Chapter 7

                                                                            The Pull 

Three days passed.

Nell fell into a rhythm at Haven House. Breakfast in the common room. Mornings in the garden with Silas. Afternoons wandering the hallways. Evenings at the dining table, where Rue ignored her and Caleb avoided her eyes and Finn asked her to play board games.

She always said yes to Finn.

She couldn't say no to that face.

But something was changing.

She felt it in her bones.

The mark on her palm had stopped itching. Now it just sat there  a pale crescent, faintly silver in certain light. Sometimes she forgot it was there. Sometimes she caught herself staring at it for minutes at a time.

She hadn't told anyone about it. Not Silas. Not Caleb. Not even Finn.

The mark felt private. Secret. Hers.

On the fourth morning, Nell woke before dawn.

The house was silent. No footsteps. No voices. No knocking from below.

She lay in bed, staring at the ceiling, her palm pressed against her chest. The mark was warm. Not burning  just warm. Like a second heartbeat.

She thought about Elara. The photograph tucked under her mattress. The woman with dark hair and tired eyes. The woman who had her eyes.

Who were you?

The mark pulsed.

Nell sat up.

She found Silas in the garden before breakfast.

He was carving another bird  a small one, wings folded close to its body. A sleeping bird. He looked up when she approached and set down his knife.

"I can't stop thinking about her," Nell said, sitting beside him.

Silas tilted his head.

"Elara. The woman in the photograph." Nell pulled her knees to her chest. "I feel like I know her. But I've never met her."

Silas picked up his stick and wrote in the dirt.

She lived here. Long ago.

"I know. You told me."

He nodded. Then wrote again.

She was kind. Like you.

Nell stared at the words. "Did Lena kill her?"

Silas's hands went still. He didn't write anything.

"Silas. Please."

He looked at her for a long moment. Then he brushed away the dirt and wrote one word.

Yes.

Nell's breath caught. She'd suspected it. But hearing it , reading it , made it real.

"Why?"

Silas shook his head. Wrote again.

Not now. Not here.

"Then where?"

He pointed at the forest. Then at the sky. Then wrote.

When the moon is right. I'll tell you.

That afternoon, Nell went back to the library.

She pulled every book she could find. History. Genealogy. Old wolf laws. She was looking for something  she didn't know what.

A name. A date. A reason.

She found nothing.

But she found something else.

A journal. Leather-bound, cracked with age, hidden behind a row of law books. The pages were yellow and brittle. The handwriting was small and neat.

Elara's journal.

Nell's hands shook as she opened it.

The first page read: I don't know how much longer I can stay.

She only read a few pages before she heard footsteps.

She shoved the journal under her shirt and grabbed a random book off the shelf  something about pack politics just as Rue walked in.

"What are you doing in here?" Rue asked, arms crossed.

"Reading."

"In the dark?"

Nell looked at the window. The sun had set. She'd been in here for hours.

"Lost track of time."

Rue's gold-flecked eyes narrowed. "You're always lost."

She walked out.

Nell waited a full minute before slipping the journal out from under her shirt.

She tucked it into her waistband and walked back to her room.

That night, she read.

Elara's handwriting was small and slanted, like she was always in a hurry. Like she was always afraid.

Lena watches me. She always watches.

Elias says I'm imagining things. But I'm not.

Lena wants something from me. I don't know what.

Yes, I do. I just don't want to say it out loud.

Nell's hands trembled. Elias. The name was familiar. She'd heard it before  in the whispers from the basement.

Lena wants me to bond with her. To be hers. She says it's for the pack. But it's not. It's for her.

I can't. I won't. I love Elias.

She'll never forgive me for that.

Nell closed the journal. Her heart pounded.

Elara loved someone named Elias. Lena wanted Elara for herself. Lena killed her.

And now Lena had brought Nell here.

Why?

She pressed her ear to the floorboards.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

"You came back," the voice said.

"Elias," Nell whispered.

Silence.

"Your name is Elias."

A long pause. The chains rattled.

"How do you know that name?" the voice asked. It was sharper now. Tense.

"I found a journal. Elara's journal."

More silence. Longer this time.

"She wrote about you," Nell said. "She loved you."

The voice cracked. "She shouldn't have. Loving me got her killed."

"Lena killed her."

"Yes."

"Because Lena wanted her."

"Yes."

Nell pressed her palm to the floor. The mark throbbed.

"Why did Lena bring me here?" she asked. "What does she want with me?"

The voice didn't answer.

"Elias. Please."

A long, ragged breath.

"Look in the mirror," he said. "Really look. And then ask yourself why Lena brought a girl with Elara's eyes to Haven House."

The chains rattled. Footsteps in the hallway.

"Go," he said. "She's coming."

Nell scrambled back into bed just as the door opened.

Lena stood in the doorway. No candle this time. Just her silhouette.

"You talk in your sleep every night," Lena said.

Nell's heart pounded. "Bad dreams."

"Same bad dream?"

"Yes."

Lena walked into the room. Sat on the edge of the bed. The mattress dipped.

"What do you dream about?"

Nell thought fast. "My mother."

Lena was quiet for a moment. Then she reached out and touched Nell's face. Her fingers were cold.

"What about your mother?"

"She died. I was alone."

Lena's thumb traced Nell's cheekbone. "You're not alone anymore."

"I know."

"Do you trust me, Nell?"

Nell looked into Lena's dark brown eyes. Warm. Patient. Motherly.

Don't trust her.

"I trust you," Nell said.

Lena smiled. "Good girl."

She stood up. Walked to the door. Paused.

"Get some sleep. Tomorrow is a new day."

She left.

Nell lay in the dark, her heart racing, her mark burning.

She didn't sleep.

She just stared at the ceiling and thought about Elara. And Elias. And Lena.

And the girl in the mirror who had Elara's eyes.