.
"SERAPHINE!"
