The Heroine Is Not Who She Thought

The hall did not break into noise until Gideon left.

He went out through a side door with Silas, shoulders stiff, jaw tight. Before the door closed, he looked back at me once. It was a short look, but it said very clearly, do not run.

Then the whole pack started whispering at once.

I stood on the red carpet in my wet boots and gray cloak, with hundreds of eyes burning holes in my skin, and tried to remember how to breathe.

"Come with me," Tessa said softly. "I will show you somewhere to rest."

"I already have a room."

"Not a good one." She slipped her arm through mine like we were old friends. "Smile a little. They are watching."

I smiled. It felt like a crack running across glass.

She led me out through a side door and down a long corridor lined with narrow windows. Ahead, a woman in a pale green dress leaned against the wall with her arms crossed. I recognized her from the hall, the one who had smiled behind her hand. She had golden hair, red lips, and a beauty that looked sharpened on purpose.

She did not move out of our way.

"Tessa," she said sweetly. "How kind of you to look after our guest."

"Camille." Tessa's voice stayed gentle, but her arm tightened on mine. "I did not know you were waiting."

"I was only curious." Camille's gaze slid over me, from my wet hair to my boots. "She looks smaller than I remember. I thought the great Amelia Hartwell would have more to say."

The real Amelia would have had a wicked reply ready. I could almost feel it sitting in her mouth.

I swallowed it down.

"I am tired," I said quietly, and kept walking.

Camille's stare crawled up my neck like a spider.

"Camille Winslow," Tessa murmured when we turned the corner. "She has wanted to be Luna of this pack since she was sixteen. She hates anyone Gideon looks at for longer than a second."

"He looked at me for a long time."

"Yes," Tessa said. "He did."

We climbed a spiral staircase to a narrow oak door at the end of a quiet hall. Tessa pulled me inside and turned the lock.

It was a small room with a stone window seat, a low bed, and a table covered in dried herbs. It smelled of lavender and old books.

Tessa leaned her back against the door, and her whole body changed. The shy, gentle girl from the hall vanished. Her shoulders straightened. Her eyes sharpened.

"Sit down, Amelia," she said. "Before you fall down."

I sat. My knees were shaking more than I wanted to admit.

She poured water into a cup and pressed it into my hands. I drank. She watched me the whole time.

"You are different," she said.

The water went down the wrong way. I coughed until my eyes stung.

"Excuse me?"

"I knew Amelia Hartwell for three years before she left. She would never flinch at Gideon's touch. She would never walk into that hall with her head down. Her eyes are the same color. Her voice is the same. But the way you stand, the way you breathe..." She tilted her head. "You are not her."

My heart slammed against my ribs.

Nobody could know. If this castle found out the villain's body held a stranger, I did not know what they would do. Lock me in a cell. Burn me as a witch. Hand me to whoever had tried to drown her. All I had to do was hold on until I could reach that lake and go home. Until then, I was Amelia Hartwell.

I shot to my feet, and the cup shattered on the stone.

"My name is Amelia Hartwell!"

My voice cracked off the walls, louder and sharper than I meant it to be. The real Amelia's temper, maybe, still hiding in this body.

Tessa did not flinch. She looked at the broken cup, and the corner of her mouth moved in a sad, tired almost-smile.

"There she is," she said softly.

"Whatever game you are playing, I am not interested."

"Then listen to this instead." Tessa's voice hardened. "Stay away from Gideon."

I stared at her.

"Every time he touches you, every time you stand near him, it gets worse. You do not understand what you are doing to him."

"What I am doing?" I laughed, short and disbelieving. "I did not ask him to drag me into that hall. If you want him to stay away from me, go and tell him. Do not lock me in a room and bark at me like a dog."

Her eyes flashed. "Do not talk to me like that."

"Then do not talk to me like I stole something from you." I lifted my chin. "Do women still fight over men in this day and age? You have the Alpha. You have the whole pack on your side. Go to him. Tell him what you want. I do not want him."

"You do not understand."

"Then explain it."

"I cannot."

"Then we have nothing more to say."

For a moment, the room went very quiet.

Tessa's gentle face was gone. In its place stood a woman holding back something enormous, and for the first time, I saw her hands shake.

"You think this is about jealousy," she said, very low. "You think I am afraid of losing him to you."

"Aren't you?"

Her eyes began to glow.

It started as a thin thread of silver around her brown irises, then spread until her whole gaze shone like moonlight on cold water. I knew that light. It was the same silver I had seen drifting through the dark when I fell, shaped like a wolf's eye.

"Gideon is dying," she said.

My blood froze.

"He has been getting weaker since the night you left. And every time he gets close to you, it gets worse."

"Then tell him to stay away from me," I whispered. "I will do it too."

"Amelia..."

"No." She stepped back and unlocked the door with a sharp click. Her voice dropped, shaking with anger and something that looked terribly like grief. "You can pretend you do not know what I mean. You can pretend you are whoever you like. But you will learn the truth soon enough."

She yanked the door open.

"We shall see."

The door slammed behind her so hard that dust fell from the ceiling.

I stood alone in the silent room, among the pieces of the broken cup.

Somewhere deep behind my ribs, the thread gave one slow pull, like a heartbeat that was not quite steady.