Chapter 15
They started calling me Heretic Queen before dawn.
The whispers slithered through the halls of Iron Howl like snakes. Not out of disrespect but because of fear.
Fear of what I had become.
Of what I was becoming.
I stood on the obsidian balcony Kael built for me above the southern wing. The wind smelled like ash, snow, and submission.
Below, the wolves trained harder. Fought dirtier.
Because I commanded it.
The Flame Court was no longer governed by laws written in stone but by heat, blood, and the bone-deep magic pulsing beneath my skin.
Kael joined me silently, his presence a furnace pressed against my back.
“They don’t know what to call you anymore,” he murmured, lips brushing my temple.
“Then let them call me what I am,” I said. “The Queen they couldn’t chain.”
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