Chapter 139

Maeve’s POV

I stared at my reflection in the mirror, barely recognizing the hollow eyes staring back at me. I had slept scarcely a wink last night—ever since I’d spent time with Valerius, something had shifted deep within me. A tremor ran through my soul, warning me that Nikolai was drawing dangerously close to Valerius’s confidence. He’d begun to suspect the ritual’s true nature; he must know I’d been conducting it incorrectly. And now, at the very moment when I needed full trust, they were maneuvering to shut me out.

The Blood Moon would rise in just a few days, and by then we were supposed to have secured the perfect vessel—one brimming with enough raw energy to contain Shota’s magic until the night of its release. On that fateful night, Valerius planned to siphon that power into himself. He’d wanted Shota’s magic from the start. If he achieve