Lucian POV
The blood was still wet.
It streaked across the inner gate stones in jagged lines, fresh enough to shine in the torchlight.
WE WILL TAKE THE PUPS.
THEY BELONG TO THE RIGHTFUL QUEEN.
Lucian felt the words like a blade driven beneath his ribs.
The message wasn’t madness. It wasn’t rage. It was deliberate—written slowly, painfully, with intent. Blood dripped down the stone and pooled at the base of the wall before trailing toward the service corridors.
Ilode hadn’t just escaped.
She’d been guided.
“Seal this wing,” Lucian ordered, voice hard and controlled. “No one in or out.”
Guards scattered instantly.
Talia stepped closer without being told. Lucian felt her presence at his back, steady and unshaken. When the words take the pups burned through his mind again, his body
