The Price of a Soul

Chapter 13: The Price of a Soul

The interior of Selene’s cottage felt larger than the outside suggested, the walls lined with jars of shimmering starlight and dried herbs that smelled of ancient winters. In the center of the room was a circular basin carved from a single block of obsidian, filled with water so still it looked like a mirror.

"The Blood-Link is a parasite," Selene said, her voice echoing with a weight that made the air vibrate. "It feeds on the shared essence between parent and child. To kill the parasite, we must make the host—Audrey—momentarily invisible to the world of spirits. We must create a void where her identity used to be."

Lucas stood by the door, his hands clenched into white-knuckled fists. "And the void consumes the memories of us."

"It consumes everything that has happened since her power woke," Selene confirmed. She began to draw runes in the air with a finger made of light. "The mind is a map of connections. If I cut the connection to her father, I must cut the connection to the catalyst that woke her—you."

Audrey walked toward the obsidian basin, her eyes never leaving Lucas. "I’d rather die," she whispered. "I’d rather burn out as the White Wolf in your arms than go back to being the girl who didn't know you existed."

"Audrey..." Lucas’s voice broke. He crossed the room in two strides, taking her face in his hands. His thumbs brushed the black veins on her neck, which were now pulsing with a sickly, rhythmic dark light. "Look at me. Look at what they’re doing to you. You’re dying, and every minute we waste arguing, your father gets closer to pulling your soul out through your throat."

"But I won't know you!" she cried, a tear escaping and tracing a path through the dust on her cheek. "I’ll look at you and see a stranger. I’ll be back in that kitchen in my head, Lucas. I’ll be a ghost again."

"No," Lucas growled, his forehead dropping against hers. "You won't be a ghost. Because I will be there. I will find you again. I will court you again. I will fight for you until you remember, or until I make you fall in love with me a second time. I am a King, Audrey. I don't lose what is mine."

Selene gestured to the basin. "The moon is reaching its zenith. We must begin, or the rot will become permanent."

The ritual began with a low chant that seemed to come from the earth itself. Selene took a silver dagger and made a small incision on Audrey’s palm, then did the same to Lucas. She pressed their bleeding palms together over the water.

"Blood of the sun, meet the blood of the moon," Selene intoned. "By the bond of the White Wolf, let the shadows be drawn forth."

As their blood hit the water, the basin erupted in a violent, swirling vortex of black and gold. Audrey screamed. The black veins on her neck began to writhe like living snakes, pulled toward the water by an invisible force.

The pain was unlike anything she had ever felt. It wasn't just physical; it felt as if her history was being rewritten. She saw flashes of her life: the cold floors, the beatings, the moment she saw Lucas’s blind eyes for the first time, the heat of their first kiss in the snow.

Click. The memory of the kiss turned gray and crumbled into dust.

"No!" Audrey gasped, clutching Lucas’s hand tighter. "I can feel it... I can feel you slipping away!"

"Hold on to me!" Lucas roared, his silver aura flaring to its limit, trying to anchor her. "Audrey, remember the mountain! Remember the light!"

"I’m trying... I'm..." Her voice trailed off. Her eyes, once filled with the recognition of a soulmate, began to glaze over.

Selene’s chanting grew louder, more frantic. The black ink was being sucked out of Audrey’s skin, leaving her pale and trembling. The "Blood-Link" shattered with a sound like breaking glass, a psychic shockwave that knocked the jars off the shelves and extinguished the fire in the hearth.

Audrey collapsed. Lucas caught her, his heart hammering against his ribs. The black veins were gone. Her skin was pure, glowing with a soft, healthy white light. She was saved.

But when her eyes fluttered open, they weren't the eyes of a Queen. They were the wide, terrified eyes of a servant girl.

She looked at Lucas—the man who had risked his kingdom and his sight for her—and she flinched. She scrambled backward on the floor, her breath coming in ragged gasps.

"Who... who are you?" she whispered, her voice trembling. She looked down at her fine leather armor as if it were a foreign object. "Why am I wearing this? Where is my stepmother? I... I have to get back to the kitchens. If I'm late with the bread, Samantha will..."

Lucas reached out a hand, his face a mask of absolute agony. "Audrey, it's me. It’s Lucas."

She shook her head, pulling her knees to her chest. "I don't know a Lucas. Please... did you kidnap me? Did my father sell me to you?"

The silence in the cottage was suffocating. Selene stepped forward, her face filled with pity. "The link is broken, Alpha. She is free of her father’s curse. But the price has been paid."

Lucas stood up, his height casting a long shadow over the girl who no longer knew him. He looked at his hands, still stained with her blood. Outside, the wind howled through the Forbidden Grove, and for the first time since he had met Audrey, the King of the Silver Pack felt truly alone.

"We have to get her back to the fortress," Lucas said, his voice cold and hard as granite. "The Trial of Purity is still coming. And now... she doesn't even know she has the power to pass it."