Chapter 180

CHAPTER 22… ANDRES The Veil did not open for me. I tore my way into it. Silver fire erupted around me as I pushed through the threshold, claws digging into a floor that wasn’t a floor, air that wasn’t air. Everything here felt like a half-remembered dream. Soft, shifting, alive— yet it crackled with energy sharp enough to slice bone. My War Form towered over the landscape, muscles coiled with brutal ancient strength. My fur wasn’t the usual onyx black. Here, it shimmered. Silver streaks, like molten moonlight— ran along my limbs, pulsing with every beat of my heart. Czer was gone. This wasn’t him. This was us. Unfettered. Unchained. The version of me my ancestors sealed away so the world would stay standing. The Veil recoiled violently at my presence, rippling in waves of white shadow. Good. Let it fear me. I didn’t come here to make peace. I came to take back my mate. A distant echo rang through the realm— Valentina’s voice. Small. Breaking. Sacred. “Andres!” My chest heaved. Goddess.