Chapter 99
Draven’s POV
Pearl’s voice faded into nothing. The cheers, the ceremony, the weight of my new title—all of it dissolved into the background, meaningless noise against the one truth that mattered.
She was gone.
Zeraphine had slipped away, vanishing into the crowd like mist before I could take a single step toward her. One moment, she was there—still, silent, watching me with an expression I couldn’t decipher. And the next, she was nothing but an absence, a void that gnawed at the edges of my thoughts.
Not again.
My breath came sharp, uneven, my pulse pounding as my gaze darted through the sea of faces. Searching. Needing to find her. But she was already lost in the shifting bodies, the chaos of celebration swallowing her whole.
My hands curled into fists at my sides, frust
