Chapter172: Blood Ritual

|| Lilac’s POV || The projector's glow cast eerie shadows across the garden as the video played on. My breath caught in my throat when the woman in Elias's arms turned her face toward the camera— revealing Coco's unmistakable heart-shaped face, her raven hair splayed across Elias's bare chest like Serpents. A collective gasp ripped through the crowd. To my left, Alpha King Darius's knuckles whitened around his goblet, the gold bending under his grip. Luna Cassandra's hand flew to her mouth, her eyes wide with horror. Kael stood frozen beside her, his face a mask of icy fury. And Coco— oh, dear little Coco, her already pale complexion turned ghostly, her fingers trembling where they clutched Kael's sleeve. For a heartbeat, the world stopped. Then chaos erupted. "Stop this nonsense!" Elias roared, lunging toward Ezra to snatch the remote. His usually perfect golden hair was disheveled, his blue eyes wild. "What kind of joke is this?!" Ezra held up his hands in mock surrender, though his