The parchnt was still in her hand when the alarm bells rang three sharp chis, no more, no less. Not a full-pack ergency, but enough to an trouble. Enough to an sothing had broken through.
Magnolia didn’t hesitate.
She moved through the corridor like a blade, silk gown trailing behind her, feet silent on the marble. The guards were already rushing past in wolf form, eyes glowing, claws unsheathed. She followed them without waiting for permission.
The scent hit her the mont she cleared the south courtyard gate.
Ash. Blood. And sothing else pinesap and old iron.
Then a body crashed through the tree line.
Beckett.
He staggered forward, dragging one leg behind him. His face was streaked with blood, shirt shredded, shoulder torn open. Two border wolves flanked him, growling at whatever still lingered in the shadows.
"Get him inside!" Magnolia shouted.
They obeyed instantly. She ran beside them as they pulled Beckett through the southern threshold and down into the stone-walled infirmary beneath the estate.
The healers were already moving snapping orders, clearing benches, brewing poultices.
Beckett collapsed onto the cot with a guttural groan, his eyes fluttering open as Magnolia knelt beside him.
"What happened?" she demanded.
"Ambush..." he rasped. "Near the river pass. They weren’t rogues. They were... clean. Organized."
Her stomach turned. "How many?"
"Four. Maybe five. They were waiting."
She looked down at his wounds. Claw marks. Not random. Not wild. Surgical.
"What were you doing out there?"
He coughed. "Delivering intel. From your contact in St. Louis. About the seal."
Magnolia froze.
"You an Ashriel."
Beckett’s head dropped back. "Sterling’s funding sothing outside the territory. Not just wolves. Sothing darker."
Her blood ran cold.
"What did they take?" she asked.
Beckett hesitated. Then slowly reached inside his shredded coat and pulled out a black velvet pouch, sealed with gold thread. "Didn’t get it. But they tried."
She took it gently.
Inside, she felt it pulse against her fingertips. A sigil. Ancient. Forbidden.
The symbol from the forest ruin. The sa one that once marked the wall where Camille disappeared as a child.
A serpent wrapped in a ring of fla.
Ashriel’s crest.
The last ti she’d seen it, she was thirteen. And it had been carved into bone.
Beckett winced. "You have to tell Rhett."
"No," Magnolia said, her voice firm. "Not yet."
"You don’t trust him?"
"I don’t know who I trust."
She stood, tucking the pouch into her sleeve. "Rest. I’ll protect this. You protect yourself."
As she left the infirmary, her mind reeled.
Ashriel wasn’t just a myth. He was waking. And if the symbol was back... it ant the forest hadn’t forgotten.
Neither had whatever lived in it.
She didn’t notice the figure in the shadows until she reached the end of the corridor.
Rhett.
He stepped forward, gaze locked on her hand.
"You’re hiding sothing."
"I’m protecting sothing."
He studied her. "From ?"
"From everyone."
"You should’ve co to first."
"I did once," she said quietly. "And it nearly killed ."
Then she walked past him.
And for the first ti since she returned, she didn’t look back.
Reviews
All reviews (0)