To ruin an Omega Nov Chapter 67: What Remains

Chapter 67: What Remains

FIA

The door slamd shut behind Cian. The sound echoed through the chamber. My heart was still pounding from the confrontation.

I stood there, breathing slowly, trying to process everything that had just happened.

Behind , I heard movent. The soft scrape of fabric against stone. I turned.

Thorne was getting to his feet. Slowly. His legs looked unsteady. He put one hand against the floor to push himself up. The other pressed against his forehead. When he pulled it away, his palm was sared with blood.

He stood there for a mont. Just staring at the floor. His shoulders were hunched. His breathing was ragged.

Then he looked at .

"Why would you step in and save ?" His voice was rough. Tired. "I have been nothing short of antagonizing to you since you entered this territory."

I held his gaze. I didn’t look away.

"I knew your reason," I said.

His eyebrows drew together. He was sohow confused.

"You had this idea of ," I continued. "And you simply wanted to protect your Alpha from the scheming woman."

Thorne’s jaw tightened. He didn’t deny it.

"I saved you because I know in my heart that you are not guilty," I said.

For a long mont, he just stared at . Then he let out a sound. Sothing between a laugh and a scoff. It was bitter.

"I don’t want to owe you any favors," he said.

I shook my head. "I am not asking you to owe

a favor or favors."

He opened his mouth to respond. I kept talking before he could.

"But there is more than just Nightshade and Hemlock root in the poison you just smashed to the ground."

That got his attention. His eyes widened slightly. His hand lowered from his forehead.

I walked toward the examination table. My boots made soft sounds against the stone. The shattered glass from the dicine bottle was still scattered across the floor. The liquid had pooled in the crevices between the stones. So of it had started to dry.

I picked up another bottle from the table. This one was empty. It had a cork stopper and a narrow neck. The glass was thick. Good for storing liquids.

I knelt down beside the broken glass. Carefully, I unstoppered the empty vial. Then I tilted it. Let the opening rest against one of the larger pools of the spilled dicine.

The liquid flowed into the bottle slowly. It was thick. Viscous. Not like water or even honey. Sothing darker.

I scooped as much as I could and then tilted the vial at different angles to catch the dicine that had settled in the grooves of the floor. When I was done, the bottle was about a third full. Not much. But it would have to be enough.

I stood up. Corked the vial. Turned to face Thorne.

He was watching . His expression had changed. The bitterness was gone. Now he just looked focused.

"You know that is poison right? And you are still an Oga."

I ignored that. There was more pressing things to focus on than my weakened immune system being the death of .

"We need to find what more is in it," I said. I held up the vial so he could see it. "If it can help us find out who did it or help the Grand Luna."

Thorne was still standing in the sa spot. Still looking like he wanted to collapse again.

"So get up your ass and stop feeling sorry for yourself," I said. My voice ca out as sharp as I intended it to be. "You are alive."

He blinked. Like I had slapped him.

Then sothing shifted in his face. His jaw set. His shoulders straightened slightly.

"You are right," he said.

I waited.

"I need to redeem myself," he continued. His voice was stronger now. "Be useful to my Alpha."

He walked toward . His steps were more steady than before. When he reached , he held out his hand.

I placed the vial in his palm.

He looked down at it. Studied the dark liquid inside. Then he looked back at .

"Thank you," he said. "I owe you two."

There was sothing different in his voice. Sothing genuine. I could feel it. The sincerity. The weight of what he was saying.

Most people said thank you without aning it. Just words they threw out because it was expected. But Elder Thorne ant it. I could tell.

"Like I said before," I replied, "it is not necessary."

He shook his head. "No."

I waited for him to explain.

"I know when to swallow my pride and be grateful," he said. He held the vial up slightly. Like he was making a point. "We would have never known the Luna was poisoned if it was not because of you. And I would be in a cell now if not for you."

I didn’t know what to say to that. So I just stood there. Listening.

"I see it now," he continued. His eyes never left mine. "I always wondered why the goddess would bless a union born from deceit. It felt like a cruel joke at the ti and I pitied Alpha Cian."

My chest tightened. I knew what he ant.

"But her ways are beyond man," Thorne said. "You were chosen for a reason. I would be a fool not to acknowledge it, Luna Fia."

Sothing in his tone made my throat feel tight. I wasn’t used to this. To people who had put

in a box see

as anything other than an outsider. A problem. A mistake.

Thorne turned. He set the vial down on the examination table carefully. Then he started gathering the other bottles. The tools. He was organizing them. Getting ready for sothing.

"You are knowledgeable in poison, aren’t you?" he asked. He didn’t look at

as he spoke. He just kept working.

"Yes," I said. "Why?"

He paused and turned to face

again.

"You should join

and Maren in the lab," he said. "We need you."

He picked up the vial again. Held it up to the light. The liquid inside looked almost black in the dim chamber.

"Skollrend needs you," he added.

I stared at him. At the way his hands had stopped shaking. At the determination in his eyes. This was a different man than the one who had been on his knees minutes ago. Begging for his life.

"Really?" I asked.

"Of course," Thorne said. "If you are willing."

I thought about it. About what Cian was doing right now. Interrogating the servants. Probably preparing to torture them if he didn’t get what he wanted from them.

I thought about the Grand Luna. Lying unconscious sowhere in this fortress. With more than two poisons eating away at her from the inside.

I thought about the person who had done this. Who was still out there. Still free.

"I am willing," I said.

Thorne nodded. He grabbed a leather satchel from under the table. Started loading it with bottles and tools. His movents were quick now. Efficient.

"The lab is in the north wing," he said. "Maren should already be there."

I watched him work. "What do you need

to do?"

"Help us identify every component in this poison," Thorne said. He secured the vial in a special compartnt in the satchel. Padded so it wouldn’t break. "Every single ingredient. No matter how small."

"And then?"

"Then we figure out who could have made it," he said. "Not everyone has access to these kinds of materials. Especially if there are more than three components. The more complex the poison, the shorter the list of suspects we will have. Because accusing Alpha Gabriel is not enough, we need definitive proof. An added bonus is we can make an antidote."

I nodded. That made sense.

Thorne finished packing the satchel. He slung it over his shoulder. Then he looked at

again.

"I need to ask you sothing," he said.

"What?"

"How did you know?" His voice was quieter now. "How did you figure it out when Maren and I could not?"

I thought about how to explain it. It wasn’t one thing. It was a lot of small details. A lot of things that didn’t quite add up.

"I have seen victims of the rot before," I said. "Hell, my mother was one. But I also knew poison well. My mother sort of taught

plenty of what I know."

Thorne waited for

to continue.

"One ti, there was a woman," I said. The mory was old. Faded around the edges. "She had been poisoned by her rival. A slow acting poison. Sothing that mimicked a wasting disease."

"What happened to her?"

"My mother figured it out," I said. "He saved her. But it took weeks to identify all the components. And by then, she was barely alive."

I looked at the satchel Thorne was holding. At the vial inside it.

"I learned to notice the small things," I said. "The sll. The color of the skin. The way the body reacts. Poison is different than disease. Always. You just have to know what to look for."

Thorne was quiet for a mont. Then he said, "Your mother taught you well."

"She did."

"And you still rember."

"I rember everything she taught ," I said. My voice ca out softer than I ant it to. "It is all I have left of her."

Thorne’s expression shifted. Sothing like understanding passed across his face. Like he knew what it was like to lose soone. To hold onto the things they taught you because it was the only way to keep them close.

"Co on," he said. He turned toward the door. "We have work to do."

I followed him out of the chamber. Into the hallway. The sentinels who had been standing guard outside were gone now. Probably following Cian to wherever he was conducting his interrogations.

We walked in silence. Through corridors I didn’t recognize. Past tapestries and windows that overlooked the mountains. The fortress was massive. I was still learning my way around.

"How long have you been Skollrend’s healer?" I asked.

"Twenty years," Thorne said. "I took over from my ntor when I was young. Too young, so said."

"But you proved them wrong."

"Eventually." He glanced at . "But there is always soone who doubts. Who thinks you are not good enough."

I knew that feeling. I had been living it since before I even arrived here.

"Did the Grand Luna trust you?" I asked.

Thorne’s face softened. "She did. She was one of the few who believed in

from the start."

Having soone in your corner, I knew how important that was.

"Then we will save her," I said. "We have to."

"Yes," Thorne said. "We will."

We turned a corner. The hallway opened up into a wider corridor. At the end of it was a heavy wooden door. Reinforced with iron. The kind of door that was ant to keep people out.

Or keep sothing in.

Thorne pulled out a key. Unlocked the door. It swung open with a low creak.

Beyond it was a laboratory. Shelves lined the walls. Filled with bottles and jars and containers of every size. In the center of the room was a large table. Covered in equipnt. Burners, mortars, scales and even things I didn’t recognize.

Doctor Maren was already there. She looked up when we entered. Her face was pal and her eyes were red like she had been crying.

"Thorne," she said. Her voice cracked. "They let you go too."

"Thanks to her," Thorne said. He gestured to .