Betrayed by My Ex, Marked by His Alpha Emperor Brother novel Chapter 265

Chapter 265: Chapter 265

Elara’s POV

Everything went still.

Isolde’s yellow eyes locked onto the exact cluster of brambles where I crouched. Her nostrils flared again—wider this time—and her lips peeled back from her teeth in something that wasn’t quite a smile.

"Come out," she said. Her voice was silk wrapped around a blade. "I can smell you, you know. All that fear. All that sweat." She tilted her head. "All that grief."

I didn’t move. My fingers were white around the dagger’s hilt. My lungs burned from holding my breath.

Malakor released Kaelen’s arm. It dropped to the earth with a sickening thud. He straightened to his full height and rolled his injured shoulder with a wince.

"Who is it?" he demanded.

Isolde inhaled deeply. Then her eyes went wide. Then she laughed.

"Oh," she breathed. "Oh, this is perfect." She turned to Malakor with genuine delight spreading across her face. "It’s her. It’s my dear sister."

The pretense was pointless now.

I stood.

My legs shook. My vision tunneled. But I rose from the undergrowth with the dagger in my hand and stepped into the clearing. Into the pale morning light. Into full view of the two people who had taken everything from me.

And there—between them—Kaelen.

Closer now. I could see him clearly. His face was the color of ash. His lips were faintly blue. The wound at his side gaped open, dark and wet. His chest... was it moving? I couldn’t tell. The mate bond in my chest had gone so quiet. So terrifyingly quiet. Like a candle flame guttering in the last breath of wind before it died.

"Kaelen," I whispered.

Nothing. No flicker. No twitch. No faint pulse of recognition through the bond.

Nothing.

The world narrowed to a single, blinding point of white-hot fury.

"You bitch."

The word tore from my throat—raw, guttural, barely human. I launched myself at Isolde.

No strategy. No calculation. Just pure animal rage propelling my body across the distance faster than I’d ever moved in my life.

Isolde’s eyes widened—genuine surprise—and then I was on her. My dagger slashed across her forearm. She jerked back but not fast enough. I crashed into her with every ounce of my weight, my free hand clawing at her face, my teeth bared.

"My dear sister—" she started.

I sank my teeth into her shoulder.

Deep. Hard. Through fabric and flesh until hot copper flooded my mouth. Her blood tasted like iron and rot. She screamed—a shocked, outraged sound—and her fist connected with my temple. Stars exploded across my vision but I didn’t let go. I bit harder. Felt the muscle beneath my teeth give way.

Then something massive hit me from the side.

Malakor.

His hand closed around the back of my neck and ripped me away from Isolde. The force lifted me clear off the ground. For one suspended moment I was weightless—and then my back slammed into a tree trunk with enough force to crack something deep in my ribs.

I crumpled. Gasped. Couldn’t breathe.

"Pathetic human," Isolde hissed, pressing her hand to her bleeding shoulder. Her eyes blazed with fury and something else—humiliation. I’d hurt her. A human had hurt her. She’d never forgive that.

Good.

"He screamed for you, you know," Isolde said. She stepped closer. Her fingers came away from her shoulder slick with red. She looked at them, then at me. "When the poison started working. When it began shutting down his body, piece by piece. He screamed your name."

I pushed myself upright against the tree. My ribs shrieked. I ignored them.

"Elara," Isolde mimicked, her voice pitched low, mocking. "Elara, please." She smiled. Cruel and wide. "Over and over. Like a prayer. Like you might actually come save him." She laughed softly. "But you didn’t, did you? You were too busy being a pathetic human playing soldier in your little fighting pit."

"Shut up."

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