"Let me take you to the healing hall first,"Dorian said,his voice low and urgent as he cradled Rosalind against his chest."You are already fragile,and last night I…nothing else can happen to you."
Dorian did not look at me once when he said it.His attention was fixed entirely on the woman in his arms,on the tear tracks staining her cheeks,on the way her breath came in shallow,uneven gasps.
Rosalind clutched the front of his tunic,her voice so small it barely carried through the cold morning air."But what about Lyra…"
"I will come back for her,"he said,and the words fell like stones into a deep well.
He carried Rosalind out of the manor without looking back.His footsteps echoed down the stone corridor,then faded,then vanished entirely.
I was the only one left,lying on the cold floor at the bottom of the stairs.
I stared up at the vaulted ceiling above me,at the dark wooden beams and the faded murals of the Moon Goddess watching over sleeping wolves.My vision blurred,slowly,then all at once.
I laughed.
It came out hoarse and hollow,a sound that did not even feel like it belonged to me anymore.My hand found my stomach,pressing against the damp fabric of my gown.My fingers were shaking.
"Pup,"I whispered,my voice barely a breath,"did you see that?Your father does not love your mother.He does not love you either.How could your mother ever dare bring you into this world?"
I do not know how long I lay there before my soulstone messenger buzzed against my hip.The healer's carriage I had called earlier had arrived at the gate.Someone had responded to my silent whisper.
I pressed my palms against the cold stone floor and pushed myself up,inch by inch.My body felt like it had been taken apart and put back together wrong.Every movement sent tremors of pain through my limbs,through my stomach,through the very core of my being.
But I stood up.
One step at a time,I walked toward the ironwood doors,leaving a faint trail of blood behind me on the stones.Blood ran down my legs,but I could not feel it anymore.I could not feel much of anything.
By the time the priestess'attendants wheeled me into the Moon Healer's Hall,my consciousness was already slipping away like sand through open fingers.Voices drifted in and out of my awareness,distorted and distant.
"Miscarriage…she needs the Moon Purification Rite immediately…"
"Where is her pack?Her family?"
"There is no family.She came alone."
I do not know how much time passed before I opened my eyes again.The ceiling above me was white stone,not dark wood.The air smelled of silverleaf and Moon Dew Elixir,not smoke and blood.
Before I could fully understand where I was,the door to the healing chamber slammed open.
"Lyra!"
Dorian stormed in,his chest heaving,his eyes wild.He crossed the room in three long strides and seized my wrist.His grip was so tight I thought the bones would splinter.
"You have the nerve to just lie here?"His voice was low,but the fury in it was unmistakable."Rosalind's spleen ruptured because you pushed her down those stairs.Massive hemorrhaging.She is in emergency surgery right now.You share the same bloodline.You are giving her a Life-bond Transfer."
The fog in my head cleared instantly.What he was accusing me of was so absurd that for a moment I forgot the pain entirely.
"I did not push her,"I said,wrenching my hand free from his grasp.My voice was raw and cold,scraped hollow by everything I had endured."Dorian,have you lost your mind?You want me to give blood?I just had a—"
"You are still denying it!"He cut me off,his eyes darkening with something vicious."I saw it with my own eyes.You pushed her down those stairs.Rosalind is the one covering for you because she is too kind,afraid I would blame you.She protected you,and you will not even save her life?"
I watched him construct his own version of reality and convict me with it.It was so ridiculous I almost laughed."Who asked for her kindness?I did not do it,and I did not do it!"
"If something happens to Rosalind,how are you going to keep your place in the Fennwood pack?Is that what you want?For them to disown you?Would that make you happy?"He was not listening to a single word I said.His brow furrowed like he genuinely believed he was looking out for me."You and Rosalind share the same bloodline.You are donating.Consider it your apology."
Something lodged in my chest.I could not breathe."I told you.I did not push her."Each word was deliberate,forced through clenched teeth."And I just—"
"Stop pretending to be sick,"Dorian snapped,his frown deepening,his patience visibly fraying to nothing."Lyra,when did you become like this?You will not own up to what you did,and now you are playing the victim?"
I lost every last shred of desire to communicate with him.When someone has already decided you are guilty,nothing you say will ever be the right thing.
Dorian grabbed me by the arm and dragged me off the healing bed,hauling me toward the chamber where Rosalind lay.A priestess stood by the entrance,her white robes stained with fresh blood.The moment she saw Dorian,she hurried over.
"Draw her blood,"Dorian said,not wasting a single word.
The priestess glanced at me,hesitation flickering across her weathered face."But this young wolf's complexion…she is pale as snow.She should not—"
"She is fine,"Dorian cut her off,his voice brooking no argument."Draw it."
I was pushed into a wooden chair.My sleeve was rolled up.When the silver-tipped needle pierced the vein in my arm,the cold spread up through my limbs like ice water flooding my veins.The blood left me drop by drop,flowing through the crystal tube into a waiting vessel.
I had just lost the pup.I had just undergone the Moon Purification Rite.I had no strength left to fight back.All I could do was let my head fall against the back of the chair and stare up at the white stone ceiling,watching the torchlight pulse and expand,pulse and expand,until the edges of my vision began to darken.
My consciousness began to drift.
Dorian suddenly took my hand,his fingers wrapping around mine.His voice softened,almost tender."Lyra,as long as Rosalind pulls through,everything that happened these past two days…we will pretend none of it ever happened."
I did not look at him.
"I know you have a problem with her,"he continued,his thumb brushing across my knuckles."It is because she has feelings for me.But I have told you so many times.What I feel for Rosalind is the bond of growing up together.She is no different from a little sister to me.My mate will only ever be you.Once you are feeling better,we will swear the oath on the Moon Altar.I will give you the grandest binding ceremony the pack has ever seen.So,Lyra,be good.Stop making trouble."
A sister he had bedded and still called pure?
What if Rosalind got pregnant with his pup?Would she still be a sister then?
But those thoughts barely flickered through my mind.They were gone almost as soon as they came.
None of it mattered anymore.I was leaving.
Seven years of propping Dorian up,of bleeding for his ambitions,of drinking wolfsbane for his deals—plus this blood I was giving now.That was more than enough to repay the debt of him pulling me out of the orphan pack all those years ago.
After this,whomever Dorian loved,married,or took to his furs had nothing to do with me.
When the Life-bond Transfer was finally complete,I could barely stay upright on my own two feet.My vision went black for a moment.I nearly collapsed right there on the cold stone floor.
Dorian did not notice.He was already gone,hurrying back to Rosalind's side.
I pulled out my soulstone messenger.My fingers trembled as I sent a whisper to Seraphina Grimtalon,carving the words into the crystal with the last of my strength.
"Can you come for me?"
The reply came almost instantly,warm and certain."I am on my way."
I turned and walked back to my own healing chamber,each step an agony.I left the priestess's report on the bed—the parchment that declared the loss of the pup,the completion of the Moon Purification Rite,the note that my body would bear the scars of this night forever.
All I took with me was my identity scroll,my blood-seal token,and the burned silver timepiece that had belonged to the Den Mother.
One step at a time,I climbed the winding stairs to the highest tower of the healing hall.
A flying warg was already waiting on the landing platform,its great leathery wings folded against the dawn sky.The cabin door opened,and a healer that Seraphina had arranged stood inside.She rushed over the moment she saw me,checking my pulse,my pupils,the pallor of my skin.
I waved her off gently."Just get me to the northern wildlands,"I whispered.
The flying warg lifted into the air as the first true light of morning broke over the horizon.Clouds churned outside the crystal window,pale and gold and pink.
When I arrived at the private healing hall in the northern wildlands and saw my new mate lying there in his enchanted sleep,his soul trapped in the Moonshadow Realm,the first thing I did was take his cold hand in mine.I held our ring-bearing hands together,let a priestess carve an image into my soulstone,and sent it to the pack message board with a caption carved beneath.
"Claimed."
From that moment on,Dorian Darkmoor had nothing to do with me.
