CHAPTER 12: THE PRICE OF STUPID

Rook’s idea of “something really stupid” is breaking into Alpha Draevor’s private quarters at midday.

“Are you insane?” I hiss at him as we slip through the servant corridors. The castle is mostly empty — everyone’s still at the arena, cleaning up after yesterday’s farce. “If he catches us—”

“He won’t.” Rook’s grin is back, but it’s all edge now. “Because he’s not here. He’s with the priests, trying to convince them to overrule Kain’s three-day stall. Which means his rooms are empty. And his wards are keyed to his blood, not his presence.”

He holds up a small knife. There’s dried blood on the blade. “Silas owed me a favor. I collected.”

“You had Silas steal Draevor’s blood?” My stomach turns. “When?”

“Last night. While you were busy becoming witch-bound.” He doesn’t sound angry. Just tired. “Silas doesn’t do anything for free, little Luna. But he hates Draevor almost as much as I do.”

We reach a door bound in iron. Rook presses the bloody knife to the lock. The metal hisses, smokes, and clicks open.

Draevor’s quarters are exactly what I expected. Weapons on the walls. Maps with territory lines drawn in red. A bed big enough for five, though he sleeps alone. And in the corner, a cradle.

Not Mira’s. She’s too old for it. This one is new. Fresh wood. Fresh paint.

Rook sees it the same time I do. He goes very still.

“He’s planning for more,” I say quietly. “After me. After Mira. He’s going to keep breeding Luna contenders until one of them gives him what he wants.”

“Not if we burn it down.” Rook walks to the cradle and kicks it. Hard. The wood splinters. “Not if we burn all of it down.”

“Rook.” I grab his arm. “We didn’t come here to trash his furniture. What are we looking for?”

“Proof.” He yanks open a chest at the foot of the bed. Scrolls. Letters. Seals from other packs. “Draevor didn’t suggest the Fifth Law’s contingency clause to the priests. He blackmailed them into it. He’s got dirt on half the High Council. If we find it, we can use it.”

He dumps the chest out. Parchment spills across the floor. I drop to my knees and start sorting. Most of it is land deeds, trade agreements, boring Alpha business. Then I find it.

A letter. Unsealed. Fresh ink.

High Priestess Mavera — The girl bleeds all four Kings tomorrow, or the truth about your son’s parentage reaches the southern packs. Your choice. -D

My hands go cold. “He’s blackmailing the High Priestess.”

“Let me see.” Rook takes it, reads, and his grin turns vicious. “Good. That’s leverage. That’s—”

The door slams open.

Draevor stands in the frame. He’s not alone. Two guards, both with spears levelled at us. And behind him, Kain.

My heart stops.

“Drayvor was with the priests,” I say stupidly, because I can’t think of anything else.

“I was,” Draevor agrees. “Until the Scientist King came to tell me two rats were in my rooms.” He looks at Kain. “Thank you for your vigilance. The Law appreciates loyalty.”

Kain doesn’t look at me. His face is blank. Clinical. “The Luna’s instability is a risk to the bloodlines. I thought it prudent to monitor her.”

He sold us out.

Rook moves first. He’s between me and the spears before I can breathe, his claws out, his eyes black. “You touch her, old man, and I’ll—”

“You’ll die,” Draevor finishes. “Finally. Permanently. No reboot this time.” He nods to the guards. “Take the Necro-wolf to the cells. The Luna comes with me.”

The guards move. Rook snarls and lunges.

It’s chaos. Spear against claw, blood on the floor, Draevor shouting orders. I scramble back, clutching the letter, trying to get to the door—

Kain grabs my wrist.

His grip is ice-cold. He drags me out of the room, away from the fight, into the hall. For a second I think he’s saving me. Then I see his face.

There’s no rescue here. There’s calculation.

“You were stupid,” he says, shoving me against the wall. His voice is low, furious, the most emotion I’ve ever heard from him. “Breaking in. Stealing documents. With Rook. Do you have any idea what you’ve just done?”

“Getting proof—”

“You gave Draevor cause.” Kain’s hand is still on my wrist, and his fingers are digging in. “The three-day stay was conditional on your compliance. Breaking into an Alpha’s quarters, assaulting his guards, stealing private correspondence? That’s treason under pack law. He can invoke the contingency clause today. Right now. And the priests will back him because you broke faith first.”

The floor drops out. “Mira.”

“Yes. Mira.” Kain releases me like I’m contaminated. “Congratulations, Project Moonbane. You just accelerated the timeline you were trying to stop.”

Footsteps. Draevor appears in the hall, not even breathing hard. Behind him, the guards drag Rook. He’s bleeding from a cut on his temple, but he’s grinning, and that terrifies me more than anything.

“Take him to the cells,” Draevor tells the guards. “Bleed him dry. If he reboots, do it again. I want him too weak to stand by sunset.”

The guards haul Rook away. He doesn’t fight. He just meets my eyes as he goes, and mouths one word: Run.

Draevor turns to me. “And you. You’ve cost yourself your sister.”

“No.” I hold up the letter. “You’re blackmailing the High Priestess. The Council will—”

“The Council will do nothing.” Draevor snatches the letter from my hand. “Because you stole it. Evidence obtained through treason is inadmissible under the Law. You should have read the whole book, Luna.”

He tears the letter in half. Then in quarters. Let the pieces fall.

“Mira gets Claimed at sundown,” he says. “All four Kings. Unless you want to take her place. Right here. Right now. One night, and I’ll let her live as a servant.”

The choice he’s giving me isn’t a choice. It’s a slaughter.

Kain is silent beside me. He won’t meet my eyes.

I think of the tether. The grave ash. If Mira dies, I die. If I die, the Law collapses. Draevor doesn’t know that. Kain does.

“Kain,” I say.

He finally looks at me.

“Is the bond stable enough?” I ask. “If I choose now, will it hold?”

He understands what I’m really asking. If I die, does the Law die with me?

Kain’s jaw tightens. Then, barely perceptible, he nods.

It’s enough.

“I’ll do it,” I tell Draevor. “I’ll take her place. But not here. Not like this. The Law says Claiming is public. Arena. Priests. Full pack witness. If you want me to bleed, you do it properly.”

Draevor studies me. He’s looking for the trap. He won’t find it, because the trap is me dying and taking his Law with me.

“Sunset,” he says finally. “Arena. You and all four Kings. If you run, Mira dies before the sun hits the horizon.”

He walks away.

Kain doesn’t move. Doesn’t speak.

“You sold us out,” I say.

“I preserved the 1%,” he says quietly. “Rook breaking in was unsanctioned. It risked the timeline. I had to correct it.”

“By giving Mira to Draevor?”

“By giving you a choice.” He finally meets my eyes. “You’re Moonbane. You were built to end this. If you want to die to save her, that’s your prerogative. But if you want to live, you’ll find another way before sunset. You have six hours.”

He walks away too.

I’m alone in the hall. Six hours until sunset. Six hours until I either let Draevor have me or let Mira die and take the whole Law down with me.

I feel Theo’s wooden wolf in my pocket. I feel Silas’s debt-mark burning on my palm. I feel Rook’s blood somewhere below me, in the cells.

And I feel the tether to Mira, humming in my chest.

Kain’s right. I was built to end this.

So I’m going to.

But not the way he thinks. Not the way Draevor expects.

I’m going to the cells. I’m going to get Rook.

And then I’m going to remind the Fifth Law why you don’t corner a weapon.