Chapter 527

Nina

I stared at Luke in stunned silence, his words echoing in my head.

Enzo... with Mila?

It made no sense, and yet, a tendril of dread snaked its way around my heart when I saw the look in Luke’s eyes. He knew what he had seen.

“What are you talking about?”I finally managed, my voice trembling. “Enzo hates Mila, he—”

“Would never go with her willingly, I know,” Luke cut me off. “Believe me, Nina, I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t think something was seriously wrong.”

Sinking down on the edge of my bed, I raked my hands through my hair in a weak attempt to steady myself. If it was true that Enzo just… went through a portal with Mila, then the situation was even more grave than I thought.

“Look, I’ve been keeping an eye on Enzo ever since he left,” Luke explained again. “I would have expected him to seem lost, aimless after being banished. But he seemed like he was on a mission, and then the portal opened…”

“Do you think she put some kind of spell on him?” I asked.

“I don’t know, but whatever she's done to him, it’s not good,” Luke said grimly. “I could see it in his eyes, the way they looked... vacant. Empty. Like he was just... drifting.”

A violent shudder quaked my shoulders at the thought. Enzo, the man I loved more than life itself, reduced to a hollow shell at Mila’s manipulation. Bile rose in my throat, bitter and hot.

“God, it’s just like Selena all over again,” I whispered, still clutching my hair.

I didn’t want to believe it; this couldn’t be happening, not again. Not after all we had been through. But now Mila had him, and we all knew what she wanted him for—and what would happen to those who stayed in her impossible palace for too long.

Then, I felt Luke’s hands on my shoulders, grounding me, pulling me back to reality.

“Nina, look at me,” he murmured, his voice low and insistent until I finally lifted my gaze to meet his. “We’re going to get him back, just like we did before. I promise.”

I opened my mouth, but no words would come. Luke simply nodded as though reading my mind, and his expression hardened.

“I’ll come back tomorrow night, once I’ve had a chance to get the others ready,” he said. “Then we’ll go after Mila together and bring Enzo home where he belongs. No matter what it takes.”

…

I didn’t bother with pleasantries or formalities when I reached the heavy oak door of my father’s study, simply pushing through and fixing my father with an unwavering stare.

“Nina?” he asked, looking up from a pile of papers at his desk. “You alright, love?”

“We have to save Enzo,” I stated without preamble. “Mila has taken him, I don’t know where or how, but she’s done something to him, twisted his mind. Luke saw them disappear through some sort of portal and—”

“Enough.”

The single, curt word from my father’s lips cut through my impassioned speech before I could even finish. My voice trailed off, and I gaped at him in disbelief as he rose from behind his desk, his expression unreadable.

“Enzo rejected you as his mate, Nina,” he said softly. “His choices are his own burden to bear now. We cannot go chasing after him, not after the grievous betrayal he committed against you, against this family.”

I shook my head. “He’s not in his right mind,” I pleaded. “We can’t just let him into her clutches. If we could just—”

“We will do nothing,” he cut me off again. “That man made his decision, and he will have to face the consequences of those actions alone. I won’t let my pregnant daughter and the sole heir of my kingdom go on another rescue mission.”

Anger roiled inside of me at his words. “Do you even hear yourself?” I blurted out. “Mila has Enzo, dad. Mila. You know what she’s capable of.”

“Of course I know what she’s capable of,” he replied, pulling his shoulders back so that his hulking form seemed to tower over me. “Which is precisely why I’m not letting you—or anyone else—go on a suicide mission.”

“You’re being unreasonable.”

“Unreasonable?!” My father scoffed. “Nina, I have let you tread all over me in recent months; I have succumbed to your every whim for the sake of building a relationship that was lost to our years apart. I won’t have you be put in danger again.”

I swallowed, curling my hands up into fists at my sides. “Is this even about me, or is it about the heir to your throne?”

For a few long moments, my father was silent. His eyes burned with a hot, raging fury as he stared at me, but he said nothing. When he finally spoke, his voice was surprisingly soft, but brooked no room for argument.

“This discussion is over,"” he said simply. “And to ensure you do not attempt anything... foolish, you will remain confined to your chambers until I deem it safe to allow you free rein of the manor once more. Guards will be stationed at your door.”

I gaped at him, stunned into wordless disbelief by his harsh words. For a moment, I just stood there, rooted to the spot. How could he be so heartless, so utterly blind to the actual Enzo faced?

But then a soft noise from the doorway had me whirling around, my breath catching in my throat as I found myself face-to-face with my mother. From the stricken look on her face, it was clear that she had overheard everything.

Our eyes met, a silent exchange of understanding passing between us. A thousand unspoken words seemed to tremble on her lips, but in the end, she simply inclined her head in the slightest of nods and said nothing.

“Angelica,” my father said coolly. “See Nina to her room, would you?”

…

The remainder of that day seemed to crawl by at an agonizing pace. I paced the confines of my bedroom like a caged animal, locked inside with two guards standing just outside the door.

More than once, I considered trying to climb out the window. But common sense and my progressing pregnancy stopped me; it was too risky from this high up, and would just make things worse.

I just had to have hope that Luke would come tomorrow and find a way to get me out, for Enzo’s sake.

It wasn’t until the pale blue glow of the rising moon began to filter through my windows that I felt something: a soft vibration in my pocket. I frowned, reaching in, and felt my fingers slip around something cool and smooth.

The moonstone that Elara had given me.

Pulling the stone out of my pocket, I peered down at it in the palm of my hand and studied it. It was still now, not vibrating at all, although the moonlight was reflecting off of it and almost causing it to glow. Maybe it was just my imagination.

“Wait…” I muttered to myself, turning the stone over in my hands. I held it up, away from the light, to see if I had seen correctly.

And I had. It wasn’t the moonlight reflecting off of the stone. It was the stone itself that was glowing, as though charged by the moon.

I gasped softly as I turned the pretty little stone this way and that, admiring the magic trick. A soft smile graced my lips; maybe there was still some beauty in this strange world, despite everything.

But it was as I turned, beginning to pocket the stone again, that something else happened.

The book, sitting on the desk in the corner, was… No, it couldn’t be…

It was glowing, too.