Chapter 32

Elara's POV

The hooded figure disappeared into the tree line before anyone in the courtyard could give chase. For a few long, chaotic seconds, nobody seemed to know whether to pursue him or tend to Bram.

He had gone down hard against the stone, blood soaking fast through the shoulder of his leathers.

"Someone get Nyra," Kael shouted, still gripping my arm. He positioned himself between me and the scattering riders even as his eyes tracked every movement in the courtyard for a second attack.

"Soren, get the gates secured. Nobody leaves until we understand what just happened."

Soren was already moving, barking orders at the guards.

Within moments the courtyard shifted from chaos into something more controlled, the riders were held at the edges under careful watch.

Bram was carried inside by two of his own men. Nyra arrived fast enough that her healer's satchel was already open before she reached him.

"He'll live," Nyra said after a tense few minutes of work. She pressed a cloth hard against the wound while Bram gritted his teeth against the pain. "The blade missed anything vital.

Whoever threw it either had poor aim or wasn't actually trying to kill him."

"Wasn't trying to kill me," Bram said through clenched teeth. "I think he was trying to send a message. That's not one of my men, and I don't recognize him at all."

Kael crouched beside him, his expression grim. "Then who does he answer to?"

"I don't know," Bram admitted. "But if I had to guess, I'd say someone who doesn't want the Frostpine Alliance actually negotiating with you.

Someone who'd rather see this end in blood than in a conversation that might convince six packs there's nothing to fear from Nightfall Hollow after all."

The implication settled cold in my chest. If that was true, it meant someone out there wanted conflict badly enough to attack their own ally rather than risk peace taking hold.

That kind of determination frightened me more than an open declaration of war ever could have.

"We need to find him," I said. "Before he reaches whoever sent him."

"Guards are already searching the tree line," Soren said, jogging back over and slightly out of breath. "Though I wouldn't count on catching him.

Whoever planned this had an escape route ready. That's not the work of someone acting alone or on impulse."

Kael stood and ran a hand through his hair. The careful composure he usually wore was fraying visibly at the edges.

"This isn't Mathis, he's confined to the east wing under guard, and this required outside coordination he wouldn't have had access to since his removal from the council."

"No," Nyra agreed, still working on Bram's shoulder. "But it may well be connected to whoever he was corresponding with beyond these walls.

Vesna warned us his reach extended further than this court, and Ryker confirmed contact with Ashwood pack. If Mathis built other alliances during his years of influence, alliances we haven't uncovered yet, this could be one of them acting independently now that he's no longer able to direct things himself."

The thought of Mathis's influence extending even further than we'd already discovered made the ground beneath the wedding planning and quiet garden evenings feel considerably less solid than it had that morning.

Invisible threads reaching into packs and alliances none of us had thought to examine yet.

Bram was pale but steadying under Nyra's care. He looked up at Kael with something more sober in his expression than the wary formality he'd arrived with.

"For what it's worth, King Draven, this changes things. Whoever attacked me wanted the alliance to see negotiation as a betrayal worth punishing.

That tells me more about who actually fears you than any polite conversation would have."

"Does that mean the alliance is willing to talk properly now?" Kael asked.

"It means I'm willing to recommend it," Bram said carefully. "The others will need convincing. Fear doesn't disappear just because one attack failed.

If anything, some of them will see this as proof that danger follows wherever your name is spoken.

" He glanced toward me, something considering in his gaze.

"Though I'll admit, what she said before the chaos started stayed with me.

An alliance built on genuine trust is worth pursuing. I'll carry that argument back with me, for whatever it's worth."

"It's worth quite a lot," I said. "Thank you, Bram. I'm sorry this happened to you in our courtyard."

"Not your doing," he said, wincing as Nyra tightened the bandage.

"Someone wanted this outcome badly enough to risk one of their own allies bleeding out to get it. That tells its own story."

Once Bram and his remaining riders had been settled for the night under careful watch, and the courtyard had finally quieted from the earlier chaos, Kael found me in the library.

I was staring at the fire rather than any of the books scattered across the table, my mind still turning over the sight of that blade flying across the courtyard.

"You're shaking," he said softly, sitting beside me and pulling me gently against his side.

"I keep thinking about how close that blade came to hitting one of us instead," I admitted. "If the aim had been different. If it had been meant for you, or for me, instead of a warning to Bram."

"I know." Kael's arms tightened around me. I could feel the same fear running underneath his calm exterior, carefully controlled but present all the same. "I won't pretend today didn't frighten me too.

But we handled it. Bram's alive, and despite everything, he's leaving here more inclined toward peace than he arrived.

Thanks in large part to you."

"It doesn't feel like enough," I said. "Not when someone out there is willing to hurt their own allies just to keep the fear alive."

"No," Kael agreed quietly. "It doesn't feel like enough, But it's a start.

Starts are all any of us really have to work with, one difficult day at a time." He pressed a kiss to my temple, steady and grounding. "We'll find out who sent that blade, Elara.

And whoever it is, they'll learn soon enough that frightening us into conflict is going to take considerably more than one failed attack in a courtyard."