Chapter 22: Saved at last

The hall fell still the moment they heard heels clicking down the stairs.

My steps moved slow, deliberate.

When I reached the last stair, dizziness hit me out of nowhere ... my vision spun, and my mom caught my arm, steadying me.

I looked down at my palms, my wrists.

Purple lines had bloomed beneath the skin.

My heart pounded.

"Poison," I whispered under my breath.

I didn't have time to look into their faces to see their reaction over my dress.

what is this?

How? I hadn't taken anything since morning.

Could it be the bath? No ... no way.

Eva, my most trusted maid, would never betray me.

Sweat beaded on my forehead.

"Are you okay?" my mom asked.

"I'll be fine, Mom. Don't worry," I answered.

My whole body was weakening, and my wolf wasn't responding at all.

Whatever this was, they'd doubled the dose. Pure dark magic ... forbidden in the Moonclips pack.

Anyone caught using it faced the death penalty.

My pulse ached. I managed to sit, tense, watching everything I'd planned for begin to die in front of me.

Moon Goddess, is this how my second chance ends? I prayed silently.

"Dear sister, come. Don't just sit there ... today's your special day," my sister said, flashing that perfect, mocking smile, as if she knew absolutely nothing about what was happening to me.

I looked straight into her eyes and gave her back a smile just as empty.

"You don't get to tell me what to do," I said, forcing a sip of wine down my throat.

Asher approached, took my hand like it had suddenly become something precious to him, and walked me to the center of the hall.

What are you planning, I thought. How is there still more to this?

"My precious soon-to-be wife," he announced, and the crowd cheered.

Fear kneaded through my pulse like dough.

"Oh my God ... look at her neck! Black magic!" someone shouted from the crowd.

Asher let go of my hand instantly, like I was trash.

Tears welled in my eyes, and I dropped to my knees.

My eyes went wide ... black lines were spreading across my hands.

My mother rushed toward me.

"Ophelia ... what's wrong, my child?" she said. Then she straightened, fury rising off her like heat.

"Who dares do this to my child?" she roared, half-shifting, eyes flashing gold, power rolling across the hall in waves strong enough to force the entire room to bow.

Then a chain hooked around her neck.

It was the king. He chained her ... just like he had in my past life.

My heart broke as tears streamed down my face. I was too weak to fight, too weak to shake off whatever was killing me.

"Hmm. So this whole time, you've been using black magic," Asher mocked. "And here I thought you were just desperate for the Luna position."

I looked at the man whose curse I had tamed and wished, more than anything, that I'd rejected him the second I was reborn.

"How dare you bring witchcraft into my house," my father snarled.

Of course.

How could the man I've been calling father judge me like this? He never really cared, I thought.

He is never on my side.

"I suspected it before, but I was too afraid to speak ... afraid of Miriam," my stepmother added.

"Poor sister. Is this really how you end?" Lilian said.

"Look at you ... dying in all that beauty, wrapped in the most expensive gown this pack has ever seen. Such a waste on someone who won't live to wear it past tonight." she added

I clenched my teeth at the sight of her.

"No, no, no, no ... don't make your death complicated. Just die slowly."

I coughed up blood, thick and black.

This was the same ashiak flower they'd used before ... but this time, they'd cursed it further.

A single drop of that flower, mixed with alpha blood, could have healed me instantly.

To get ashiak flower now is a whole journey there's no way I'll survive this.

"She will be burned alive," the king announced.

I accepted it.

Maybe the Moon Goddess had been wrong ... maybe I didn't deserve a second chance at living after all.

"No one will be burned, Cain," a voice echoed from the entrance. The crowd gasped.

"Magnus. What are you doing here?" the king demanded, eyes blazing.

Around him, people shielded their faces behind raised elbows.

Asher groaned from where he stood, Lilian's head buried against his chest.

"I'm here for my dear nephew's wedding," Magnus said.

That voice.

The same voice from my dreams.

Is it him?

No.

It can't be.

I tried to move and could only manage to twitch a finger.

"I didn't invite you. Leave," Asher snarled.

"You don't need to invite your uncle. It's my duty to be here."

The crowd murmured.

"Don't look into his eyes ... he'll afflict you," someone warned.

"Don't even dare to think. He'll hear every thought," another whispered.

"I see exactly what's happening here. Dickson," Magnus said, tilting his head, and I heard the sound of chains breaking.

My mother rushed toward me, sobbing.

He walked closer, and my senses flared ... I recognized that scent instantly.

The same scent from my dream.

He smelled heavenly.

My fingers trembled.

My Ophelia, I heard in my mind.

Did that mean I could hear his thoughts?

Who did this to you? They'll pay dearly, I heard again.

He bit into his own wrist and let the blood pour into a bottle Dickson tossed to him, shook it once, then lifted me into his arms.

I felt weightless there. Like paper.

I loved it.

Peace.

Warmth.

A sweet scent, nothing like the smell I always got from Asher.

"Stop him!" Asher ordered.

Two guards lunged toward him and froze instantly ... killed by Dickson from a distance, without him even moving. Just a wave of his right hand.

Asher lunged forward anyway.

Lousy fool, I thought.