Lycannar


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    “Open the gate! It’s the King!!” The loudmand rang <i>out </i>just as my horse leapt into my kingdom. I leaned forward on its neck for a brief moment, stunned, weak, shaken, more than I had ever expected to be.


    The sound, the bustle, the wails, all of it was a storm. Yet gradually, it slowed, quieted, until atst, the stillness spread across the entire kingdom.


    All my life, though my father was shrewd, he had never taught me to be a coward. Nor had my father in the demon realm.


    My brother and I were raised to face danger head–on, because we are royalty. Never to hide from it. I had believed, even respected, that Varyn Ashmere would also be that kind of man. But no. He wasn’t.


    Slowly, I dismounted from my horse. My knees buckled, forcing me down onto one knee. It was vital, what he had broken. What he had done. It was… too much. I could feel it, smell it. And when I lifted my gaze, I could see it.


    The ck tower. Built before I was born, brick by brick of spellwork, one of the strongest ever cast. The most sacred tower, fortified by magic greater than any beast or weapon we had ever known. Now ity shattered.


    I stared at the ruin, stunned. It must have been done by somethingunched from outside, striking the top, ripping it open, copsing the tower stone by stone.


    I looked down to where the wreckage had fallen, crushing the ground, and I saw it. The shattered ruin had struck my people.


    “Chantel.” His name whispered from my lips. He was always in the ck tower. My jaw tightened against the choke rising in my chest as I staggered to my feet. My sisters.


    I turned toward the gates, the realization pounding in my head. Varyn hadn’t wanted to kill me. Not yet.


    If he had, he would never have lured me away from my kingdom. He would have struck the ck tower with me inside. No. Varyn Ashmere wanted me alive, to suffer. To watch my people bleed.


    “Seal the gate,” I ordered, voice sharp and low. “Now.”


    <b>15:56 </b>Tue<b>, </b><b>Sep </b><b>30 </b>


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    Closing was different than sealing, Sealing meant no one came in, no one went out. My guards obeyed swiftly, just as another voice rang through the air.


    “Lycan!”


    I whirled around to see her. Mearez. gods. I rushed forward, and she met me halfway, throwing herself into my arms. I held her tightly before pulling back, freezing when I saw the blood streaked across her face.


    “Mearez…”


    “People are hurt, Lycan. What happened?” she demanded, but I couldn’t answer. My gaze darted around, searching.


    “Where is Serena?”


    “Baby brother!” She burst through the crowd, her body smeared with blood. She threw her arms around me, and I realized, with a shudder, just how terrified I was of losing them.


    “So many are injured. You need to see them,” she whispered.


    And just like that, the stillness shattered. Themotion rose again, voices shing, cries echoing. Mearez grabbed my shoulders, her eyes sweeping over me. When she saw the blood at my lips, she went pale.


    “Princess Mearez!” the healers called, but she ignored them.


    “Lycan,” she breathed.


    “Let’s go…” I started, but then it hit me. The one–hour limit. My body froze, the realization seizing me.


    The potion Mearez had brewed for me, for this night only, so I could hold my form beneath the full moon. It was running out.


    She saw it at once, and Serena rushed forward too, panic in her eyes.


    “He’s going to shift. We need to get him to the steel chamber.”


    I shook my head, clenching my fists.


    “My people need me. Give me the potion again, Mearez, I’ll…”


    “It weakens you, Lycan,” she cut me off, voice sharp with fear. “It dulls you more than you know. One dose is enough for a lifetime. If you take it again, you may never shift into your


    <b>15:56 </b>Tue<b>, </b><b>Sep </b><b>30 </b>


    $<b>49 </b>


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    beast again. The steel chamber is your only choice. We’ll care for the kingdom until you


    return.”


    I was slipping, losing myself. As much as I wanted to resist, I couldn’t.


    I headed for the steel chamber, my eyes flickering in color. I stopped in the hall, turning sharply.


    “Chantel. Where is he?”


    No answer. My gaze swept my sisters, freezing them in ce.


    “Where is Chantel?”


    “I’m here.” His voice rang from ahead as he rushed forward, bowing deeply. “Someone is dead. I arrived toote and I couldn’t pull her from the crash in time.”


    I went still, my gaze falling to the wound shed across his arm. And I knew. As quickly as we heal, the ck tower’s wounds were different. They struck deeper.


    The chill raced through me. How much it would hurt if he had died. gods, how much it would hurt. But it hurt anyway because he had just told me someone else had. My people had died. Many more were injured. All because of me.


    I stood frozen as the sound of agony rose outside, the wails, the cries, the night shattered by grief. Slowly, I turned, walking into the steel chamber. Five iron doors sealed behind me.


    As I stepped inside, I felt the shift tearing through me and there Zephyrine came to mind. Her arms around me, her shield protecting me, her worry. And yet Varyn had won tonight.


    I had looked into that cursed mirror, caught a glimpse, not of my weakness, but of something else. A man. My reflection. My other self. And still nothing had happened.


    Does that mean seeing my reflection isn’t my weakness?


    That question echoed as I reached the chamber wall. Chantel bound my ankles, and I pulled shirt over my head, spreading my arms so he could shackle my wrists against the stone wall.


    my


    I lifted my gaze onest time to my sisters. Their faces were full of fear and sorrow, and I hated this. I hated this time of the month. But this was my curse, and I had long epted it.


    Chantel finished the bindings, stepping back.


    “Go,” I told them, my voice low. I never wanted them to see me like this.


    15:56 Tue, <b>Sep </b><b>30 </b>


    Mearez swallowed hard, forcing strength into her voice as she grabbed Serena’s wrist.


    “We’re needed, Serena. Come.” She pulled her away.


    When they were gone, I gave Chantel onestmand. <fnde8d> The rightful source is Find~Novel</fnde8d>


    “Don’t guard the doors tonight. Go help the people. Go”


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    He bowed deeply, obeying. The first door shut. Then the second. The third. The fourth. The final.


    Silence.


    Momentster, my senses blurred, my body breaking. The shift ripped through me, savage and merciless.


    A howl burst from my chest, dying against the steel walls as the chains burned into my flesh, shackling me down. Agony upon agony consumed me.


    <b>15:56 </b>Tue, <b>Sep </b><b>30 </b>