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00:00I threw my body into the woods, no funeral, no grave, just crows, and that was the second time I
00:05died for him.
00:06In my world, being blind is a defect.
00:09Without a word, I know nothing.
00:10I am in a mother, the very bottom of the path I'm lucky.
00:13No strength, no shifting, no healing.
00:16A normal wolf book star, heals in my mouth.
00:20Give me a paper cut, and I'll bleed for days.
00:23But I have something no one needs to do.
00:25I don't see faces, and I see souls with jealousy, toxic green, paked, de-oily blackness.
00:31In my last life, I used it to build a king, Lucian, a forgotten fifth son.
00:36I picked him, I made him, I put him on the throne.
00:39In the day my sister Celeste died, he grabbed my jaw so hard I heard it crack,
00:45forced a wolf's vein tincture down my throat.
00:48You blind freak, you knew I never wanted you.
00:51Celeste should have been mine from the start.
00:53And because of you, she ended up with Marcus.
00:56They tortured her to death.
00:58It was your fault.
01:01I died in agony.
01:03He gave Celeste's corpse a royal burial.
01:06He gave me the woods.
01:08But the hurt, his hate, it was so consuming it dragged me right back to my death.
01:13I opened my eyes, seventeen again.
01:17Night, he made him out.
01:18Lucian walked straight past me and took Celeste's hand, like he was afraid someone might stop him.
01:24The bastard came back too, and he remembered everything.
01:27He is terrified I'll choose him again.
01:28Honestly, I couldn't care less.
01:30I swept my blind gaze across the back of the room.
01:33Then a sea of dark, rotten sorrows.
01:36My soul so pure it glowed like liquid gold.
01:39The man in the wheelchair, the true alpha.
01:42I choose Celeste as my mate.
01:45Lucian's voice cracked through the hall like a whip.
01:47She is my one and only Luna.
01:49He walked toward my sister with eyes full of a tenderness I knew was performance.
01:53The room went silent.
01:54Then the whispers hit me like a wall.
01:56No air in their right mind would want her.
01:58A blind Omega who couldn't even shift?
02:01What a joke.
02:02Why is she even here?
02:04Trash like her should be in the kitchen, not at a mating ball.
02:08I am an alpha's daughter born blind.
02:11When I came up there to my wolf, I was a girl who was a thief and a thief.
02:15That is not just weakness, that is a death sentence.
02:19Being wolf-less, that makes you a joke.
02:22My sister Celeste is the golden child.
02:24Born with a siren song.
02:27A voice that can calm even the most violent alpha in the world.
02:30The family treats her like a goddess.
02:33They treat me like a mistake they can't take back.
02:35Lucian dropped to one knee in front of her.
02:38Accept my mark Celeste.
02:41I will make you the most powerful woman alive.
02:44And as he spoke, he threw one look back at me.
02:47Not an apology, a warning.
02:49He thinks he can take the throne without me this time.
02:52He thinks I was what held him back.
02:54He has no idea what he just flew away.
02:57I didn't awaken a wolf in his age.
02:59I got something much more dangerous.
03:01The soul line.
03:05Jealousy is toxic green.
03:07Hate is a bottomless black.
03:09Love is pink.
03:10In the deeper the theme, the darker it burns.
03:13In my last life, I kept him alive with this.
03:16I spotted assassins before they moved.
03:19I told him who to trust, who to kill, this time.
03:22I am going to let him have exactly what he wanted.
03:25And watch him realize too late that without me, he is nothing.
03:29And I really hope, for his sake, he doesn't end up calling back to me, begging for a mercy.
03:36The moment Lucian's announcement landed, every eye in the room found me.
03:40I'm just a blind girl.
03:42I'm not worthy of a man like Lucian.
03:45Salelsta is the perfect match for him.
03:47At least you know your place.
03:49He stepped closer.
03:50An Omega with no wolf?
03:51I wouldn't choose you if you were the last woman breathing.
03:55Not even if you crawl to me on your knees.
03:58My mother Marilyn made a sound beside me.
04:00A sharp inhale, like she was about to say something she shouldn't.
04:04I squeezed her hand.
04:05She went quiet.
04:06I swept the room with my soul out of her.
04:08Marcus, murky charcoal, cruel underneath the surface.
04:12The other airs, muddy swirls of greed and want.
04:15In my last life, I chose Lucian because his soul looked cleaner than anyone else's in the room.
04:20It was a mask.
04:21I didn't see what was underneath until the day he killed me.
04:24The rotten, inappropriate laugh.
04:26I didn't just hate what it was.
04:28I hated her.
04:29I was blind in my last life in more ways than one.
04:32Never again, Celeste glided toward me.
04:34Face arranged into the perfect picture of a loving older sister.
04:38Don't be sad.
04:39Go ahead.
04:40I'll let you have whoever you want.
04:42Her soul was turning toxic green, edge to edge.
04:46Pure jealousy, barely holding its shape.
04:49Since no one's going to claim you anyway,
04:51you can always beg me for work.
04:53Celeste will need a personal maid.
04:55If you see us festmitching floors,
04:57scrubbing floors all a wolfless Omega is good for.
04:59I didn't live.
05:00I didn't even bother.
05:01None of them were worth the energy.
05:03And then, the sound of wheels.
05:05The chatter died.
05:07Then the room shifted.
05:09Kyle Ravenscroft had arrived.
05:12Uninvited.
05:13Unannounced.
05:14And completely unmoved by the spectacle.
05:16He sat in that wheelchair like a predator at rest.
05:19And then I saw.
05:20My breath caught.
05:22His soul was gold.
05:23Pure.
05:24Shimmering.
05:25Blinding gold.
05:26The mark of the moon goddess herself.
05:28The mark of a true king.
05:30I clenched my fists so hard my nails broke the skin.
05:34Last life.
05:35I picked the wrong man.
05:36I defied the moon goddess.
05:38Put a monster on the throne.
05:40And everyone paid for it.
05:41Not this time.
05:44I stood up.
05:45I walked past Lucian without a glance.
05:47Past every arrogant alpha air in the room.
05:49I stopped in front of Kyle's wheelchair.
05:51I choose him.
05:53The hall went dead silent.
05:54Then it exploded.
05:56Lifed off.
05:57From every direction.
05:59All at once.
06:00The blind girl and the cripple.
06:02Neither of you has a wolf.
06:05You really are a perfect match.
06:09Zaya.
06:10You can't see.
06:12You don't understand.
06:14He's in a wheelchair.
06:16She glanced at the crowd.
06:17Milking every second of it.
06:20I'll pretend I didn't hear that.
06:22Choose again.
06:24And if you truly can't find an alpha willing to have you.
06:27You're welcome to follow our caravan.
06:30Serve Lucian and me.
06:32At least you won't go hungry.
06:35I'm not anyone's servant.
06:36And I'm not a stray you take in out of pity.
06:39Kyle hadn't said a word through any of it.
06:41He just bit his chair forward until he was right in front of me.
06:45He took my hand.
06:46His palm was large and rough.
06:48Thick with calluses.
06:50The kind you only get from here is hard use.
06:56He took my hand and guided it to his knee.
06:59No flinching.
07:00No excuses.
07:01If he was lying.
07:02He didn't want pity for it.
07:04I left my hand there.
07:06I could feel the heat of him through the fabric and tense.
07:09Alive.
07:10Then a jolt.
07:11It shot through my fingertips.
07:12Raced up my arm.
07:13And hit my chest like a beast.
07:15This wasn't the soul line.
07:17It was something else entirely.
07:19My blood was screaming.
07:21I don't have a wolf.
07:22I was never supposed to feel a mate moment.
07:25But there it was.
07:29Kyle's whole body locked up.
07:31I looked into his soul.
07:32Warm pink threading through shimmering gold.
07:35I leaned in close and smiled.
07:37I can't fix your nuts.
07:39Lucian's face went ugly.
07:40The mating ball isn't over.
07:42And you're out here making promises you can't keep?
07:45If you fail to heal him, the Alpha Council will have your head.
07:49Can you actually do it?
07:50I didn't answer right away.
07:52I let my fingers trail slowly along his tensed thigh.
07:55I can.
07:57But it'll require a very specific kind of contact.
08:01He understood immediately.
08:02The tips of his ears went red.
08:04He turned his head away.
08:06Couldn't quite bring himself to look at me.
08:07In my peripheral vision, Lucian's soul ignited.
08:11A roaring wall of green fire.
08:14Jealousy.
08:14A cold laugh rose in my chest.
08:17Jealous of what?
08:18Except Lucian.
08:19You are the one who poured poison down my throat.
08:21The moment I stepped outside the hall, the world tilted.
08:24White hot pain detonated behind my eyes.
08:29Like something was being driven through my skull from the inside.
08:33That is the cost.
08:34Every time I use the soul eye on that many people at once,
08:38I pressed my freezing fingers to my tumblers.
08:41The cold always came after.
08:42After the ball, Lucian got to work.
08:44He pulled up everything from our past life.
08:47Her favorite flowers.
08:48Her secret hiding spots.
08:50Every word she'd been waiting her whole life to hear.
08:53I played her like he'd been practicing for years.
08:56That same day,
08:57a mating contract arrived at my door on heavy old parchment.
09:03I accept you as my mate.
09:05I will hold and protect you in this life and the next.
09:08Not even death will part us.
09:09The handwriting was deep and certain.
09:11No hesitation in a single stroke.
09:14It felt exactly like him.
09:15Both weddings were set for the same morning.
09:18The night before,
09:19Celeste walked into my room like she owned it.
09:21She didn't knock.
09:22Her maid tossed something at my feet.
09:24A tattered gray shawl.
09:26A kind worn by the lowest ranking,
09:28omegas.
09:29A mark of total submission.
09:31You're a blind freak, Zara.
09:37No real alpha will ever claim you.
09:40She leaned in.
09:41Voice honeyed and vicious at the same time.
09:45Lucian and I are being generous.
09:47We're keeping you on as a servant.
09:49But on the day of the ceremony,
09:51no carriage for you.
09:53You'll wear that and walk behind the caravan.
09:56Servant's entrance.
09:57Don't embarrass us.
09:58The morning came.
10:00I left the shawl on the floor where it landed.
10:03I put on the dress Kyle had sent instead.
10:05White silk,
10:06thousands of diamonds sewn into the fabric.
10:09Small enough to look like starlight.
10:11At the estate gate,
10:13two carriages waited.
10:15One was extraordinary.
10:17Draped in thumb-sized pearls.
10:19Built like a throne that happened to have wheels.
10:22The other was plainly standard work.
10:24Nothing remarkable.
10:27Celeste didn't hesitate for a second.
10:29She walked straight to the pearl carriage and stepped inside.
10:34The head guard turned.
10:36His expression didn't waver.
10:38You're in the wrong carriage.
10:40This was commissioned by Alpha Kyle
10:42for his Luna and no one else.
10:45He didn't get the time to argue.
10:47The guards took her by the arms and turned around.
10:49She caught her heel in her skirt
10:51and went down hard for his face into the dirt.
10:56Lucien arrived just in time to see it.
10:59Celeste scrambled up and threw herself at him,
11:02already crying.
11:05It's Zara!
11:06She planned this!
11:09She can't stand that I'm the one becoming a Luna!
11:13She turned to the crowd gathering around her,
11:15eyes glistening.
11:16Please, don't hate her.
11:18She's struggling.
11:20I know we're in love, Lucien,
11:23but I begged you to keep her safe.
11:25I pleaded for months just so she could be our servant
11:28and I not starve on the street.
11:31She's a blind, Omega.
11:33She should be grateful anyone even bothered to take her in.
11:36To pull a strunt like this on her sister's wedding day?
11:39It's thetic!
11:40The crowd was vicious.
11:42They always are when they smell wetness.
11:45Lucien's soul was drowning in black,
11:47thick and suffocating, ink dark.
11:49He pulled Celeste against his chest and turned on me.
11:53You're an Omega, Zara.
11:56You have no right to wear white!
11:58Take that dress off right now,
12:00or I'll shred it off your back myself!
12:04Celeste buried her face in his chest,
12:06but I could see her soul.
12:08She was smirking.
12:09Lucien,
12:11you don't have me watching her back this time.
12:14What's coming for you tonight isn't a wedding.
12:18It's a funeral.
12:21Celeste be foiled like I'd struck her.
12:23How can you curse him like that?
12:25Just because he didn't choose you?
12:28You dare curse an Alpha Heir!
12:31Guards!
12:32Seize her!
12:34The soldiers started moving in.
12:36Think carefully.
12:38You're laying a hand on Alpha Kyle's mate.
12:41Make sure that's a consequence you're ready to live with.
12:44Lucien laughed.
12:45Jagged.
12:46Ugly.
12:46Kyle?
12:47The cripple isn't even here.
12:49Probably hiding in his chambers,
12:51too embarrassed to show his face.
12:53He's using you for sport, Zara.
12:55Nothing more.
12:55He stepped forward,
12:56close enough that his shadow fell over me.
12:58Kneel.
12:59Beg Celeste's forgiveness.
13:02And maybe,
13:03maybe,
13:04I'll still find a use for you.
13:05Then a voice cut through everything.
13:07Who is threatening my mate?
13:08The crowd screamed.
13:10Kyle moved through them like they weren't there.
13:12Sharp black suit.
13:13Not a single piece of his voice.
13:15Even seated.
13:15His presence was suffocating.
13:17The moment he appeared,
13:18the street went silent.
13:20Beside him,
13:21Lucien suddenly looked like a boy
13:22wearing his boots.
13:25Kyle came straight to me.
13:27He took my hand and folded it inside his
13:29large,
13:30warm,
13:31unhurried.
13:33Then he looked at me.
13:35His eyes fixed on Lucien like a blade finding its mark.
13:38Let's try that again.
13:39Who was it that told my mate to move?
13:41The temperature in the street seemed to drop.
13:44No one looked.
13:46No one breathed.
13:47He didn't shout.
13:48Didn't signal his men.
13:49He just watched Lucien the way a predator watches something it has already decided to deal with later.
13:55I'll remember that.
13:56I'm an alpha heir,
13:57same as you.
13:58Who the hell do you think you are?
14:00Who the hell do you think you are?
14:02A forgotten fifth son?
14:04Trying to give orders to my mate.
14:06You're not a rival, Lucien.
14:08You're a fit note.
14:09The color drained from Lucien's face.
14:12This isn't over.
14:14Low and mean.
14:15You'll both regret tonight.
14:18I gave you a chance, Zara.
14:20When you come crawling back,
14:22and you will,
14:23don't expect mercy.
14:25I looked at his soul,
14:26and how he's in it.
14:27Murky and small.
14:28He genuinely believes he is the chosen one.
14:30He thinks the throne is already his,
14:32and that I was just dead weight holding him back.
14:35He has no idea what is waiting for him.
14:37Without me clearing his path,
14:39he won't last the season.
14:40He'll be lucky to still be breathing
14:42by the time the leaves turn.
14:44Oh, our first night as mates was quiet.
14:46Just the two of us,
14:47and the fire crackling low between us.
14:50We shared whiskey,
14:52amber,
14:53and slow burning on the way down.
14:56I could feel his eyes,
14:57heavy and silver warm against my skin.
15:00My pulse wouldn't settle.
15:02Even sitting across from me in that chair,
15:04his presence filled the entire room.
15:06You said you could fix my legs.
15:10How?
15:12Help me with something first.
15:15I've never seen this room.
15:18Describe it to me.
15:20Then he started talking.
15:22The fires glow.
15:24The oil paintings.
15:25He told me their textures,
15:27not just their subjects.
15:28The velvet curtains.
15:29Deep and heavy.
15:30On the shelf above the nightstand,
15:34there's an old book.
15:36The cover is faded.
15:38My hand stilled around the glass.
15:40That shelf was high,
15:41nearly at the ceiling.
15:43From a wheelchair.
15:44The top of that book
15:45was completely out of sight.
15:47There was no way
15:48he could know the cover was faded.
15:50I didn't say a word.
15:51I just took another sip
15:53and filed that detail away somewhere.
15:55I wouldn't forget it.
15:56I stood up with my glass in hand,
15:58then let it slip.
16:00It hit the carpet with a dull thud
16:02and rolled toward the sofa.
16:05Kyle's body moved
16:06before his mind could stop it.
16:08His chest surged forward.
16:10The muscles in his thighs
16:11locked and coiled,
16:12dense as iron cables.
16:14For a single, unguarded second,
16:16he was about to stand.
16:18Then he caught himself
16:19and settled back into the leather
16:20as if nothing had happened.
16:22But I felt it.
16:23That reflex was all the confirmation I needed.
16:26I didn't say anything.
16:28Not yet.
16:29There's one more way to be sure.
16:33I stepped in close
16:35and I straddled his lap.
16:37Kyle stopped breathing.
16:40The heat from his hands
16:42soaked straight through the silk.
16:43It burned against my skin like a brand.
16:46My heart was slamming.
16:48I ignored it.
16:50I raised my hand
16:51and let my fingertips trace
16:52from his jaw down to his chest.
16:55Hard as stone beneath the shirt.
16:57Not the body of a man
16:58who hadn't used his legs in seven years.
17:00I looked into his soul.
17:02A storm deep crimson,
17:04soft pink.
17:05Something more tender than he'd admit.
17:07And threading through both.
17:08A sharp streak of dark green panic.
17:12He knew I was getting close.
17:13I leaned down.
17:19My lips barely grazed the corner of his mouth.
17:22Not a kiss.
17:23A question.
17:24His breathing came apart.
17:26And then I took his hand
17:27and pressed his palm flat against my chest.
17:30The silk between us was nothing.
17:32My face was burning.
17:33Because in that moment,
17:35his body gave me the most honest answer he had.
17:38His body reacted before his mind could stop it.
17:41I felt the shift in his balance.
17:44The sudden brace through his thighs.
17:46The instinctive drive upward.
17:48A man who hadn't reached his legs in seven years
17:50wouldn't move like that.
17:51I pulled back just enough.
17:54Let the smile come slowly.
17:55Your legs are fine.
17:57That much, I know.
17:58Kyle closed his eyes.
18:00His throat moved as he swallowed.
18:02Then he stood up.
18:03One hand stayed at my waist.
18:05The other still pressed against my chest.
18:08He lifted me and I felt just how much of him there was.
18:11Nearly six foot tall.
18:13All of it muscle.
18:14My whole world was suddenly just him.
18:17How did you know?
18:18I just smiled and gave him something vague enough to pass.
18:21He set me down gently on the edge of the bed.
18:24Then stepped back.
18:25The hand that had touched my chest was shaking.
18:28I'm sorry, I shouldn't have...
18:29Don't.
18:30I'm the one who put your hand there.
18:33He looked at me for a long moment.
18:34And laughed.
18:35A real laugh.
18:37Warm and unguarded.
18:38Like seven years of tension finally giving way.
18:41Seven years.
18:42Seven years fooling everyone.
18:44The whole damn world.
18:47And my blind mate catches me on the very first night.
18:50We didn't go any further that night.
18:51We ended up on the rug in front of the fire.
18:54The bottle of whiskey between us.
18:55And we just...
18:57Talked.
18:57He told me about the night his parents were killed.
19:00They called it a rogue wolf attack.
19:03Everyone knew what it actually was.
19:05The alpha king had ordered it.
19:07He was 15 years old.
19:09Standing at their funeral.
19:10And he made a decision.
19:12He would become the cripple.
19:14Invisible.
19:16Unthreatening.
19:17Off the king's list entirely.
19:19It was the only way to stay alive.
19:21I told him about Lucian.
19:23All of it.
19:24What he was underneath.
19:26I didn't choose you because I had no other options.
19:29I chose you because you were the only one worth choosing.
19:33I watched his soul begin to shift.
19:36The gold bleeding slowly into a deep and glowing lake.
19:40Late into the night, it came back.
19:42The splitting pain behind my temples.
19:45Like an axe working its way through bone.
19:47I tried to keep my hands still.
19:49They were shaking anyway.
19:51Kyle stopped mid-sentence.
19:53Your head.
19:54Before I could deflect, his thumbs were already at my temples.
19:58The pressure.
19:59Exact like he'd mapped the pain before he touched it.
20:02My mother used to get them.
20:03I've known what to do since I was a boy.
20:05The pain didn't ease.
20:07It vanished.
20:08We shared the same bed.
20:09His arm lay heavy and warm across my waist.
20:12My head settled against his chest.
20:14I listened to his heartbeat through my soul eye.
20:17I watched his soul settle.
20:18The gold softener deepening into a rich and quiet pink.
20:22For the first time in two lifetimes, I felt safe.
20:25Lucian's wedding night was far apart.
20:27In my last life, a maid tried to spike his wine with wolf's bane.
20:31I caught her before she could get close.
20:33I read the murder in her soul.
20:35Swapped the glasses.
20:36Had her detained before he'd taken a single seat.
20:39This time, I did nothing.
20:41Celeste couldn't notice.
20:42She wouldn't know a threat if it sat down beside her and introduced itself.
20:46The next morning, Kyle and I arrived at the Alpha King's estate.
20:50No sign of Lucian.
20:51No sign of Celeste.
20:53The corridors were alive with hushed, urgent voices.
20:56The air was poisoned in his own chambers.
20:59He hasn't woken.
21:00The healers say the dose was enough to drop a grizzly.
21:03I kept my face perfectly still.
21:05But underneath, I was smiling.
21:07Lucian's fall had started.
21:09And this time I wasn't going to stop it.
21:12The carriage had barely rolled to a stop when Celeste appeared at the gates.
21:15She looked like she hadn't slept in days.
21:24I felt the temperature inside the carriage shift.
21:27Kyle went very still beside me.
21:29I placed a hand on his arm.
21:31I've got this.
21:33I leaned in and pressed a quick kiss to his cheek.
21:36Then I stepped out into the morning air.
21:39Antidote?
21:40I don't have one.
21:42Whatever happened to Lucian has nothing to do with me.
21:46Liar!
21:48Then how did you know he'd be dying on his wedding night?
21:51I tilted my head.
21:53That's a serious accusation.
21:56Where's your proof?
21:58Did you catch the killer?
21:59Did you find the poison?
22:01I already knew she hadn't.
22:03The spy Marcus sent was a professional.
22:05Without my soul eye, she was a ghost.
22:07By now she was likely across the border, untouchable.
22:11Celeste stood there, mouth open, nothing coming out.
22:14If you keep causing a scene on my land,
22:17my warriors will remove you.
22:21Her eyes dropped to my neck.
22:22She saw the red mark Kyle had left there.
22:25You actually slept with him?
22:27A blind girl and a broken man?
22:30I suppose trash finds its own level.
22:32I suppose trash finds its own level.
22:34I thought about last night, the fire, the whiskey,
22:36the long silence after he finally stood up
22:39and I felt the full weight of him for the first time.
22:41Kyle wasn't broken.
22:42He was 10,000 times the man Lucian would ever be.
22:45I laughed.
22:48What is so funny?
22:49I stopped, looked at her.
22:51We're close enough to it.
22:52I'm laughing at how blind you are.
22:54Lucian is going to die.
22:57And when he goes down, he'll take you with him.
23:00If you want to survive what's coming,
23:02sever the bond now, while you still can.
23:05That was it for her.
23:06She swung at my face, wide, furious,
23:09telegraphed from a mile away.
23:11I shifted my weight and stepped aside.
23:13She hit nothing but air.
23:14The momentum carried her forward
23:15and she went down hard, palms and knees in the dirt.
23:18I looked down at her.
23:19Remember this?
23:21Because the next time you raise a hand to me,
23:23I won't step aside.
23:24She stared up at me from the ground, trembling.
23:26For the first time in her life,
23:28she was actually afraid of me.
23:29The blind girl she used to torment wasn't there anymore.
23:32Someone else had taken her place.
23:35Kyle was waiting when I stepped back into the carriage.
23:38He just watched me with those gray eyes.
23:40And in them, not worry, not pity.
23:42Admiration, he trusted me to handle my own affairs.
23:45That respect landed heavier than any shield he could have raised.
23:48He turned to his lead guard and spoke well.
23:50No one from Lucian's pack crosses onto my land again.
23:54For any reason.
23:56Ever.
23:59After Celeste was escorted out,
24:01we turned to the business of leaving.
24:02We were heading for Thorn Harbor.
24:04The courtyard filled with people and supplies controlled for us.
24:07And through all of it,
24:08my soul I found a single target.
24:10A guard named Vaughn.
24:12His soul was a muddy, treacherous gray.
24:14I leaned close to Kyle's ear.
24:16Who is that man?
24:18Vaughn.
24:20He's been with me since I was 15.
24:22Saved my life twice.
24:23I pulled back and looked at him.
24:25Kyle, do you trust me?
24:26His soul flushed deep, dark pink, all at once.
24:30You're my mate.
24:31Of course I do.
24:32He's a traitor.
24:34We change the route to Thorn Harbor.
24:36And we tell no one.
24:38And my last thought.
24:39This was where it ended with Kyle.
24:41Ambushed on the road to the harbor.
24:43Wounds that never healed.
24:44He died defending the city walls.
24:47I finished speaking.
24:48Let my lips brush his cheek.
24:50Kyle's arm came around my waist immediately.
24:53Pulling me in.
24:54Across the yard, I felt Vaughn watching us.
24:57He clocked how close we were and looked it real fast.
25:00Kyle pressed his face into the curb of my neck.
25:02His breath was warm against my skin.
25:04Are you trying to fix my legs again?
25:06Because I'm happy to wait until tonight.
25:09Or we could start now.
25:10The next morning, Vaughn was gone.
25:13Kyle sat beside me at breakfast, cutting my steak into careful pieces without being asked.
25:18You were right.
25:20Vaughn was Marcus's man.
25:22Buried so deep, I never suspected him once in seven years.
25:26It took some persuasion to get him to talk.
25:31He looked at me.
25:33How did you know, Zara?
25:34I looked into his soul, golden pink.
25:37Wound together.
25:38No suspicion.
25:39No fear.
25:40Lucky guess.
25:41The words were barely out when the pain hit.
25:43White.
25:44Hot behind both temples at once.
25:46My hand went to my head before I could stop it.
25:48Kyle didn't say a word.
25:50He just moved his chair flush against mine.
25:52Un in hand kept cutting my food.
25:53The other reached up and wrapped around the back of my neck.
25:56The pain dissolved.
25:57He has stopped asking why it happens.
25:59He just makes sure he is there when it does.
26:01Thorn Harbor.
26:02Kyle's territory.
26:04The land was rough.
26:06Resources thin.
26:07The kind of place the Alpha Council never bothered to look at twice.
26:11The wolves here were loyal to Kyle.
26:13The way wolves are loyal to someone they've chosen.
26:16Out of true devotion.
26:18When I went to the market, they called me Luna and refused my coin.
26:21Every stall, every vendor.
26:23I had to set the money down and walk away before they'd touch it.
26:26I came back to the estate breathless.
26:29And my maid watched me come through the door.
26:33The Luna is blind.
26:34But she moves faster than any soldier I've trained with.
26:39Kyle heard her.
26:40That night, his fingers found the edges of my eyes.
26:44Zara.
26:45Is it really just...
26:47Nothing?
26:49I nodded.
26:50He pulled me in against his chest and held me there.
26:53It doesn't matter.
26:54I'll be your eyes.
26:56Every sunrise.
26:57Every star.
26:59Whatever you want to see, I'll find the words for it.
27:01I watched his soul through all of it.
27:04The gold was shifting.
27:05Becoming something warmer, deeper.
27:07The more time we spent together, the deeper the gold grew.
27:10Every shared meal.
27:11Every quiet evening beside him.
27:13It only became richer.
27:14But then something strange started happening.
27:16When I was away from him, even briefly, I got restless.
27:19Not just missing him.
27:20It was physical.
27:21A deep pulling ache I couldn't reason away.
27:23The further I walked, the worse it pulled.
27:25Until it hurt.
27:25I told myself it was the intensity of a new bond.
27:28But I knew that wasn't it.
27:29I don't have a wolf.
27:31I was never supposed to feel this.
27:33That night when he kissed me, his soul shifted into something I'd never seen before.
27:37A pink so saturated and alive.
27:39It looked like the first day of spring breaking open all at once.
27:42The most beautiful thing I had ever seen.
27:44It didn't last.
27:45The next morning, a piece of encrypted intelligence arrived.
27:49Lucian is awake, but the damage is permanent.
27:51Intermittent mania.
27:52He has lost control of his wolf.
27:54A slow smile touched my lips.
27:55This was just the beginning of what was coming for him.
27:58But then, the catch.
27:59The Alpha Council had issued a mandatory summons.
28:02Marcus was hosting a banquet.
28:03Every heir was required to attend.
28:05No exceptions.
28:06Kyle had no choice.
28:07We were going back.
28:08Marcus's estate reeked of bad intentions before we even stepped inside.
28:12I swept the ballroom with my soul eye the moment we crossed the threshold.
28:15Oily green for greed.
28:17Thick in every corner of the room.
28:18A deep, sickening crimson for lust.
28:20And underneath all of it, something flat and purposeful that made my skin crawl.
28:24I found Kyle's hand under the table and held it.
28:27Don't eat.
28:28Don't touch the wine.
28:29And don't leave my side.
28:30Not for a second.
28:31Kyle glanced at me.
28:33As you wish, my Luna.
28:34I couldn't explain.
28:35Not here.
28:36But I remembered this night.
28:37In my last life, this banquet ended in blood.
28:40Their souls were a flat, professional gray.
28:42The color of people who had killed before and slept just fine after.
28:46Last time, when the blades came out, I didn't think.
28:48I just threw myself in front of Lucian and took a poison silver dagger to the rakes.
28:53Carried that scar for years.
28:54When Lucian was already king, I mentioned it.
28:57He looked at me with something close to boredom.
29:00Protecting your mate is your duty, Zara.
29:02You're already Luna.
29:04What more do you want?
29:05I don't make the same mistakes twice.
29:06It happened fast.
29:08The three dancers reached into their silks.
29:10Short blades.
29:11Jagged.
29:11Silver.
29:12And they lunged.
29:14Kyle moved before I could blink.
29:16He didn't care about the secret anymore.
29:18He came half out of his chair.
29:20One arm sweeping me behind him.
29:22And his guards materialized from the dark.
29:24Like they'd been part of the shadows all along.
29:26A wall of bodies between us and everything.
29:28We were safe.
29:29I looked past them toward Lucian.
29:31No one moved to cover him.
29:33The moment the first blade flashed, Celeste screamed and rang.
29:37Straight for the exit, he didn't look backwards.
29:39Lucian was surrounded.
29:41A silver dagger, soaked in concentrated wolfsbane.
29:44Buried itself into his thigh.
29:46Dark blood hit the floor.
29:48He went down hard, gasping.
29:50Through the screaming, the overturned chairs.
29:52The crush of bodies trying to flee.
29:54His eyes found mine.
29:56He was begging.
29:58His soul was a wreck.
29:59Terror and pain and underneath it all.
30:02A dark green tide of regret.
30:04I held his face.
30:06Kept my face completely still.
30:08Didn't move a single muscle.
30:09I am blind after all.
30:11I can't see a thing.
30:12I didn't make it two steps into the carriage.
30:15The spike hit the moment the door closed.
30:17Red hot.
30:17Straight through the center of my skull.
30:19It was the worst backlash I'd ever suffered.
30:21I scanned the entire ballroom, every soul, every shadow, every blade before they struck me.
30:27It cost me everything.
30:29The world went black.
30:30My knees folded.
30:32Kyle caught me before I hit the floor.
30:34His arms locked around my waist like anvil, pulling me hard against his chest.
30:38Zara.
30:39I'd never heard that in his voice before.
30:41Fear.
30:42My head.
30:42It was all I could get out.
30:44He didn't wait.
30:44He pulled me in against him and pressed both palms to my temples.
30:48And something happened that I still can't explain.
30:50It wasn't just pressure.
30:52It wasn't just warmth.
30:53It felt like a hand reaching through the pain and pulling it out from the root.
30:56Gone completely.
30:57In seconds.
30:58I lay against his chest, dazed, listening to his heart pound.
31:02Why does his touch do that?
31:04This isn't comfort.
31:05This is something older.
31:06Something that runs deeper than either of us understands.
31:09And it is starting to frighten me.
31:11While I recovered in Kyle's arms,
31:13I was learning what that blade actually felt like.
31:16The wolf's vein on those daggers was pure.
31:18It doesn't just wound.
31:19It destroys whatever the body would normally heal.
31:22It shredded his body's ability to heal from the inside out.
31:25In my last life, I took that blade from him.
31:27I felt the silver eat into my flesh.
31:29I felt the poison dissolve everything I had.
31:32I survived it barely.
31:33And he never once mentioned it again.
31:35He treated my body like a shield he was entitled to stand behind.
31:38This time he got to find out what it actually costs.
31:41The healers couldn't do a thing.
31:43The damage was permanent.
31:44Lucian would never walk again.
31:46The man who spent his whole life looking down at everyone from a great height
31:49is never going to stand again.
31:51The intelligence reports kept arriving.
31:53One after another, like a slow collapse.
31:56Lucian confirmed permanently disabled.
31:59Celeste began her exit strategy the moment he lost his strife.
32:03She spent months petitioning the Alpha Council to dissolve the bond.
32:07Six months later, the Alpha King had seen enough.
32:10He stripped Lucian of his inheritance.
32:12No title.
32:13No claim.
32:14No future.
32:15In the werewolf world,
32:16no one pledges their sword to a man who can't lead from a front.
32:19In our last life, Lucian thought seizing the throne was simply a matter of wanting it badly enough.
32:25He had no idea what was actually holding him.
32:28He thought those allies followed him by choice.
32:31I made sure they were worthy long before they ever pledged themselves.
32:35The traitors he feared never had the chance to strike.
32:38I silenced them first, and the commanders he trusted with his army were placed there by my hand.
32:44One by one paid for in blood.
32:46Without me, he couldn't have held a border crossing, let alone throne.
32:51Celeste didn't mourn.
32:53She stripped his estate clean.
32:55Jewelry.
32:55Gold.
32:56Every coin she could find.
32:58Then she was gone.
32:59She went back to Marcus.
33:01But the terms had changed.
33:02He didn't want a Luna this time.
33:04He took her as a mistress.
33:06I ran into her yesterday.
33:07A high-end perfume shop near the harbor.
33:10I was holding a bottle.
33:11A rare blend when she reached over and plucked it straight out of my hand.
33:15I'll take all of these.
33:16She told the clerk.
33:18She was draped in diamonds.
33:19Her soul was the same toxic green as always been.
33:22She looked me over.
33:24Oh, Zara, she said.
33:26Perfume seems a bit pointless for you, doesn't it?
33:28She leaned in.
33:30Expensive wine on her breath.
33:31It's not as if your man can stand up to get close enough to smell it.
33:35A little gasp.
33:36A hand over her mouth.
33:37Eyes wide with performed regret.
33:40That was awful of me.
33:41You don't mind, do you?
33:43I smiled.
33:44Not at all.
33:45I said, take them all.
33:47The clerk looked baffled.
33:48I didn't explain.
33:50There is no point arguing with a woman who's already walking toward her own end.
33:55She just doesn't know the road she is on yet.
33:57It was late.
33:58Thorn Harbor was in a hard rain.
34:00My headguard appeared in the doorway, his face tight.
34:04Lupin is at the front gate, Luna.
34:06He has been dragging himself through the mud for the better part of an hour.
34:10He won't leave.
34:10I walked out to the entrance and looked through the iron bars.
34:15He was there, soaked up, shaken, coated in the felt in the road.
34:19When he saw me, something desperately ignited in his eyes.
34:23He urged order, and the guards broke him back.
34:26He went down into the frozen mud.
34:28Why?
34:29The word tore out of him like it had been caught on Zara.
34:32Zara, tell me.
34:33In the last life, you always knew what was coming.
34:37I thought if a blind girl could build a kingdom for me, then all I had to do was take
34:41the credit.
34:41So why did I lose everything?
34:43He started screaming, slamming his fists against his own useless legs.
34:47The sound of it got swallowed up by the thunder.
34:50When he finally ran out of breath, he looked up at me.
34:53He looked small.
34:54The arrogance was gone.
34:56What was left underneath wasn't much.
34:58Zara.
34:59Becky said, quietly.
35:01His voice doing something approximating humility.
35:04I made a mistake.
35:06Come back.
35:08Come back.
35:10The Luna title, it's yours.
35:12Truly, this time, we can rebuild.
35:15Together.
35:16Like before.
35:18We can take it all back.
35:19I looked at his soul.
35:21Thick, oily green.
35:22Bottomless with it.
35:23He wasn't performing.
35:24He was genuinely drowning in regret.
35:27That almost made it worse.
35:28Lucian, you still don't understand what you had.
35:31I was never your Luna because you became king.
35:34You were only ever king because I chose to stand beside you.
35:38I turned my back on him.
35:40Walked toward the warm lights of the estate.
35:43Lock the gates.
35:44If he sets foot on this land again, you have my permission.
35:47I'm permission to treat him accordingly.
35:49The iron gates slammed shut.
35:51The sound cut through the rain like a verdict.
35:54He was still screaming my name when I walked through the front door.
35:57I didn't look back.
35:59That door was never opening again.
36:02Celeste's day.
36:03The report arrived this morning.
36:05History repeated itself down to the last attack.
36:08Marcus both turned out there was nothing left to go.
36:10And they carried her body out of such a state.
36:13Someone noted the scent still on me.
36:15The perfume she'd snatched from my hands in that shack.
36:18She was wearing it when she died.
36:20Lucian heard the news from his room.
36:22He didn't grieve.
36:23He didn't rage.
36:24Good.
36:25She watched me fall and ran straight to another man's bed.
36:28I gave up everything in this life for her.
36:31And that's how she repays it?
36:33He beat his fists against the heels of his chair until his knuckles bled.
36:37I never should have poisoned Zara.
36:39I never should have chosen Celeste over Zara.
36:41I was still holding the report when I heard the bedroom door.
36:44I crumpled the paper in my fist.
36:46Kyle walked in.
36:48I turned toward the window.
36:50The sun had gone down.
36:51I was just...
36:52Before I could finish, he reached out and took the crumpled note from my hand.
36:57He smoothed it flat, then lifted it to the light.
37:00Then he lowered it and looked straight at me.
37:02You're not blind in the way you let everyone believe, are you?
37:07My throat closed.
37:08I couldn't find a single word.
37:10I looked into his soul.
37:12It was burning.
37:13It was sharp and similar orange.
37:15It was fury.
37:16Don't I deserve the truth?
37:19I marked you.
37:20I made you my mate.
37:22I would have protected you regardless.
37:24Blind, wolfless, it didn't matter.
37:26But for a year, you let me believe I understood you.
37:30And I didn't.
37:31The blind girl and the cripple.
37:34Two people who had made an art form of being something they weren't.
37:37Standing in this room in the dark.
37:38Every mask we'd ever worn was gone.
37:41He turned for the door.
37:43And I felt something I hadn't felt in two lifetimes.
37:46Genuine terror.
37:47I threw myself off the bed and wrapped my arms around him for a while.
37:51Held on.
37:52I could feel the anger in him.
37:54But underneath it, his soul was already shifting.
37:57The orange queen leading towards something else.
38:00The harder I held on, the faster it faded.
38:03My voice came out small.
38:05I pressed my face against his back and just held on.
38:08His soul turned pink.
38:10His pride hadn't moved.
38:12He was still standing there.
38:13Every muscle locked against him.
38:15But his heart had already answered.
38:18I came around to face him.
38:20Pressed my cheek against his chest and listened.
38:23His heartbeat was fast.
38:25Uneven.
38:26His soul was so pink it was almost blinding.
38:28Kyle.
38:29I steadied my voice as best I could.
38:32That wasn't the only thing I lied about.
38:35This was the secret I'd carried through two lives without telling a single person.
38:38I see souls.
38:40I can read the truth inside people.
38:42He went completely still.
38:44And I know what's coming.
38:46The werewolf world is about to burn.
38:49Thorn Harbor will be under siege.
38:51I looked up at him.
38:53In my last life, you died when the city walls fell.
38:56His breathing changed.
38:57I searched his soul one last time.
39:00Not a flicker of doubt.
39:01Not a trace of fear.
39:03Only gold.
39:05Shimmering gold.
39:06Do you believe me?
39:07I asked.
39:08He didn't answer with words.
39:10He pulled me into his chest.
39:12Both arms, no space between us.
39:14And buried his face against my neck.
39:17I believe in you.
39:20That's the only thing in this world I'm sure of.
39:23Five hours.
39:24That is not time to decide.
39:25I'm not going to do it.
39:26Kyle gave me the Alpha War seal.
39:28And put every warrior in the pack under my command.
39:31We didn't just hold Thorn Harbor.
39:32We took the fight to the Alpha Wars fortresses.
39:35Then came the first night of the great siege.
39:37The Vos army hit the valley.
39:39The sea of Blackbird and wall to wall.
39:41As far as the dark was searched.
39:43Kyle sat in his chair at the edge of the fortress wall.
39:46Watching it come.
39:47Then he stood up.
39:48Not in our bedroom.
39:49Not in the dark where no one could see.
39:51In front of every soul on that battlefield.
39:53He shrugged off the heavy coat he'd hidden behind for seven years and let it drop.
39:57His bones began to crack the ship into the moon.
40:00He transformed.
40:01A massive silver wolf.
40:03He was huge larger than any Alpha in history.
40:05His fur shimmered like liquid metal in the dark.
40:08He stood on the edge of the fortress wall.
40:10And he let out a howl that shook the very cloud.
40:12Every wolf on that field, ally and enemy alike, dropped their heads not from orders.
40:17From something older than orders.
40:18Seven years of buried power.
40:20Of swallowed rage.
40:21Of playing the broken man while the world underestimated him.
40:24He snapped his head around before the echo had died.
40:27That silver gaze cut straight through the smoke.
40:29Through the fire.
40:30Through everything between us and found me.
40:32I felt at the moment it landed.
40:34Not just a look.
40:36Something that went all the way down to the book.
40:38Like a string that he taught over two lifetimes had finally been raised.
40:42Faded mate bond.
40:44He had kept his wolf locked away for seven years.
40:46The bond had been sealed with him.
40:48But now his wolf was fully awake.
40:51And everything that he can help back came through at once.
40:53He shifted back.
40:55Dropped one knee on the stone.
40:57Chest he went.
40:57Hands braced against the ground.
40:59Crumbed.
41:00When he looked up at me.
41:02It was like the first time.
41:03Like he was seeing something he'd been reaching toward without knowing it.
41:07It's you.
41:08His voice was right.
41:09It was always you.
41:13The moon goddess didn't give you to me for your gift.
41:17She gave you to me because you're mine.
41:20I felt the truth of it in my own family.
41:22Every piece of it clicking into place all at once.
41:25The jolt when our fingers first touched at the meeting ball.
41:28The way his hands could pull the pain coming out of my skull.
41:31The suffocating dread every time he left the ring.
41:34I don't have a wolf.
41:35So the bond had come through quietly.
41:38A whisper where it should have been born.
41:40But it had always been there.
41:41From the very first moment when he reached out and touched his knee.
41:45Our blood had already made it to place.
41:48Take your place as alpha king.
41:51The grand hall was in ruins around him.
41:53Dust still settling from the siege.
41:55And Zara shall be your luna.
41:58Kyle didn't hesitate.
42:00No.
42:00One word.
42:01It landed in that hall as the stone dropped into stone.
42:04I'm issuing two commands.
42:07First, we are establishing a dual kingship.
42:12Zara and I rule together.
42:14As equals.
42:16The silence cracked.
42:18Impossible!
42:19There has never been a woman on that throne!
42:22Kyle stepped up onto the platform.
42:24He looked out across the council.
42:26Every face, every objection.
42:28With the kind of calm that has nothing left to prove.
42:31When Thorn Harbor was under siege,
42:32Zara stood on the front lines beside me.
42:36Every wound I took, she felt.
42:39Every sacrifice I made,
42:41she had already paid a higher price for.
42:44He brought his hand down flat on the stone table.
42:46Crack of it echoed.
42:48Without her, I'd be in an unmarked grave on the battlefield.
42:51You don't get to erase what she built
42:53just because she isn't what you expected.
42:58I am the Alpha King.
43:00And so is she.
43:02Alpha King.
43:03He leaned forward, voice dropping.
43:05If anyone here has a problem with that,
43:07step forward now.
43:09No one moved.
43:09I have spent seven years being underestimated.
43:12I have no patience left for it.
43:13Not for myself,
43:15and not for her.
43:16The bond had been a river with no outlet for years.
43:18The night the war ended,
43:19the dam broke.
43:20He marked me.
43:21The moment his teeth found the back of my neck,
43:23something detonated beneath my skin.
43:25Not pain, or not only pain.
43:27Something that felt like being struck by lightning from the inside.
43:30My bones began to shift.
43:32I screamed.
43:33Kyle didn't let go.
43:34He pulled me harder against his chest and held on.
43:37His soul blazing gold in my sight.
43:39Steady as a quick star,
43:40an anchor in the middle of everything coming apart.
43:43Something that had been waiting under my skin for 17 years was finally waking up.
43:47It was never missing.
43:48It was just too powerful to soak this on its own.
43:50It needed something equally matched to call it out.
43:53I shifted.
43:53White.
43:54Pure.
43:54Absolute white.
43:55A wolf larger than any female in recorded history.
43:58Her coat caught the moonlight the way fresh snow catches it from within.
44:02Kyle's silver wolf circled me.
44:04Haunts twice.
44:05Three times.
44:06Then he stopped.
44:07Pressed his massive head against my neck.
44:09And let out a sound so low and so full,
44:12it barely qualified as a sound at all.
44:14The elders hadn't moved.
44:16In the old legends.
44:17The white wolf is the living avatar of the moon goddess.
44:20She hadn't walked the earth in 500 years.
44:23I had never been broken.
44:25My wolf had never been missing.
44:27She was just waiting for the one person strong enough to bring her home.
44:30Kyle shifted back.
44:32He pulled me into his lap and held me there.
44:34Both of us still catching our breath.
44:37His soul.
44:38As I looked at it,
44:39I had no words.
44:40Gold and pink.
44:41Woven together so completely.
44:43They'd become a single color that didn't exist anywhere else.
44:48I knew.
44:48He said into my hair.
44:49From the moment you chose me at the ball.
44:53I didn't know what you were.
44:56But I knew you were something the world hadn't seen before.
45:00You were just waiting for someone to finally find you.
45:03I never let myself dream this far in my last life.
45:06I was too busy holding someone else to ever look up for myself.
45:09Now I sat at the highest seat in the council hall.
45:12Kyle beside me.
45:14Every outlet was running out of their heads.
45:16The intelligence network was mine.
45:18The land rights were mine to grant and revoke.
45:21The power I had spent a lifetime building for someone else.
45:24It was finally in my own hands.
45:26And then they brought in Lucian.
45:28He dragged himself across the stone floor on his hands.
45:31He reached my boots.
45:33And stretched out one trembling hand toward the hem of my robes.
45:36A guard stepped forward.
45:38His sword flashed.
45:39The blade stopped an inch from Lucian's fingers.
45:42Lucian didn't even register.
45:44He just started seeing it.
45:45This isn't right.
45:47That seat belongs to me.
45:50You were my instrument, Zara.
45:52I promised to make you my Luna.
45:54Why isn't that enough for you?
45:56Get down.
45:57Help me up there.
45:58That's where I'm supposed to be.
45:59I looked at him for a long moment.
46:01I remembered the last line.
46:03The rebel wolves had us surrounded.
46:05He didn't reach for me.
46:06He didn't hesitate.
46:08He turned and ran.
46:09And when they caught him anyway, he offered me up to buy himself another day.
46:13And at the very end, he was the one who forced the wolf's bane down my throat.
46:17He was the one who gave Celeste my title and my burial.
46:21He threw my body to the crows.
46:22And now he was on the floor of my hall.
46:25Demanding I come down and hand it all back to him.
46:28I looked at his soul.
46:29There was nothing wrecked in my heart.
46:31Hold him.
46:32The guards pinned him to the stone.
46:34He thrashed.
46:35He tried to bite.
46:36He screamed until his voice cracked.
46:38They forced his jaw open.
46:40And I poured the wolf's bane myself.
46:41A quick death would have been mercy.
46:43And I had none left to give him.
46:46This was something else.
46:47A slow, total erasure.
46:50First, the taste would go.
46:51Then the smell of air.
46:53Then the light, fading at the edges.
46:55Dimming inward.
46:56Then sound.
46:57Then touch.
46:58Then nothing at all.
46:59A living body with no world left inside it.
47:02Trapped in the dark he had always carried.
47:03With nothing for company but his own guilt.
47:06It took a week.
47:07The guard came to me on a quiet morning.
47:09And delivered the news without ceremony.
47:11Lucian was dead.
47:13Died in total silence.
47:14Total darkness.
47:16Without a single sensation to mark the end.
47:19What should we do with the body?
47:20I didn't look up for my work.
47:21Take it outside the territory.
47:23No retz.
47:25No marker.
47:26Leave nothing.
47:27I gave his remains exactly what he gave mine.
47:30Down to the last detail.
47:32The account was closed.
47:34The fire had burned down to embers.
47:36The room was almost quiet.
47:40Kyle's arms came around my waist from behind.
47:43His breath was warm and even against my neck.
47:49You went to see him today?
47:50I did.
47:52I watched a monster reach the end he earned.
47:55I leaned back into him.
47:57Are you jealous of a dead man, Kyle?
47:59A low sound in his chest.
48:01Not quite a laugh.
48:02He reached up slowly and found the knot of the silk blindfold I still wore in public.
48:06Worked it loose.
48:07Let it fall.
48:09The moonlight came through the window.
48:11Neither of us spoke for a while.
48:12Then he took my hand and guided it to his chest.
48:15Pressed it flat right above his heart.
48:17Zara, tell me what color it is.
48:18I laughed, soft, surprised by it.
48:21I closed my eyes and turned everything I had toward him.
48:23This man who gave me his trust before I deserved it.
48:26Who stood up in front of an army to unmake seven years of his own carefully constructed lie.
48:31Who fought his way to a throne he didn't want.
48:33Just so I could stand beside him on equal ground.
48:36His soul, I don't have the words for it.
48:38Even now, a pillar of gold, deep and unwavering.
48:41And running through the heart of it.
48:43A tide of pink so rich and so dark it looked like the last light of a sunset seen through
48:47clear water.
48:48The kind of color time can't bleach.
48:50It's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.
48:53And I've seen a lot of ugly things.
48:55His arms tightened around me.
48:58Describe it.
48:59I want to hear it.
49:00I turned in his arms, found his chest, pressed my lips to the place above his heart and held them
49:06there.
49:06I don't think any language has the right words for it.
49:08I looked up at him.
49:10I have the rest of my life to try.
49:11I look forward to it.
49:13I look forward to it.
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