Chapter 19

Elora’s POV

The maid’s hands wouldn’t stop shaking. I could hear her breathing, sharp, quick, like she figured a ghost or some other awful thing might pop out and snatch her. My chest thudded, and every step felt stupidly loud. Dante stalked behind us, wolfish, way too quiet, the kind of guy you don’t want mad at you.

We ended up in this alcove I had never even noticed, cut off the light, and everything. The maid stopped and spun around. God, she looked like she’d seen a nightmare. Watery eyes, clutching her apron like it was all that kept her together.

“My lady,” she hissed, wringing her hands so hard the fabric damn near snapped, “I shouldn’t say a word. If she finds out, if anyone finds out, they would kill me. For real.”

I tried to sound chill, but my insides basically knotted up. “Nobody’s touching you. Out with it, what do you know?”

She gulped like she had swallowed something with thorns. “Lady Mira… she did it herself. She drank the poison.”

It felt like she had reached out and backhanded me. “Come again?”

The girl started nodding so fast I thought her head might go flying. Hazards of honesty, apparently. “I saw her. She put it in her tea. Though nobody noticed, I swear, I did. She poisoned herself.”

Just, my stomach dropped, you know? All the rumors and late-night sobbing and that weird hollow look in Mira’s eyes… it wasn’t some curse or an enemy, it was her.

Then Dante sort of growled, cutting through my shock. “Why would she do that? Are you sure?”

The maid looked like she was about to cry or faint or maybe both. “Don’t know. I’m just saying what I saw. Please, please… don’t say it was me.”

Before I could even promise anything, Dante got all ominous, a shadow looming out of the gloom. “Go. And don’t breathe a word to anyone. If you do, you’ll have more to worry about than Mira.”

I didn’t have to tell her twice, she bolted, and went faster than sense.

I just… froze. Mira had done this to herself. For what? What game was she playing? Why slice herself open with poison?

Dante fixed me with that stare of his. “We tell Dominic. Right now.”

His voice yanked me out of it, sort of. “No.”

He looked pissed. “Elora...”

“No! If we spill this now, he’ll fall apart. He’ll think it’s all his fault, or worse, he’ll never forgive her and he’ll tear himself to shreds. You know he won’t believe it wasn’t an attack.”

“Blindness won’t help,” Dante bit out. “He’s the Alpha. He needs to know his own mate is turning herself into a martyr for attention. If she dies in his house, the pack rips itself apart. You want that on your hands?”

It felt like he had thrown cold water on me. He wasn’t wrong, but it wasn’t that easy.

I pressed a shaky palm to my chest, as if I could flatten out the fear. “I need more. I need to figure out why. Telling him now, it’ll just rip bigger holes open.”

Dante just glared, jaw flexing. “Fine. But if she tries again, and you’re too slow, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

Honestly, the thought of Mira cold in her bed… I almost caved. But I couldn’t. Not yet. “Please, Dante. Just a little longer.”

Back in Mira’s empty chambers, where she stays when she comes visiting, because the girl barely sets foot in there now, I ransacked drawers and trunks, desperate for anything real. Dante lurked at the door, way too intimidating for anyone considering a walk past.

Mostly, it was all gowns and fancy perfumes and that kind of useless nonsense, until I dug under her old velvet robe and, jackpot a little glass vial, with weird streaks inside that made my skin crawl.

I held it up. My hands were shaking, but I tried to hide it. “Found it.”

Dante leaned in, sniffed. His face went stony. “Nightshade.”

Damn. Nothing casual about nightshade, stomach cramps, weakness, slow death… and all on purpose?

She had dosed herself, and for what? To clutch at Dominic’s attention? To make us all spin around her pain?

I gripped that vial so hard my fingers hurt. I wanted to storm off, slam it down in front of Dominic, make him face it. But I pictured his face, the way he melted every time Mira played Wounded Bird, and I just… couldn’t. Not yet. Not like this.

If I ripped that mask off right now, I couldn’t tell you if it would save him or just break him into pieces.

Later on, parked at the edge of the stupidly lavish guest bed they had stashed me in, I fiddled with the vial in my palm. Candle shadows flickered around the room, all dramatic and moody. Dante lounged in the doorway, arms folded, giving me this look, like he couldn’t decide if he wanted to throw something or sit on his hands.

“You're stalling,” he said. No sugarcoating. Just flat.

I curled my fist around the vial. “I’m protecting him.”

He snorted. “By hiding everything?”

“By trying to figure it out first!” I couldn’t help it, my voice shot up. “If I run to him waving poison and screaming betrayal, he’ll just think I’m the psycho wife spinning stories about his precious mate. You know he will. He’ll shut me out, for good this time. Don’t you get it? If there’s any shot at Dominic believing me, I need to know what the hell Mira’s playing at.”

Dante shoved off the wall, coming close enough that I could basically taste his annoyance. “And if the reason doesn’t matter? If all that counts is stopping her before she pulls more crap?”

His presence rattled me, breath snagged in my chest. Still, I met his stare. “Then I’ll stop her, simple as that. But not if it means turning Dominic into collateral damage.”

We just stood there, nearly vibrating with silence. I braced for another argument. Instead, he exhaled hard, his anger dulled but not gone.

“You are seriously stubborn,” he muttered.

“Yeah, old news, Dante.”

Almost...almost...a smile. It ghosted across his face and disappeared like it never happened. He left me there, the vial heating up against my skin, my brain spinning itself wild.

Sleep? Please. Not happening.

I stared at the ceiling until sunrise, haunted by Mira's ghost-white face, by the way Dominic just idolized her, blind as a bat. The rest of the pack? They barely tolerated me. Luna is on paper, but invisible everywhere else. All while Mira soaked up every ounce of pity and delicate gossip.

But hey, the joke’s on her now. I know her secret.

I’ll get to the bottom of it.