Chapter Eight: The Woman At The Gate

Adrian was already moving before the guard finished speaking.

'Show me,' he shouted and took the radio from Marcus.

"Sir, the camera feed is up now," Marcus said.

A tiny screen sparked to life on Marcus’s tablet. Mira elbowed herself close enough to see it too, ignoring Adrian’s look.

There was a woman who stood at the rain-soaked iron gates, under the security lights. Her hair colour was dark, she wore a torn dress and hands tied in front of her. She was saying something the camera audio couldn't capture.

"Be audible," Adrian barked.

Then the static sound cleared, and her voice was heard, sounding desperate.

"Adrian! Adrian, please, it's me."

Adrian's whole body went still.

"It can't be," he said softly.

"Who is she?" Mira asked.

On hearing that voice, Helena had gone pale. "Sir. That sounds like—"

…And it sounded like... "I know who you think it sounds like," Adrian interrupted, and the tone made Mira raise an eyebrow. "It cannot be her. She died three years ago."

"Who?" Mira called again, this time forcefully.

Adrian did not answer. By this time, he had already been on his way to the door.

"Adrian, wait." Mira grabbed his sleeve. "You don't just go out there; that is exactly what Corin wants."

"I am aware of that."

"Then where are you going?"

They both had eye contact, and he said, "If there is any possibility that it is her, I need to know."

"Who is her?" Mira asked, standing in front of the door.

Marcus answered instead, voice low. "Lena Draven. Corin's sister. She and Adrian—"

"That's enough, Marcus," Adrian said sharply.

"She and Adrian, what?" Mira insisted.

He glanced up at Adrian, who replied, 'nothing'. After some silence, Marcus said: "So they were together before the war got bad, before her alleged 'death' during a raid went wrong.

Mira's stomach twisted. "Your ex?" She asked.

"She was what she was," Adrian said. "The important thing is that she's standing outside my gate right now, and I need to know if this is genuine or bait."

Mira said, "Well, it is obviously a trap." You said it yourself; Corin does not want a deal. "He wants blood. That's how you get blood, Adrian; you lure your prey in with something they can't resist.

"I know that." His voice cracked slightly. I know what this looks like, but I buried an empty coffin three years ago, Mira. If she has been alive all this time, even to the smallest degree, it is not something I can let go of.

"Then send someone else. Send Marcus."

"She will not go with Marcus." She will take off, or she will shout loudly, and I will have to kill her before even my men. Adrian shook his head. "It has to be me."

"Or either both of us or none," said Mira.

He turned to her and stared at her with disbelief painted all over his face. "Absolutely not, Mira."

You said the bond makes you ever stronger once it is being formed, that you will become someone Corin cannot defeat. Mira lifted her chin. "Then let me help you now because some part of you still loves the woman standing at that gate, and I'm not letting you walk into a trap.

The words hung in the air, sharp and pronounced. The look on Adrian's face was between anger and pain.

“However, this is true, and we do not have time for pretending."

Silence lingered between them, but there was a crackle of Marcus's walkie-talkie that was still open on his belt.

The guard's voice was heard again: "Sir," growing desperate now. She still calls your name. She says she has information. She says Corin does not know that she managed to escape.

Adrian closed his eyes briefly. When he opened them, something had come to a resolution.

"Fine," he said. "We will go together. Marcus, bring six men, spread out, eyes on every angle. If this is a trap, I want to see it before it lands.”

"Copy that."

Adrian turned his head toward Mira and said. "Mira, you stay behind me, whatever she says, whatever happens, just stay behind me."

"I can do that."

They rushed through the house, past the ruined eastern study, into the gardens where the night air still carried a whiff of smoke. Finally, the gates of heaven came within view; the woman was still there, standing upright, her hair billowing over her shoulders.

Approaching her, Mira could see her clearly now with pale, skinny, red-lined eyes from crying, but still breathing.

'Oh God, Adrian,' the woman slowly exhaled, her voice tearing up upon seeing him. "You are here."

"Lena." Adrian's voice was rough, unreadable. "How are you alive?"

"They held on to me," she said, and by now the tears were flowing freely. "Corin hid me away for three years and told everyone I was dead so he could use me the moment I'm most needed." Her gaze sharpened, even through tears, to Mira. "And now, apparently, it matters."

"What do you mean?" Adrian asked.

"He does not plan to wait for a week as he warned," Lena says with her voice trembling. "Tomorrow night during the new moon at the weakest point of your pack, he is going to attack. He had me sent over to distract you and keep you from seeing what was coming in."

Adrian's face went hard. Are you willingly telling me this? "After three years of working for him?

"Remember this,” Lena said. He was never going to let me live beyond tomorrow either. Adrian, I do not love him. I never wanted any of this."

Mira studied the expression on Adrian's face, uncertain whether to be distrustful or remind himself of an older wound.

"Why should I believe you?" Adrian asked quietly.

Fresh tears filled Lena's eyes. “Because I used to love you, and some part of that was real, no matter how much of this war is a lie," she said. She glanced at him once again, but this time straight at Mira. "At this point, I know what she means to you, and more than you have ever confessed to me."

Before Adrian could respond, a sharp crack split the night air, a gunshot too close that it was immediately followed by Marcus's voice screaming across the garden.

"Sniper! Get down, everyone get down, now!"