Romane von Gloria Sterling

"Aiden, run!"The voice coming out of Maya is not hers, and it stops me cold. My hands reach for her before I can think, pulling toward the bone knife still glowing at her throat. My throat closes and I cannot breathe. My heart pounds so hard I feel it in my chest, and my legs go weak, but I hold myself up.Cael's arm locks around my waist and yanks me back. The fur-lined war cloak he wears brushes my cheek and smells like cold air and forest. He hauls me behind him in one hard pull and steps between me and the altar. His shoulders block my view of Maya, his eyes bleeding black, his jaw so tight I can see the strain in it."Do not listen!" he growls, and I feel the sound move through his chest and into mine.Roran does not move, and he smiles like we are doing exactly what he planned. He rests his palm on top of Maya's head while the gold in her eyes flares brighter until I have to look away. "She hears clearer than you do, boy," he says, and his voice stays low and patient because th

"My sons."The voice rolls through the opening in the tree like cold water down my spine, and I freeze with Cael's hand locked around my wrist, and the roots above us pulse with white light. The air smells like wet earth, old blood and pine from Cael's skin, and my heart beats so loud I hear it in my teeth.Through the split in the bark I see him, and my breath catches because he looks like an older, crueler version of Cael. King Roran stands on a stone altar, black hair threaded with grey, gold eyes unblinking, one boot resting beside Maya's head like she belongs to him. Maya lies unconscious on the cold stone, her skin is too pale, her lips drained of color, and her breathing is barely there.Roran smiles, but the smile never reaches his eyes as he spreads his hands wide. "Come closer," he says. "Let me see what twenty years of hiding bought me."Cael moves before I do, his shoulder slamming in front of mine, his growl vibrating through his chest and into my back. His eyes bleed fro

Cael's hand crushes mine because he sees it too. He does not breathe for three heartbeats. Then his whole body shakes because the vision is still in front of us.The picture moves because the tree is not done. We are in a small hut in the south where the fire is low and my mother is sitting on a dirt floor, both babies still held against her chest.She kisses the blue one's head, and tears run down her face before she hands him to a wolf guard she trusts because she knows she cannot keep both. She whispers, “Take him back and say he lived,” because she needs the king to believe only one son survived.She keeps the grey one because he is smaller and he is quiet. She tells herself, "I will hide this one as human," because she thinks the king will never look south. She names him Aiden after the human man who helps her because she needs a lie.The vision stops, and the tunnel goes dark again. My knees give out because my legs will not hold me. Cael catches me because his arm is around my

She whispers my name, and she does it soft like she did when we were little and she had a nightmare. She is not fighting anymore because she is tired. Her head drops forward because the vine is choking her.I remember her sleeping by the fire at home. I remember telling her no one would take her north. I remember thinking I was strong enough to stop this. My throat closes because I was so wrong.Cael howls, and the sound breaks the ice on the walls. The bond snaps tight in my ribs like a chain. I know if I let the tree take her, the bond will break because the tree promised a pure heart for a cursed one. I know if I let it take her, I will live and Cael will live and we will have our three nights. I know it is the easy way out because the tree is offering it.I do not take it.I grab Cael's bleeding hand with my bleeding hand because our blood is the same now. I press our joined palms to the trunk next to Maya because I will not trade her life for ours. I say, "Take us both," because

The lord's smile is slow and cruel, and the whole court holds its breath. Cael's arm locks harder around my waist because he refuses to choose.Cael growls, and the sound shakes the ice under my feet. He says, “I pick neither,” and his gold eyes burn because the court is pushing him to choose between me and Maya. My heart beats so fast it hurts because I know they want blood no matter what he says.My mother steps between us and the lord, and her hands are up. She says, "There is a way," and her voice cracks because she is scared. She says, "The Severing can be done now at the First Tree."The crowd sucks in air all at once because no one has tried the Severing in a hundred years, and the old wolves at the back step away from the throne because they remember the last pair that burned it. The air turns cold because everyone is holding their breath.The lord laughs, but it is a thin sound, and he waves his hand. He says, "Let the tree decide then," because he thinks we will die. Guards

My mother's voice breaks the hall, and the king's blood burns like fire in my throat.I stare at her and see my mother, and my knees give out. The King holds me up with both hands before I hit the ice.His hands are still on my cheeks, and his blood is still on my tongue. My heart beats too fast to count, and it beats with his.She steps closer, tears running down her cheeks, and her hands shake. "Aiden," she says, soft like she used to when I had nightmares.Wolves rise from their knees around us, growling low in their chests. "This is wrong," one lord shouts, with his face red. "He has mated his own blood."Another lord points a shaking finger at us. "The law demands death for both of you. Now!"The king pulls me behind his back in one fast move. His big shoulders block the whole court from me, and his body heat surrounds me.My mother touches his arm first, then mine. Her hands are cold as the ice floor. "Listen to me," she says, and her voice does not shake. "I was Luna to the old