Chapter 7: Run Little Wolf

"Aiden, run!"

The voice coming out of Maya is not hers, and it stops me cold. My hands reach for her before I can think, pulling toward the bone knife still glowing at her throat. My throat closes and I cannot breathe. My heart pounds so hard I feel it in my chest, and my legs go weak, but I hold myself up.

Cael's arm locks around my waist and yanks me back. The fur-lined war cloak he wears brushes my cheek and smells like cold air and forest. He hauls me behind him in one hard pull and steps between me and the altar. His shoulders block my view of Maya, his eyes bleeding black, his jaw so tight I can see the strain in it.

"Do not listen!" he growls, and I feel the sound move through his chest and into mine.

Roran does not move, and he smiles like we are doing exactly what he planned. He rests his palm on top of Maya's head while the gold in her eyes flares brighter until I have to look away. "She hears clearer than you do, boy," he says, and his voice stays low and patient because that calm is worse than shouting.

Queen Lira pushes past the roots, her hands shaking and her face white with twenty years of guilt, reaching for Maya. "Maya," she whispers, and the name breaks in the middle. Roran lifts two fingers and a root shoots up from the floor and wraps around Queen Lira's ankle and pulls her down to her knees. She lets out a sharp breath.

I try to pull free of Cael, but his grip tightens and his other hand grabs my wrist before I can move past him. Everything in me wants to reach Maya and Queen Lira and stop Roran. I stop thinking and just move. I push hard against Cael's back and press my shoulder into him because I will not stand still. "Let go," I say, but my voice breaks.

He does not let go, and his head turns just enough that I see the crack in his cold face because his eyes move from Roran back to me. He does not know whether to face Roran or protect me. I can see it in his eyes and it scares me more than the knife does.

Roran walks past Maya like she is nothing and presses his thumb into the cut on the altar, smearing his dark blood across the white root. The root drinks it and pulses once, and the whole tree shakes beneath us. The same light that hit us before flares again, and this time it goes straight into Cael.

Cael roars and falls to the ground. Pain shoots through the twin bond, heat hits my chest, and I lose my vision for a second. My hands press against my own chest because I can feel his heart struggling inside mine like it is my own. He grabs at his throat. His cloak slips off one shoulder, and his long dark claws come out.

"Feel that," Roran says, and he sounds pleased. "I waited twenty years to learn how to play you both like strings. I pour his pain into you until your heart bursts, or I pour yours into him until his heart stops. Choose."

I drop beside Cael, grabbing the fur at his shoulders to haul him close because I will not watch him choke for me. He gasps for air, and his black eyes find mine even though his body is shaking. He tries to push me away. "Run," he says. But the word barely comes out, and it is the first time he has ever asked me to leave him.

I do not run. My hands are shaking too hard to hold on and I feel like I need to scream. "No!" I snarl back at him, and the sound surprises me because it comes out more wolf than human. "You do not get to decide for me."

Roran watches us with gleaming gold eyes and slowly turns his palm up toward Maya. The gold in her eyes steadies, and she rises to her feet like the ground is pulling her up. The roots let go of her ankles, and she bends down slowly and picks up the bone knife from the altar stone. She holds it out toward me, not toward Roran, and her hand is completely still.

The tree speaks through her mouth again, and it sounds deep, like it has been waiting for a very long time. "Take it," she says, and the words vibrate through the roots into my bones. "End one."

My stomach drops because she offers me the blade that can feed the tree, and my fingers move toward it before I can stop them. Cael sees my hand move, and his whole body jerks forward even through the pain. He covers my hand with his, then presses his forehead against mine.

"Do not!" he snarls, and his breath is hot and uneven against my face. "Don't you dare!"

Queen Lira screams as another root grabs her and pulls her closer to the altar. "Roran, please," she begs. "Take me instead. I am the one who split them.”

Roran does not look at her. He steps closer until his boots are almost touching Cael's knees. "You both want to be the willing heart," he says softly. "How sweet. The tree has waited long enough, and it does not care for pretty words.”

He snaps his fingers. White light explodes, slamming into the doorway behind us. The roots twist and lock together with a loud crack, and the way out is gone. The air goes cold and still, making my ears hurt from the pressure.

Cael squeezes my hand so tight my knuckles hurt. He pulls my fist to his chest, where his heart is beating fast beneath the war cloak. He looks at me, and all the coldness leaves his eyes. He is just scared.

"Do it," he whispers, so quiet I almost cannot hear him over Queen Lira crying. "If it must be one of us, let it be me."

Maya's gold eyes move from me to Cael, and the knife in her hand glows with the same light as the tree. Roran bends down and brings his mouth close to my ear. His breath is cold. "Run, little wolf," he says, and the voice he uses is Maya's. The roots snap around my wrists and pull my arms wide. The bone knife rises from Maya's hand on its own, floats toward my throat, and stops just close enough for me to feel the cold of it against my skin.