"What did Lord Vangelis speak to you about?" Cassius asked.
Roxanne wrapped both hands around her cup and took a slow sip of hot coffee before answering.
"A marriage proposal," she said simply.
Cassius studied her for a moment. "And are you interested?"
"Not at all." Her voice was flat, unbothered, as though the idea barely deserved a second thought. She set her cup down and looked at him squarely. "There are far more important matters to deal with. We need to find Hazel, and we need to locate the Codex of Silence." She paused, her eyes steady on his. "And Cassius, I do not want you hiding anymore. That ends now. I want you presented properly, in a way that leaves no room for anyone to question your presence."
Cassius said nothing for a beat, something shifting quietly behind his eyes.
Without a word, Cassius shifted. His body rippled and expanded, fur swallowing skin, until his wolf stood in his place, large and steady and waiting.
He glanced back at her.
"Mind riding on my back?"
Roxanne smiled, and for a moment it reached her eyes. She climbed onto him without hesitation, and he moved, swift and sure through the terrain, carrying her as though she weighed nothing at all.
They arrived at the mouth of a cave. Cassius shifted back, stepped forward, and pressed both hands against a massive stone. It groaned and rolled aside, revealing the darkness beyond.
He led her in.
The space that opened up was nothing like a simple hideout. Every surface told a story. Shelves lined the walls from floor to ceiling, crowded with vials, bound manuscripts, and glowing inscriptions that hummed faintly in the low light.
"This is mine and my sister Corrine's hideout," Cassius said.
Roxanne turned slowly, taking it all in. "It looks more like a magic laboratory."
"It is, in a way." He moved further inside, running a hand along one of the shelves. "Every spell you see here, we collected from all over the world. Numeral spells. Rare ones. Ones that most people do not even know still exist." He paused. "Those spells are also the reason I was arrested."
Roxanne turned to look at him fully.
"How?"
"Corrine had been searching for the library that holds the Codex of Silence," Cassius said, his tone flat and matter of fact. "She got caught. Phoenix found her." He shifted slightly. "So I told them it was my idea. That I forced her into it and threatened her. That she knew nothing and was utterly innocent ."
Roxanne said nothing, watching him.
"The original punishment was execution." He said it the way someone might comment on the weather. "Phoenix changed it to captivity."
The silence that followed was brief. Cassius did not seem to feel it the way she did.
"What was your relationship with Phoenix like?" Roxanne asked.
"Wasn't much of a connection," He leaned back, unbothered. "We talked occasionally. That's what l think saved me "
A short pause.
What is this?" Roxanne asked, pointing toward it.
"Sumsum kasa bind," Cassius replied.
She frowned. "What is that?"
He glanced at it briefly before answering. "A binding vow. Ancient African origin. They grow beneath old trees where human sacrifices were once made." He said it without ceremony, the way he said most things. "That ritual was abolished long ago, so the trees stopped growing. No blood, no growth." He paused. "I believe this is the last one left in existence."
Roxanne stared at it for a long moment.
"Can I have it?"
Cassius did not answer immediately. He looked at the object, then at her, something unreadable passing briefly across his face. Then he held it out.
" You have to use it wisely in a way you will never regret . Use it on one person only," he said. "That is all it allows."
Roxanne reached for it, but before she could say anything further, her legs gave out. She crumpled fast, with no warning. Cassius moved faster, catching her before she hit the ground, his arms closing around her in one swift motion. Without a word he lowered himself beside her and lit fire around them both, the flames rising in a steady circle, pushing the cold back.
Redlunar.
"She is showing no signs of consciousness," the healer said, her voice measured and clinical. "From my evaluation, the root cause traces back to Nymortix. She carried a curse out of that place, and on top of that, she absorbed the curse belonging to her sister." She paused, folding her hands. "But there is something else. Her body also bears the damage of self starvation. She has been deliberately denying herself and the child. Whether by despair or by will, she has been trying to end them both."
Phoenix said nothing.
His eyes had already moved to the girl on the bed. She was barely there. Her bones pressed visibly against her skin, her cheeks sunken, the hollows of her face carved deep and sharp. Her eye sockets sat prominent beneath her lids, her body a quiet testament to everything she had endured and everything she had done to herself.
"You may leave," Phoenix said.
The healer slipped out without another word.
The room settled into silence. Then Beta Korran stepped forward, his voice low and blunt.
"Alpha, why keep her breathing? She clearly has no intention of carrying the child to term. You could end her now and be done with it."
He punctuated his words with a single nod, as though the matter were already settled.
Phoenix did not respond. He stood with his back to Korran, eyes still fixed on the pale figure in the bed.
Then he walked out of the room without a word.
"Where are you from, Corrine?" Cassius asked.
Corrine did not answer immediately. She set down what she was holding and looked up, her eyes carrying the quiet weight of someone who had spent too long buried in something consuming.
"I have finally pieced together the Codex of Silence," she said. "All of it." She turned briefly toward the bed. "And before I go any further, I trust you are feeling better, Roxanne."
Roxanne gave a small nod.
Corrine continued, her voice dropping into something careful and precise. "The key to the library does not lie in a place. It lies in a person. Mrs. Valeria." She let that settle before pressing on. "And before anyone can retrieve it, she must be killed. The heart must be slit opened . The key is inside."
The silence that followed was not comfortable.
"That woman will not go down easily," Cassius said, his voice flat but certain. "And even if we manage to take her and get the key, Phoenix will already be ten steps ahead of us. He always is."
"Then we do not play the game on his terms we are to render him utterly helpless ," Roxanne said quietly.
Something shifted in her eyes as she said it. A darkness, slow and deliberate, like embers catching.
"What do you mean?" Cassius asked.
"I have received an invitation to the palace." She paused, letting the words sit. "I have decided to accept the king's offer."
The room went still.
Corrine's gaze sharpened. "Did Phoenix ever see your face?"
"No. I had a cloak on. He never saw my face." Roxanne's voice was steady, certain. "His focus was Hazel entirely. And the only way I get to Hazel is by being inside that palace." She paused, something cold and resolved settling behind her eyes. "I do not mind if he suspects me. If anything, that will only make the blow land harder."
Corrine rose and smoothed her clothes. "I should return to the palace before my absence raises questions." She slipped out without ceremony.
The room felt quieter without her.
Cassius glanced at Roxanne. "I am heading out for some entertainment. Care to join?"
Roxanne raised an eyebrow but said nothing. She followed.
Bloodmoon Fortress
The fortress loomed wide and restless, crawling with soldiers at every turn.
"What kind of entertainment could you possibly find here?" Roxanne asked, scanning the courtyard. "This place is nothing but soldiers."
"Exactly," Cassius said simply.
She looked at him.
He looked back.
"I plan to cause a massacre."
What followed was swift and merciless. Cassius moved through the fortress like a blade through water, cutting down soldier after soldier with a cold efficiency that left no room for spectacle. Roxanne followed in his wake, reaching into each fallen body and extracting the heart as Cassius had instructed, her movements precise and unhesitating.
The courtyard ran quiet. Then quieter still.
Then the wind came.
It hit without warning, a hard and sudden gust that tore through the entire fortress, sending flags snapping violently from their posts and doors slamming open on their hinges. Something enormous was descending.
A gigantic wolf landed directly between them, the impact of it shaking the ground beneath their feet.
Neither of them moved.
He was not just any wolf. Every line of him radiated rank and authority. This was Beta Alphasus, Vangelis's Beta and the fastest wolf in existence, with the sole exception of Phoenix Humphrey Jade himself.
And he was looking directly at them.