Page 29 of The Onyx Covenant

Godsdammit.I wipe my face with shaking hands. The darkness presses in, the weight of stone above me suddenly suffocating. I need air. Space. Anything to escape the tightness in my chest.

Rising silently, I navigate between the sleeping forms of my pack mates to reach the rear door in the room. None of them offered to push the super-narrow beds together with Aria’s so that I didn’t sleep on the floor, not even those who’ve smiled at me during temple ceremonies. The message couldn’t be clearer—I’ve crossed a line by being connected to an Umbra wolf. I’m no longer fully one of them.

The Covenant buildings have running water, a rare luxury that the elders engineered generations ago, combining advanced plumbing with old magic. Something only reserved for those of importance… Not Elios wolves.

I fill a wooden cup from the sink and gulp it down, the cool liquid doing little to calm the storm inside me. A bowl of fruit sits nearby, and I grab a handful of grapes, popping them into my mouth one by one, barely tasting them.

What the fuck am I doing here? I’m not a warrior, despite my training sessions with Aria. The other candidates have been preparing for this their entire lives. They know how to fight, how to survive the trials that await us.

The right decision would be to get myself eliminated somehow, to leave… I thought earlier that maybe I deserved a chance to prove myself. Now that I’m in the thick of it, I’m not so sure.

And Theron… that arrogant bastard. After a year of silence, why bind himself to me now? What does he gain?

The memory of his face when the onyx bracelet materialized on my wrist burns in my mind—that look of satisfaction, of getting exactly what he wanted. Does he think he can just force his way back into my life?

First love, first heartbreak, and now he’s dragged me into a fucking death trap. Great track record.

I reach for more water, trying to focus on tomorrow’s training, but the thought that I choose to stay lingers like a shadow in my mind.

My grip tightens around the cup. With everything he’s done, I stayed and I know why.

It’s him.

Even after his betrayal, after watching him with her, I couldn’t bring myself to break the bond. Some stubborn, bleeding part of me still aches for what we were… or maybe what I thought we could be. And that’s the part that’s killing me.

Because no matter how much I try to deny it, I’m still not ready to let him go.

A sound comes so faintly I almost miss it, a whisper of fabric against stone, a breath held too long. I freeze, cup halfway to my lips. I’m not alone.

Before I can turn, something rough and heavy slams down over my head—a bag of thick, scratchy fabric scrapes my face, sealing me in suffocating darkness. I open my mouth to scream, but a fist drives into my stomach like a hammer. The air is punched from my lungs, and the scream dies in my throat, the cup tumbling from my grasp. I lean over, gasping, hugging my gut. Panic floods me.

“Don’t you fucking scream,” a voice hisses near my ear. The tone is forced—low, distorted—but there’s a sharp edge to it. Female. Trying not to sound it. “One noise and we’ll cut your throat.”

Hands clamp around my arms like iron. Another slams into my back, shoving me forward. I stumble, nearly fall, head pounding, the bag clinging to my face like a second skin. My breaths come shallow and fast. I can’t get enough air. I can’t see. I can’t think.

Instinct takes over. I twist hard, yank free just enough, and throw out a wild kick, one Aria drilled into me over and over. It connects with something solid—a grunt of pain from one of them.

A sudden crack against my neck and I whimper. Another blow to my ribs, brutal and fast. White-hot pain erupts in my side, stars bursting behind my eyes, even in the pitch black.

I collapse to my knees with a strangled cry, agony lancing through my body. Every breath feels like knives. My heart hammers, screaming to run, but my limbs are heavy, slow.

“Bitch fights like a rabid wolf,” one of them mutters. “Didn’t expect that from a temple flower.”

“Just get her away from the building,” the second voice snaps, also female, also masked in false depth. “Before someone hears.”

My heart slams against my ribs as they drag me forward, the rough fabric of the bag scratching my face, choking me with every panicked breath. The ground shifts beneath my feet from stone to dirt, each step disorienting. I can already feel the manacle on my wrist buzzing slightly. We’re not past the edge of the fifty-foot radius, but perhaps I’m getting close.

Five minutes to get back, or Theron and I are dead.

“Just let me go and I won’t tell anyone,” I press, all while rage rises hotter than the fear, curling through my veins like fire.

They laugh at me. “We’re not idiots.”

Fuck them.

“I beg to differ.”

Who the hell do these girls think they are, threatening me like I’m nothing? Like I’m prey? Just another passive priestess too soft to fight back?

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