Chapter 6: The Cell at Midnight  

Raiden’s Pov

I keep telling myself I’m just checking on the guards.

That’s the big lie I say to myself while I walk down the moonlit path to the Moon Cell for the fourth time tonight. Thorne took over the night watch an hour ago. Everything is quiet. Everything is safe.

But really, everything is hurting me bad.

The mate bond feels like a tight string pulling inside my chest and hers. Every time she moves on the cold floor, I feel the silver chains bite her skin. Every time she breathes too little because it hurts, I forget how to breathe too.

I stop where the torches make a circle of light. Two young guards stand up super straight when they see me.

“Anything new?” I ask.

They shake their heads. “She hasn’t made a sound, Alpha. Not since the big judgment.”

I flick my chin so they can go. They walk away really fast, happy to get away from my grumpy mood.

The Cell looks white in the moonlight. Nyssa sits with her back on the far wall, knees up to her chest, arms hugging her legs as much as the chains let her. There’s a thin blanket next to her, but she didn’t use it. I don’t know if it’s because she’s too proud or because she wants to punish herself.

I open the door just a little, slip inside, and close it. The magic lock makes a soft hum sound.

She doesn’t look up, but her shoulders get stiff. She knows it’s me. Of course she does—the bond gets all happy and loud when we’re close.

“I said no one comes in,” she says to the floor. Her voice sounds rough and scratchy. It’s still pretty. And super mad.

“I’m not no one.”

I put down the little clay jar I brought. It has honey and willow medicine that Mira made for silver burns. Then I put down a big water bag. Then a thick warm blanket that still smells like my own bed.

Now she looks up. Her green eyes are full of hate and super tired.

“Take your stuff and go away.”

“I’m not going until you let me put this medicine on your wrists.”

She laughs, and it sounds mean and hurt. “You want to touch me now? After you put me in chains like I’m a bad dog?”

Her words hurt like claws. I know I deserve them.

I sit down on the floor with my legs crossed, far enough that her chains can’t reach me. I open the jar. It smells sweet like honey and green plants.

“I have killed people for doing way less bad stuff to me than what I did to you,” I say quietly. “I know that doesn’t fix anything. But the silver is making poison in your blood. You could lose your hands if we don’t stop it.”

Something quick goes across her face—maybe she’s scared, but it’s hiding under all the mad.

“I would rather lose my hands than say thank you to you.”

“You don’t have to thank me.” I look right in her eyes. “Think of it as paying me back for when you bit my back. Then we’re even.”

Her mouth moves a tiny bit, almost a smile, but it goes away fast.

We don’t talk for a long time. The moon moves slow across the open top of the cell.

Finally she scoots closer, dragging the heavy chains. They make a loud scratching noise. She stops close but not too close and holds out her wrists. There’s dried blood, and the skin is red and full of hurts.

I put two fingers in the medicine. My hand shakes. I hate that she sees.

When I first touch her she makes a hissy sound and pulls back a little, but then she makes herself stay still. I put the cool goo on super careful. The bond lets me feel her hurt, and it stings me too. My eyes feel hot and wet.

“You don’t have to feel bad for me,” she says in a low voice.

“I don’t feel bad for you,” I say. “I’m super mad at myself.”

She looks at my face like she’s trying to find if I’m telling a lie, but she can’t.

When her wrists are done I go to her ankles. She waits a second, then stretches her legs out. The hurts there are even worse; the chains rubbed all the way to the bone in some spots. A growl comes out of me before I can stop it.

“Stop growling,” she says fast.

“I can’t help it. My wolf hates seeing you hurt.”

“Your wolf can get in line with all the other things I want to kill.”

I finish one ankle and start the other. Our heads are close now. Her hair smells like campfire and trees from the forest she walked through to find me. I want to put my face in it and howl loud.

Instead I ask the question that’s been stuck in my throat for two whole days.

“Greyhaven. The night it burned…was your mom’s name Elira?”

Her body gets super stiff.

“How do you know that?”

I sit back. “Because the paper I got the next morning said the village healer fought really hard. She killed three of my warriors with a silver knife before they got her. They called her a witch. I never told anyone to kill her. I never told anyone to do any of it.”

She stares at me. The moonlight shows tears in her eyes, but she won’t let them fall.

“You’re lying.”

“I really wish I was.”

I reach in my pocket and take out the tiny thing I’ve kept for twelve years: a broken silver necklace with a moon and thorny circle, the chain snapped. I hold it out.

She stops breathing.

“That was found in the ashes after the fire,” I say. “I kept it. I didn’t know why. Until now.”

She jumps forward super fast.

The chains stop her hard, just inches from my neck. Her fingers grab the air, eyes crazy.

“Give it back!” she screams. “Give it back!”

I don’t move. “It’s yours, Nyssa. It was always yours.”

She pulls and pulls until new blood runs down her arms and her voice breaks on a cry she tries to hide.

Then she falls down, head on the floor, body shaking.

I have never hated myself more.

I put the necklace on the floor between us and scoot back until my back touches the wall.

A long time goes by. Maybe lots of minutes. Maybe hours.

Finally her breathing gets normal. She reaches out slow and grabs the necklace. She holds it tight against her heart.

“Why are you being nice?” she whispers to the floor. “Why don’t you just kill me and be done?”

I answer before I can stop the words.

“Because if you weren’t in the world anymore, it would hurt to breathe.”

The bond gets hot and scary. She feels it too; her shoulders jump.

Then we hear running feet.

Thorne yells from outside. “Alpha! Kael called a challenge fight! He says you’re acting weird and the human put a spell on you. He wants you to prove you’re still loyal, with blood, right now!”

Nyssa looks up fast. Her eyes are big and scared, not for her.

For me.

I stand up.

“Stay here,” I tell her.

“Like I can go anywhere,” she says, but her voice wobbles.

I open the door.

Right before it closes again she says very soft, “If you die tonight, I will never forgive you.”

My heart bangs super hard.

“Then I better not die.”

I walk out into the torch light.

Behind me the door hums closed.

In front of me, half the pack is waiting in the big circle, eyes shining, teeth showing.

Kael stands in the middle with no shirt, claws out.

He smiles big when he sees me.

“Come show everyone you’re still one of us, brother,” he says loud. “Or I’ll help the pack and kill you myself.”

The bond pulls hard, Nyssa is super scared, and it feels like cold water inside me.

I move my shoulders, crack my neck, and walk to the circle.

Twenty-six days just turned into tonight.