Page 68 of The Panther's Price

Not with chains. That would’ve been too crude.

But withexpectation. Like a dismissed knight. Like a son who had outlived his usefulness.

They left him at the garden wall.

Alone.

Abandoned.

And that was their first mistake.

Lucien didn’t leave.

He knew this Keep better than anyone. Better than the guards. Better than the servants. He had beenbornhere. Bled here. Trained here. This wasn’t just a fortress. It washis hunting ground.And now, they had takenher.

The woman he loved. The woman who had cracked his armor and carved herself into the hollow parts of him. Evryn was somewhere behind these walls.

And Lucien was going to burn through every one of them to find her.

THIRTY

EVRYN

The pain didn’t stop.

It moved through her like a tide, relentless and cold. Not like fire, not like knives—worse.Selyne’s magic wasn’t designed to break bones. It was built to unraveltruths.

Evryn had stopped screaming hours ago. Maybe days. She couldn’t tell.

The light above her flickered with every pulse of blood from her veins to the runes etched in the floor. She was chained at wrist and ankle, body limp in the center of a circle soaked in her own pain. Every spell Selyne cast pulled deeper—ripping not just her power, but heridentity.

“You bleed like a royal,” the Queen murmured again, circling her. “But still no bond. Still no throne key. It’s there. Iknowit is.”

Evryn could barely lift her head. Her mouth was too dry to curse.

Selyne crouched, brushing a hand through her blood, bringing her stained fingers to her lips. “If you were anyone else, you’d have died hours ago. But you… you were made for this.”

Evryn’s limbs shook. Something inside her cried out—not a scream. Aroar.

Buried. Wild. Ancient.

Not fear.Instinct.

She couldn’t die here. Not in this room. Not like this.

No.

A voice stirred in her bones—rough, feminine, familiar.

Get up.

Her eyes fluttered. “Wha…”

You were never prey. You were born a predator.

The Queen’s voice echoed, more distant now. “Still conscious? Good. Let’s try again?—”

Evryn’s heart pounded louder than the spell.

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