Chapter 73

Liam

The echo of the door shutting behind Alaria lingered like a blade in my chest. I could still smell her, sharp, wild, carrying the kind of strength that made my blood burn, and she walked away from me without hesitation. Again.

But I wasn’t alone.

Of all the times that I wanted to be alone, I was not. She was here, the one person that I did not want to speak to or see. And of course, she was the person that I did not even want witnessing this.

Claire stood in the middle of the dining room, her eyes narrowed, her chin tilted high as if she’d just won something. As if Alaria’s departure was proof that she still mattered, still had power here.

“You let her speak to me like that,” Claire hissed, voice trembling with fury. “You just stood there and said nothing. Do you realize how humiliating that was for me? I am your Luna. I belong here by your side. She is nothing but an intruder, and had it been me who spoke this way to you, you would have put