The tension in the entrance hall shifted from a heavy silence to a suffocating, sour pressure that seemed to thin the very air. Cara let out a sharp gasp, her hand flying to her mouth, while Calista glanced between the guards and Odesse, her mind racing with a single, unanswerable question "Who are the Hisponians?"

"What?" Kael muttered under his breath, his hand instinctively dropping toward the hilt of his blade.

Valex looked down at Odesse. Her eyes were wide with a mix of shock and utter disbelief, her lips parted as the color drained from her face. "Who are those men, my love?" he asked, his voice low and demanding.

Azure broke the agonizing silence with a sudden, mocking burst of laughter. She began to clap her hands continuously, the sound echoing sharply against the high stone arches of the hall. Her amusement was loud, unhinged, and entirely empty of genuine warmth.

"You’re lying, Azure," Odesse forced out, her voice tight as she tried to anchor herself. "That... that can not be possible."

Azure abruptly stopped clapping. She rested her chin on her hands, tilting her head with a deceptive, sweet innocence. "Of course I tell a lie, Odesse. I could not possibly kill them all."

Odesse let out a long, ragged breath, her shoulders dropping slightly, but Azure’s smile instantly turned razor-sharp.

"Hold it in," Azure commanded, her voice rising to pierce the room. "You do not want to waste what little thin air you have left in your system, because the air is about to get a lot thicker, Odesse."

Odesse stepped forward, her hands clenching at her sides. "What do you mean, Azure?"

"You see, I was just teasing you," Azure purred, a manic glint in her eyes. "I wanted to see exactly how you would react, and seeing that look on your face gave me immense pleasure." She lightly touched her own lips, looking thoughtful. "Though... maybe I shouldn’t have said it was a lie quite so soon."

Valex’s jaw tightened, his amber eyes burning as he turned fully toward his wife. "Who are the Hisponians, my love?"

Before Odesse could part her lips to explain, Azure cut in, effectively drawing all eyes back to herself. "My king, I shall be the one to tell you who they are. The Hisponians..." She gestured freely with both arms toward the two silent soldiers standing closely behind her "...they are heavenly creatures, as you can see. When I traveled there, I was utterly shocked that I had never visited this place before. They are beautiful."

"How did you find them?" Odesse demanded, her voice stern and unyielding.

Azure shot a lethal glare at her. "Do not interrupt me, you fool."

Enraged by the insult, Valex moved forward in defense of his queen, his posture rigid and ready to strike. But Odesse quickly reached out, her fingers wrapping firmly around his forearm. At her touch, Valex paused, looking down at her, and the tense alignment of his jaw slowly released.

Azure let out a mocking laugh, pointing at them. "What were you trying to do, my king? Look at how she holds you. A powerful alpha wolf, completely tamed by a woman who lived among humans—a woman who believed she was a human her entire life, and is nothing more than a pathetic half-blood."

She began to pace slowly across the stone floor, her gold ornaments clinking. "Now, as I was saying. They are people of color, my king. Very vibrant, and unlike our cold northern pack, their homeland is a place made of gold and life. And do not even get me started on the people themselves. I almost forgot what I went there to do when a handsome man offered to help me." She pressed her hands together against her chest, sighing dramatically. "It was like a dream. But, of course, I could never truly leave you, my king. So I had to take him off my mind and continue my mission. But I said to myself... if I found less than three strikes or faults against the Hisponians, I would spare them and abandon my mission entirely."

Frustration finally broke through Odesse’s composure. "What was your mission, Azure?"

Azure ignored her completely, keeping her eyes fixed on Valex as she continued her tale. "Now, these Hisponians," her expression softened into a sweet, fabricated smile, "were the very ones who helped our lovely Odesse when she was on the verge of death." Suddenly, the sweetness vanished, replaced by a bitter sneer. "And since I am not happy about her survival, that was the first strike against them."

Valex cast a deeply worried look at Odesse, instinctively shifting his weight to place a protective arm around her. Odesse looked up at him, drawing strength from his presence, which Azure noticed with a dark smirk.

"Then," Azure continued, raising two fingers high into the air, "I found out they allow humans and wolves to mate. It was not against the law there." She thrust her hand forward, shouting, "Strike two!"

The sudden outburst made Calista and Cara flinch.

Azure took another step closer, her voice dropping to a slow, deliberate cadence as she raised a third finger. "And then... I found out that their king is a full wolf, but his wife is a full human. Strike three." She looked back at Odesse with a triumphant smile, then turned her gaze to Valex. "You see, my king, I am an incredibly nice person. I gave them three whole chances, but they failed them all. So, it is really not my fault for whatever happens to them next."

Valex’s voice boomed through the hall, rattling the very foundations of the palace. "What have you done to them, Azure?"

The women in the hall shook at the sheer power of his voice, but Azure merely smiled calmly. "Relax, my king. There is no need to shout or be so over the top. I will answer your question. So, I went directly to the king and queen—"

She paused abruptly, cutting herself off.

Odesse seized the silence, her voice trembling but steady. "Azure... how did you find the Hispo pack?"

Azure’s face brightened instantly. "Finally, you ask! That is the first time I am genuinely happy to hear your voice." She leaned forward slightly. "It was very easy, Odesse. The night I saw you with his highness in your bedchamber, I was incredibly angry. My face was twisted like this," she scrunched her forehead into a furious, manic expression, before instantly smoothing her features back into a smile. "But then, my brain wandered to these foreign soldiers, because I had never heard a single thing about them in the history books."

She began to circle the space again. "I went back to my private chambers and decided to look for any hidden pack or region I wasn’t aware of. But you see, Odesse, I could not sense them at first. Whenever I entered the spirit world for meditation, I used to sense a distant region far away, but I never paid attention to it before because it wasn’t my problem. When that sense vanished entirely, I knew you had blocked them from the spiritual plane. You were trying to protect them." She smiled widely. "That was very sweet of you, Odesse. But you are really foolish."

Turning her back to them, Azure walked a few paces away before stopping. She spun around, her eyes scanning the room until they landed on the servant standing behind the queen. "I am really thirsty. Cara, darling... would you be a good human and go get me some water?"

Cara stared back at her, pure hatred burning in her eyes.

Odesse turned her head slightly, whispering under her breath, "Go, Cara."

Though she hesitated for a fraction of a second, Cara nodded and walked away to fetch the water. Azure chuckled softly at her departure. "Such a stupid girl. She should be thankful I even let her stay alive."

Odesse kept her eyes locked on Azure, her fists clenching so hard her nails bit into her palms. "What has she done?" she thought frantically. "Why is this happening? I thought I was doing so well. I became too relaxed just because she was gone for a week. I became lazy. Maybe I should have just ended her the moment I saw her. Azure is truly dangerous... I never underestimated her, but I never imagined she would go this far to do whatever it is she did. This is going to put me in a terrible and uncomfortable position."

Valex noticed the profound tension rewriting Odesse’s features. He looked at Azure, his own mind racing. "What do I even do now?" he thought, a heavy weight settling in his chest. "This... this does not seem like something that can be handled through conventional politics or war. This is a spiritual battle, and in this, I am completely useless. A useless king, and a useless husband." He lowered his head, dark hair shadowing his eyes.

"Where is she?" Azure muttered impatiently.

A moment later, Cara returned carrying a silver cup. She walked straight toward Azure, handing it over with a rigid, silent posture. Azure collected it slowly, a small smile playing on her lips as she looked down at the liquid.

As Cara turned to walk back to Odesse’s side, Azure spoke up. "I do hope you haven’t poisoned it."

Cara froze mid-step but did not look back. Azure smirked, lifting the cup to her mouth and draining the entire contents in one long draught. Cara continued walking until she was safely positioned behind Odesse, a faint, hidden smile finally creeping onto her face.

Azure let out a slow sigh of satisfaction, then carelessly threw the silver cup to the stone floor, letting it make a loud, echoing clatter across the hallway.

"Would you stop wasting time and tell us?" Odesse demanded impatiently.

"Yes, of course, Odesse," Azure smiled, taking a step forward.

But before she could utter another word, Azure’s hand flew to her throat. Her breath hitched, a choked gasp escaping her lips as her face turned completely pale. She stumbled backward, her skin visibly drying out as she clawed at her neck.

Cara leaned in close to Odesse, whispering triumphantly, "I poisoned the water."

Odesse’s eyes widened in absolute shock. "What!"

Azure collapsed heavily to the floor, her fingers still digging frantically into her throat as she gasped for air. "Help me... help me!" she choked out, her voice raspy and failing.

Cara stepped out from behind Odesse, looking down at the writhing woman with cold satisfaction. "No one will help you. You are going to die, Azure."

Azure looked up at Cara, her vision blurring as she forced the words past her constricted throat. "You... you foolish girl. I should have killed you when I had the chance."

Cara’s smile only widened. She turned back to face Odesse, gesturing to the still form on the floor. "Your highness, she is gone. Look." She took a step closer to inspect her work.

Odesse looked down at Azure’s body, her forehead wrinkling into a deep, cautious frown. A heavy sense of wrongness settled deep in her gut, and she whispered tightly, "Something is not right..."