Nels

d and iron sent guards and nobl

torches along the walls in an instant. Along with the freezing air came the heavy

in the room

gasping for air as their internal beasts whimpered i

uptly from his obsidian throne,

snow and dust at the doorway,

avy black-iron armor was caked in grime and smeared with dark, half-frozen arterial blood.

back his l

granite, striking and ruthlessly handsome, marred

choked out, his vo

ling with reverent dread. "That is not Edward.

l executioner, who had spent the last three years

heart hammering viol

that no one else

ent herbs and blood, stood Edward himself. The trueborn heir who had survived the northern sla

nd ladies scrambled backward, terrified to let even th

pped to one knee, and drove the point of h

sent a strange, electric shiver down my spine. "The R

d a heavy burlap sack, and to

he severed, frozen head of the R

eir faces. Baylee turned pale and dry-he

of immense relief. "Magnificent! You rode three hundre

ed," Edward said calml

wept across the room. For a fraction o

flicker of curiosity deep within their depths. He had clearl

eccable. We have a domestic disturbance here. An insolent, Wolfless girl named Kelli has disrupted the roy

untlets, revealing large, calloused hands wit

ng at Karson, then at the tremblin

I spilled blood for three days straight to protect this kingdom, only t

table. She claims my adopted son is a bastard, and demands t

rd, meeting Edward'

my family's sacred offerings, plotted to swallow the Nelson territ

imperceptible smirk. He seemed amus

aura suddenly expanding until the

, boy?" Edwar

r under the sheer weight of Edward's presence. "I.

d not was

gave a sharp, two-finger sig

uard, unsheathed a slender, gleaming blade of pure, refined silver