Chapter 299

AURELIA’S POV Sleep should have come after Draven left, after the silence of the chamber swallowed the threat he’d left behind. But instead, I sat there on my bed, staring at the window where Kael had vanished. The curtain still swayed faintly as though mocking me. Why had he come? Why now, after all this time? I thought of his eyes in the dark, the way he’d silenced me with a sharp shake of his head, then disappeared without a word. No explanation, no promise, nothing. Just shadows. And where was Darius? If they were Draven’s men—his most loyal, his best—why were they lurking in corners, sneaking into my room like criminals? Why hadn’t I seen them since I arrived in this cursed place? I had been paraded before the entire pack, humiliated, threatened… and they hadn’t been there. Not once. My heart twisted painfully. Had they abandoned me? Or worse—were they playing a game I couldn’t see? The questions gnawed at me until unease became something sharper, heavier. What if Kael hadn’t come