Chapter 4

When I got back, I placed the signed bond-severance papers, the healer’s scan of the pup, and the witch’s vial on the bedside table.

Then I left without looking back and checked into an inn to wait for Tessa’s people.

But the night before I was meant to go, Cassian still found me.

He caught the door before I could shut it. He looked tired, strained, and more worn down than I had ever seen him.

“Lyra, come home.”

I said nothing.

He held the door and lowered his voice. “What happened that night wasn’t what you think. I wasn’t trying to hurt you.”

Still I said nothing, so he went on.

“Selene has a fragile condition. She can’t take shocks. I stopped you because I was afraid things would get worse.”

He looked at me for a moment, then added, more quietly, “I know I handled it badly. But once she settles in and her work is arranged, I won’t keep going to her.”

His voice roughened.

“Lyra, don’t do this to me. I haven’t slept in days.”

My heart still tightened.

It shouldn’t have, but it did.

He was the one I had loved through all my younger years. After my parents died, my grandfather entrusted me to him. He had watched over me while I grew up, remembered every important day, and stood in front of me when others laughed. Loving him had once been the easiest thing I knew.

So even now, even after everything, some part of me still hurt when he spoke like that.

I asked quietly, “Cassian, have you gone home these past few days?”

His gaze shifted for the briefest moment.

“Of course I have. Where else would I sleep?”

I tightened my hold on my phone and smiled faintly.

“Nowhere. I was only asking.”

Relief loosened his shoulders at once.

“Then come eat with me,” he said. “The place you like. We’ll talk properly.”

I didn’t refuse.

I told myself it was a farewell.

He talked the whole way there. Usually that was my role.

My phone kept lighting up in my lap.

More messages.

I opened them anyway.

He’s been with me every night these last few days.

He made me soup himself tonight. Said I never remember to eat when I’m upset.

He even fixed the lamp by my bed. He still remembers everything I like.

Then came the photo.

Cassian standing in Selene’s kitchen in a rolled-up shirt, sleeves wet at the cuffs, one hand holding a bowl, the other reaching to steady her while she smiled at him from too close.

No nudity. No bed.

Something worse.

Something warm. Familiar. Intimate.

I turned the phone over and pressed a hand to my mouth.

Cassian glanced at me at once. “Are you unwell?”

His hand lifted, then stopped halfway.

“Who keeps sending you things? Stop looking if it’s making you sick.”

For one moment, I wanted to put the screen in front of him and ask him what lie he had prepared for this.

Then the feeling passed.

Once love is dead, even anger feels like wasted strength.

At the entrance, his phone rang.

Selene’s voice came through bright with panic, loud enough for me to hear.

“Cassian, the water line burst again. Can you come look at it?”

He looked at me at once.

For a second, he hesitated.

Then I smiled.

“It’s fine. Go.”

Something unreadable crossed his face, something like confusion, maybe unease. Then relief took its place.

“I’ll be back soon,” he said softly.

I watched him leave.

Then I answered the call waiting on my own screen.

“All right,” I said. “Ten minutes.”

By the time I reached the mountain road, Tessa and the witch were already there.

The night wind cut through my coat. the burned frame of the car stood off the road where they had dragged it earlier, blackened and broken.

The witch held out the vial.

“Once you drink this, the mate bond will tear before it breaks. It won’t be clean.”

“I know.”

She looked at my stomach. “The pup is protected?”

I nodded.

Then I drank.

Pain hit almost at once.

It started in my chest, then spread through every nerve like something alive was being ripped out strand by strand. I bent double and nearly fell, one hand clutching at my throat, the other wrapped over my stomach.

It felt nothing like losing love.

It felt like being torn open from the inside.

Tessa caught me before I hit the ground. “Lyra.”

I couldn’t answer. My whole body was shaking.

Somewhere far away, I knew Cassian would have felt it too. Not the truth. Only the break. Only the sharp, false shock of a bond snapping into death.

At that same moment, miles away, Cassian stopped cold in Selene’s doorway.

His face drained.

One hand flew to his chest.

For a single brutal second, the mate bond turned into a blade and drove straight through him.

Then it was gone.

His pulse went wild. His breathing broke.

The phone in his hand nearly slipped.

Then it rang.

Unknown number.

He answered at once.

“Is this Cassian?”

His voice came out harsh. “Yes.”

Then the voice said, flat and formal, “Your mate, Lyra, was involved in a wreck an hour ago on the mountain road beyond the lower market.”

“The transport burned after impact. By the time the pack guards arrived, nothing could be recovered whole.”