Chapter 3

I clutched my chest and gasped for air, too weak even to reach Nora through the mind-link, though she lived nearby.

Shaking, I felt for the half stone hidden under my clothes.

At last year's Full Moon Ceremony, Cassian and I had not yet come of age, so we could only take part from the shadows outside the Moon Temple.

But in front of the temple we found two stones that fit together into a heart.

Nora had been beside herself with excitement then. "This proves the Moon Goddess blesses you! This is her will!"

Cassian took the cord he always carried and made the two stones into two necklaces, and handed one of them to me.

"Nora's right. This is the Moon Goddess's will. Evelina, next year's Full Moon Ceremony will be the day we become mates. You'll wear my necklace, and I'll mark you."

With Nora and Theo watching and teasing, I blushed and let Cassian fasten the necklace around my neck.

"Then it's settled. Next year, when we're all old enough to enter the Moon Temple, we go in together!" Nora said.

Four hands stacked on top of each other and sealed the promise.

From that day on, I practically counted down the days on my fingers, willing time to move faster and faster so I could become Cassian's mate.

Thinking back on Cassian's tactful refusal that day, I began to wonder whether he had cast our promise aside. The stone was cold, as if it were mocking me for reading too much into it.

I thought and thought, and drifted off on the couch, until I heard the sound of the door opening in the entryway.

Cassian had come back at some point, a box in his hand.

"You barely ate anything today, so I brought you something."

He sat down beside me as if nothing had happened and slipped an arm around my waist, but I eased out of his hold without making a show of it.

Cassian's hand stalled. Then he reached over and felt my forehead.

"Why are you sleeping on the couch? Are you feeling sick? Or are you still angry that I gave Lilith the potion? She barely slept for days so the whole pack would be properly supplied. I was afraid she'd collapse, and then we'd have to trouble the healer again."

I pressed my lips together, listened to his perfectly reasonable explanation, and nodded calmly. "I know. You're the Alpha's heir. Of course you look after the weak ones in the pack."

My answer visibly lifted his mood. He reached out and opened the box in his hand.

"Here, eat something. Lilith says this bakery has the best bread. She told me to recommend it to you too. She said something sweet puts you in a better mood."

Cassian broke off a piece of bread and held it out to me, his eyes full of expectation.

I looked at that piece of bread and my stomach turned over.

"She really has it hard," Cassian sighed to himself.

"She's so weak she can't even lift a wooden crate, yet she still pushes herself to work. Evelina, teach her a few things when you have time. She's always looked up to you..."

Listening to him work Lilith into everything he said, the wrongness in my body grew worse. My whole body burned like fire, and I began to shake violently.

Thud.

I did not catch the bread he was holding out to me.

The food Lilith had recommended so highly landed on the carpet in a sorry heap, rolled twice, and picked up dust.