Chapter Thirty-Five: The Stone Bridge

The three nights passed slowly.

Adrian did not leave my side for more than an hour at a time. Corwin walked the eastern forest every evening, learning every root and rock near the old bridge. Jorah and Finn drilled the hidden team until they could cross a field without making a sound. I tried to sleep and mostly failed.

On the third night, I dressed in dark clothes and tied my hair back tight. My wolf paced under my ribs, restless and alert. I had not shifted since Mathis warned me, but she was close to the surface, and I felt her listening to everything.

“Stay behind me,” Adrian said at the edge of the forest. “If I say run, you run.”

“And leave you?”

“Elena.”

“I will run when I am ready to run,” I said. “Not before.”

He sighed, but there was almost a smile in it.

---

The old stone bridge crossed a dry creek bed at the far edge of the forest. It had been built long before any living wolf was born, and moss covered most of it. The moon was thin that night, and the shadows under the arch were deep.

We reached it a few minutes before the third hour. Adrian stopped us in the trees and listened for a long while. I listened too, and for the first time, I could hear things I could never have heard before. The slow breathing of an owl. A fox moving through dead leaves. And beneath the bridge, one steady heartbeat, slow and old.

“One person,” I whispered.

“I hear it too,” Adrian said.

We stepped out onto the path together.

A figure stood under the arch, wrapped in a grey cloak. When she pushed back her hood, I saw a face older than any I had ever seen. White hair, thin as cobweb. Skin like paper. But her eyes were sharp and pale silver, and they went straight to me.

“You came,” she said. Her voice was dry and quiet. “I did not think you would.”

“Who are you?” Adrian asked. He had moved half a step in front of me.

“My name is Maren.” She looked at him without fear. “I have served Marcus Hale for eleven years. I have hated every day of it.”

“Why should we believe that?”

“You should not. Not yet.” She turned back to me. “But I have something that may help you decide.”

She reached into her cloak, slowly, so Adrian could see her hands. She drew out a small silver locket, worn smooth with age. She held it toward me.

“Open it,” she said.

My fingers shook as I took it. Inside was a tiny painted portrait of a woman with dark hair and kind eyes. I knew that face. I had seen it every day of my life until I was twelve.

“That is my mother,” I whispered.

“That is Lydia,” Maren said softly. “She was my student. Then my friend. Then the closest thing to a daughter I ever had.”

I could not breathe. The forest seemed to tilt around me.

“She never spoke of you,” I managed.

“She could not. I made her swear it.” Maren’s pale eyes were wet. “I placed the seal on you, Elena. Not your mother. Lydia did not have the power to cast it. She begged me to do it the night you were born, when she understood that Hale’s people were already searching for the Hidden Line.”

Adrian’s hand had found my arm. I did not feel it.

“You made me invisible,” I said. “You made me an outcast. My own pack thought I was broken.”

“I know.” She did not look away. “I have carried that for twenty three years. I have never forgiven myself for the price you paid. But the alternative was that you would be found and used before you could even walk.”

My anger came up hot and fast. It surprised me. “You could have told me when I was old enough. You could have told my mother to tell me.”

“Lydia meant to. She was going to explain everything on your thirteenth birthday.” Maren’s voice cracked. “She died before it came. Poisoned, I believe. I have never been able to prove it. And after that, I could not reach you without leading Hale straight to you.”

The words landed like stones.

“Poisoned,” I repeated.

“By someone who was working for him even then. The same person who has been watching your pack for years.”

Adrian’s grip tightened. “Who?”

Maren hesitated. “I do not know the name. Only that it was someone close to your family, Elena. Someone you trusted.”

I thought of Carla, cold and polite, and of Mira, and of my father, who had barely looked at me after the funeral. I felt something sour and heavy start to turn in my stomach.

“We will find out,” Adrian said quietly. He looked at Maren. “But first, tell me why you are here. Why now?”

“Because Hale has found a way to take what he wants without breaking the seal himself.” She stepped closer, and her voice dropped. “He believes that if your curse reaches its end, Alpha Black, the old moon magic that binds it will tear open the northern passes. He wants that. He has built his whole plan around it.”

“And Elena?”

“She is the key. The only one who can either stop it or finish it.” Maren turned her silver eyes on me. “That is why he has not simply killed her. He needs her alive, and he needs her afraid, and he needs her to make a choice.”

“What choice?”

“The one the old texts describe. The Hidden Line can break a curse of this kind, but not for free.” She took a slow breath. “It costs the one who breaks it. Your mother knew that. It is why she begged me to hide you.”

The night went very quiet.

Somewhere far off in the trees, I heard a branch crack, and Adrian’s head snapped toward it. Maren stiffened.

“They followed me,” she whispered. “I thought I was careful. Run. Both of you, now.”

“Maren”

“Go!”

I felt more than heard the arrows before they struck the stones, sharp and sudden in the dark.