CHAPTER 3: Flames in the Shadows

POV: Luna

The floor breaks open. I think, very clearly: Oh. Okay. This is it then.

Gold light. The frost on the walls starts dripping. I grab the back of Aiden's tunic so hard my fingers hurt, and I'm not proud of it, but there's nowhere to run, and running is the only thing I'm good at, and even that's not working anymore.

A hand punches through solid rock. Clawed. Knuckles black with something that smells like burnt hair and hot iron. A voice comes up through the hole, wrecked and raw and shaking with something I don't have a name for.

"I felt her. And I will NOT be locked out of what's mine."

The word mine hits me in the chest. My seal does that thing again. That pulse. I press my palm flat over it. Stop. Please. Just stop.

He pulls himself up. Shoulders first. Then his head. Black hair stuck to his face with sweat and dust and what might be blood. He looks like Aiden. Same bones. Same jaw. But where Aiden is cold and quiet and holding everything in, this one is... leaking. Every feeling he's got is right there on the surface, burning. He looks at me and I feel it like I've been caught doing something wrong. I don't know what.

I am not a thing to be claimed. I've spent my whole life making sure of that.

Aiden's blade is already up. "You sealed that passage for a reason, Jace."

Jace straightens. He's swaying. His left arm isn't right. I can see the hollows under his cheekbones. "Because she howled for me too." His voice scrapes. "You can't freeze what the Goddess set burning."

"I didn't howl." My voice comes out small but both of them stop and look at me. "I don't know how to howl. I've never had a wolf."

No one says anything. It's worse than yelling.

Pounding at the outer door. Elders. Someone says surrender. Someone says Seventh Compact. Aiden's face does something complicated. I watch him choose between me and his duty and I already know which one wins. It's always duty. I've been on the wrong side of that equation my whole life.

He grips my shoulders. His hands are freezing. "Do not let him touch you."

"Aiden…"

Then to Jace: "One mark. I'll peel the wolf from your bones."

Jace laughs. It's not a funny laugh. "Go play Alpha. I'll keep her warm."

The door closes. Frost seals it. And I'm alone with him.

He drops to the floor. Slumps against the wall. Presses his palms flat to the stone like he's trying to cool them down. He's shaking. I've seen that shake before. In the warrens. After someone runs too far with too many people behind them.

"You're staring," he says. Not looking at me.

"You're bleeding."

"I asked about you."

"And I answered about you. We're both bleeding. That makes us even." I swallow. "Now tell me what you want before he comes back and kills us both."

He pushes himself up. Circles me. Not fast. Not like a predator. Like a dog that's been kicked so many times it bites first and figures out the rest later.

"Three years." His voice is rough. "Three years in Jathorne. Rats. Mud. Rogues. Cold." He stops. "Then I smell you. In my brother's bedroom. Smelling like moonlight and old blood and…" He shakes his head. "What did you do to me."

"Nothing." My voice comes out flat. "I didn't do anything. I've been running my whole life. I didn't ask for him either. I didn't ask for any of it."

"Then why does it feel like you did."

I should back down. I should make myself small. That's the move. That's always been the move. But my chest is burning and I'm so tired. I'm so tired of being scared.

"Maybe you've been alone too long. Maybe anybody would've messed with your head." I meet his eyes. "I don't know. I know what lonely feels like, that's all. Felt it since I was a kid."

He stops. Something shifts behind his eyes. Then he stumbles. His bad shoulder. He catches himself on the bedframe and hisses, and I move without thinking. My hand closes around his wrist.

Everything hits at once.

Light. Gold and black up my arm. The frost on the walls cracks and falls. The bedframe groans. I feel him pour into me; cold nights, scraps of food, screaming at the border with no one answering. And he feels me. I know he does because his eyes go wide. The gutters I slept in. The hands that hit me. All those nights with my face in the dirt saying please, please let me be somebody.

It's not soft. It's not sweet. It's a door opening that's been nailed shut for years.

"You feel that." His voice is rough. He's holding on. "Tell me you feel that."

"I feel you." My eyes are wet. I don't know when that happened. "All of it. The cold. The… I can't…"

"I can't stop." He stares at our hands. "Three years of nothing and now you…" He stops. Let go. Steps back. "Don't. Don't touch me again. Not until I know what you are."

"I don't know what I am." I'm holding my wrist. "That's the truth. I've never known."

He drops to the floor. Breathes. Then he talks. Fast. Like he's running out of time.

"Raven bought the garrison. Half the blade-sworn. I saw her put gold in Knox's hand three nights ago. When the moon crests, they breach."

"The eclipse."

"Thins every seal in Aidion. Every ward. Every lock." He points at my chest. "Whatever's inside you… it opens. Or it kills you trying."

One night. I have one night. My legs give out. I sit down on the cold stone.

"We have one night," he says. His voice isn't angry anymore. Just tired.

The door slams open. Frost splinters. Aiden's eyes find us, find how close we're sitting, find our scents tangled up together. His face goes blank. Worse than anger. Blank means he's already decided.

"Step away from her."

Jace doesn't move. "Make me."

"Jace."

"No." He pushes up. "You exiled me. You let them drag me through the gates. You don't get to say my name like I'm still yours."

Aiden's voice cracks. Just barely. "I protected you. If I'd fought them, they would've killed you. Exile was the price."

"Then you should've let them." Jace's voice breaks. "Three years. Breathing without you wasn't living. It was just…" He stops. Can't finish.

Aiden lunges. Frost from his hands; cold, fast, jagged. Jace meets it with heat. Black fire. The collision hits like a wall. The bedframe shatters. Furs catch. I throw myself flat. Something heavy hits the floor next to my head. I don't look to see what it is.

They lock forearms. Snarling. The room goes hot, then cold, then hot again. Blood from their knuckles hits the stone and sizzles. They're going to kill each other. Over me. Over three years. Over words nobody said when they should've.

I get up. Walk right into the space between them. Put my hands flat on both their chests. Cold stone. Hot forge.

My chest flares. White. Blinding. It shoves them back three paces. The frost dies. The fire dies. Everything goes quiet.

I'm shaking. My chest hurts. I don't step back.

"You want to kill each other? Fine. Outside. But you don't burn this room down over me. I'm not a bone. I'm not territory. I'm not your excuse."

Silence. Both of them staring. Bleeding.

"Now. You gonna protect me from Raven? Or am I walking out alone?."

Aiden straightens. Wipes blood off his mouth. Looks at Jace. Jace looks back. They nod. Not forgiveness. Something smaller. But enough.

Later. I don't know why I do it. He's still shaking. Nobody's touched him gently in three years and I can see it. I tear a strip from the ruined bedding. Kneel. Take his hands. Wrap them. He flinches. I keep going.

"They took everything," he says. Quiet. "Title. Lands. Name. I was just... feral. Unclaimed."

"You're not unclaimed now."

"Don't. Not yet. You don't know what I am. What I've done."

"I've eaten from gutters, Jace. Slept in ditches. Fought dogs for bread. I know what it costs. I'm not afraid."

He closes his eyes. His hand turns a little. His fingers rest against my wrist. Warm.

Aiden watches from across the room. Says nothing.

Ninety seconds. Then my head snaps toward the balcony doors. The frost on the glass is melting. Not from heat. From something pressing against the ward. Testing it.

A shadow outside. Long. Too fluid for a wolf. Too sleek for a bear. It tilts its head. Watching us.

Then a voice. Smooth. Almost amused.

"How touching. The twins play house while the knives are in the hallway." A pause. "You might want to open up. Next visitors are less polite."

"Who are you," Aiden says.

"Friend. Or assassin. Depends if you let me in before the Council's second wave." A beat. "Your wards have a gap, by the way. Third pillar, south side. Someone's been using it. Two nights now. Might want to ask Raven about that."

The shadow dissolves. Gone. On the glass, a mark where its hand pressed. Four tines. A mountain lion's claw.

"Kaelene," Jace whispers.

My seal screams.