Chapter 33. Never Again

Lotus’s POV

The Winter palace feels colder when we return, even though fires burn in the fireplaces, it can’t harm me. Maybe it’s me. Maybe I am broken. My bones feel frozen, my chest locked tight.

The taste of the ash at the Summer Pack sticks on my tongue. The hollow eyes of the women forever burned into my mind. I will never forget how the looked at me as I was there last hope. What is worse, I can see Levi’s face when I stepped out of the dark. I saved them, and yet he still looked at me like a fragile, porcelain doll.

Louis guides the rescued woman to the healers. He is quiet for once, though his hand brushes against mine. A silent reassurance. I wish he would stay behind, but he doesn’t linger. He knows this isn’t his battle. He has already suffered my wrath once, and he doesn’t wish to see it again.

I follow Lennox and Levi into the war room. The map still lies on the table, and my fingers run across the ink. They mark the battle plans that don