THE INSIDE GATE

Elaris’s POV

Elaris is ordered not to come near the east cloister.

Averic decides it himself after finding the second parchment.

“You stay here.”

Elaris’s gaze tracks the corridor.

“I can help search.”No,”

she says, without anger.

Only certainty.

“Someone got in to your old chamber during the lockdown. Until I find out how, you don’t go anywhere near that passage.”

Not only the two warriors, but Elaris and Neryss find themselves cooped up inside the inner chamber instead of being at the entrance.

It makes Elaris feel both safer and more claustrophobic.

She perches on the edge of the bed, one hand lightly covering her stomach.

Outside, the palace goes about its business.

Boots click against stone.

Orders are shouted and obeyed.

Doors open and close.

Warriors double-check every room.

Elaris listens to every sound.

She imagines Virelle is the one pacing nearby.

Every shout makes her think the traitor has been caught.

Every scrape of metal has her whirling around to see who is at the door.

Neryss tries to reassure her.

“They’ll find her.”

Elaris looks up at her.

“Will they?”

Neryss doesn’t answer.

Elaris looks down at her stomach.

The child has become the focus of a dozen dangers.

She murmurs to herself, “You’re safe.”

But it sounds like a prayer.

Averic returns from the first sweep of the east wing.

He smells of earth and stone, like the garden and the keepers’ quarter.

He checks the room before closing the door and meeting Elaris’s gaze.

“The second note is real.”

She rises to her feet.

“Where was it?”

“Your old chamber.”

Averic goes to the table and drops the parchment on it.

“The ink isn’t fully dried.”

Elaris stares at it.

“So she was there.”

“After the alarm,”

Averic added.

Elaris looked up at him, startled.

“After the guards found her?”

“Yes.”

“After I ordered the palace sealed?”

“Yes.”

It was hard to believe.

Virelle had been right there while the warriors searched for her.

She had returned to the very room Elaris had been confined to.

Averic continued, “She wanted us to find it.”

Elaris looked at the note again.

“She wanted us to know she could get to you.”

“That’s what I think.”

Elaris was thinking about the chamber, her bed, her things, the window opening up to the garden.

She had been safe there, certain that Averic’s people would keep her safe.

Virelle had been right there.

“Then this isn’t an escape,” Elaris said quietly.

“No,”

Averic agreed.

“She was showing us something.”

“Showing us that her orders don’t matter to you.”

“No,”

Averic said, looking at the table. “Or that someone else’s orders are more important.”

They both knew who.

The unknown figure within the palace was no longer an unknown.

They both knew that the person had access and, potentially, permission to go anywhere.

The captain returned from the east gate, where the first inspection had taken place.

Averic turned to him. “Report.”

“The inside bar had been lifted from within,”

he said.

“Any damage?”

“Not that I saw.”

“Was the lock picked?”

“No.”

“What about the keys?”

“We’re checking everyone’s set of keys.”

The captain hesitated.

“There is one other possibility.”

“What is it?”

“Someone may have had permission to open the gate.”

Elaris followed his line of thought.

“Meaning someone within the palace?”

“Someone who might think that the person on the other side had a right to be there.”

Averic looked down at the table.

“How many people have keys to the gate?”

“Seven authorized keys,”

the captain said.

“Three belong to the senior warriors, two to the household staff, one to me, and the last to the steward.”

“Get all seven,”

Averic ordered.

“Yes, Alpha.”

The captain turned to go.

Averic added, “Question everyone who handled them in the last two days.”

The captain left.

Elaris studied Averic’s face.

“You think one of them helped her.”

“I know someone did.”

It made the threat feel sharper.

Elaris thought of the footsteps she had heard outside her chamber.

The passages where the servants walked.

The woman who had ordered the guards to lower their weapons when Virelle had appeared.

It was no longer just a mystery.

It was no longer just the palace.

There was an enemy within these walls.

Averic ordered the staff of the private wing to assemble in the outer hall.

Elaris could hear the questioning taking place within the chamber.

One by one, people were summoned and sent back.

Alibis were given and examined.

Maevra’s senior attendant was nearly overcome with grief when accused of knowing too much about the medication.

“I have served Lady Maevra for fifteen years,”

the older woman said.

“I would die before betraying her.”

Another voice answered, one belonging to a night healer.

She was giving her version of events concerning Virelle’s disappearance.

“I was preparing the second restorative dose.”

“Who saw you?”

“No one.”

That seemed to make matters worse.

Then it was the turn of a kitchen runner, though Elaris could not see him.

She heard the captain ask him where he had been after midnight.

“I was bringing linens,”

the youth said.

“Which linens?”

“I—I don’t remember.”

Averic’s voice cut through the room.

“You’d better remember.”

There was a long pause before anyone spoke again.

Elaris looked at Neryss.

“Did you notice him before?”

Neryss nodded.

“He has been delivering things to Maevra’s wing.”

“Supplies?” Elaris asked.

“Food and water, sometimes the linens.” Neryss’s throat worked as she looked at Elaris. “Anything could have gone.”

Elaris’s stomach twisted.

Anything could have happened.

And now it had.

All of these people could have been involved.

All of them could have been passing information, or the key to the gate, or both.

But none of them, it seemed, were willing to admit it.

They were skulking and stammering, hiding behind their words.

The lack of a guilty party made things far worse, in Elaris’s opinion.

The traitor was out there, confident in their position and their anonymity.

Neryss came to stand beside Elaris and lowered her voice.

“They’re afraid to say it.”

“Say what?”

“That the confinement wasn’t real.”

Elaris looked up sharply at Neryss.

“They think Virelle could have gotten out whenever she wanted.”

“I think she was showing us that she could,”

Averic said grimly.

Elaris turned her thoughts back to the matter of poison.

The altered vials, the hidden one, and the accusations against her.

“What if the real goal wasn’t to kill me?”

Neryss gave her a worried look.

“What else could it be?”

Elaris looked down at her stomach.

“They want me to be distracted,”

she said softly.

“They think that if I’m frightened, that if they keep frightening me, the pregnancy will fail.”

Neryss went chalk white.

“They could make your body do it,”

Neryss whispered.

Elaris looked up at Averic.

“They wouldn’t have to do anything,” she said.

Averic’s jaw tightened.

“They wouldn’t have to do anything,”

he repeated.

Elaris thought of Harwin’s words, about her weakened wolf essence and the dangers it presented to her child.

“They wouldn’t have to do anything,”

Elaris said again.

Averic understood.

“They could make your body do it,”

Neryss repeated.

Elaris’s gaze went to the door.

It was the first time she had thought of Virelle’s possible threats in terms of psychological warfare.

If the child died, Virelle would have the sympathy of the pack, the public approval of the council, the plausible deniability of never having done anything directly.

No one would accuse her of murder, and no one would ever find the weapon.

Averic returned to the room.

The questioning continued in the hall, but he sent the two warriors who had been waiting inside back to their posts.

“Stay outside,” he told them.

They did not argue.

As soon as the door was closed, Elaris and Averic were alone.

“You’ll stay here tonight.”

Elaris looked around the room.

“Because it’s safer?”Because you can watch all sides of this room.”

She looked up at him.

“You’re not going to sleep.”

“I’ll sleep when I find out who opened that gate.”

“You can’t keep watch forever.”I don’t intend to.”

Averic looked out the window, checking the shutters.

“Until Virelle is found, you’ll stay here.”

Elaris heard the caution in his voice.

Perhaps no one else could tell, but she knew he was afraid.

There was something else, as well.

Something in the way he stood.

The set of his shoulders.

There was nothing between them now, not even the careful distance that had once been in place.

“You’re frightened,” she said softly.

“For you.”

It was honest.

He did not pretend otherwise.

He did not mask it with thoughts of the child, or duty, or anything else.

But Elaris was still not certain what it meant.

She nearly told him.

Nearly confessed that she, too, was frightened.

That she was terrified of what the knowledge meant between them.

That she wanted to ask him why, just once, he might want to be with her.

She looked back at the door.

At the place where guards had stood.

At the fact that no one had been there when Virelle had vanished.

Averic turned back to her.

“You don’t have to pretend you’re not afraid with me.”

She looked back at him.

“I don’t know how not to be.”

It was almost as if he had reached inside her and taken something away.

Something she had not realized was there.

Averic nodded.

“We’ll learn.”

It was not much.

Perhaps it did not mean much at all.

But it was enough to convince Elaris that, for now, there was no need to pretend anything at all.

There was no need to hide behind anything at all.

A sudden knock announced a new arrival at the door.

A guard announced that a rider had arrived at the main gates.

“Council colors,”

he said.

Averic’s expression hardened.

The politics of the pack were making their presence known.

Before sunrise, a rider from the council arrived at the main gates, flanked by two guards.

He delivered a message to Averic, but it was not an invitation.

It was a demand.

The parchment was opened in the presence of Elaris, the captain, and the two senior warriors.

It bore the council’s seal, and it wasted little time getting to the point.

It mentioned Virelle.

It accused Averic of keeping a pregnant woman of standing imprisoned.

Elaris read it twice before looking up at Averic’s face.

“Pregnant woman of standing?”

He did not correct the wording.

“She means Virelle.”

The parchment continued.

The woman was to be produced before the council alive and unharmed.

She was to be given a formal hearing before the next blood moon.

The council argued that the matter of her supposed pregnancy was one of succession and pack law.

Elaris felt a strange twist in her stomach.

Virelle had managed to find another weakness to exploit.

Averic looked at the captain. “Who notified them?”

“No name is given.”

Of course not.

Virelle did not have to do such things herself, now that others were willing to speak on her behalf.

Maevra’s warning echoed in Elaris’s mind.

Old families.

Old bloodlines.

People who remembered when the pack had been something greater than it was now.

The council seal was another weapon, and now it was pointed at Averic’s throat.

Averic placed the parchment on the table.

“They knew too soon.”

Elaris nodded.

The palace alarm had barely died down before the council had learned of Virelle’s confinement.

Someone had informed them, and it could have been anyone.

Someone within these very walls.

Perhaps it was even someone who had known before Virelle had vanished.

The very thought made Elaris’s stomach turn.

Averic picked up the broken chain.

“The kill note is evidence.”

“But not of who wrote it?”

“No.”

Elaris looked at him.

“It is in her handwriting.”

“That proves that she wrote something. It does not prove when she wrote it, who helped her, or whether someone else wanted it done.”

“And she is carrying a child she claims is yours.”

Averic said nothing.

Elaris understood what that meant.

The council would not ignore a matter of succession, especially not with the blood moon drawing close and the tensions between the outer packs growing.

Virelle could stand before the council and make her accusations, all while presenting herself as the grieving maiden who had been cast aside by the Alpha.

Elaris could stand beside her, the foreign interloper who had stolen the pack’s heir and refused to surrender her.

The truth of the matter was obvious to Elaris.

That did not mean the council would see it that way.

She looked down at the parchment.

“She’s using the law.”

Averic’s voice was quiet when he answered.

“She always knew she could.”

The captain was the first to speak.

“Alpha, you could refuse.”

Averic looked at him.

“And then what?”

The captain hesitated.

“They may not act immediately.”

“They don’t have to.”

Averic gestured at the council’s seal. “If I refuse to deliver a woman who claims I am the father of her child, it will make for an interesting bit of theater, won’t it?”

Elaris understood what he was saying.

The Alpha was accusing the council of lying, keeping their own prisoner and refusing to surrender her to the scrutiny of the pack.

He would look as if he was the one obstructing justice, when in reality, he was the one defending his pack.

Elaris barely heard herself speak when she finally stood to look out the window.

She had no position to stand on within the pack, when it came to Virelle and the child.

Royal Caretaker gave her control over Maevra’s staff, but that did not make her Virelle’s equal.

It did not make her a part of the pack in any real sense.

It did not make her the mate of the Alpha, or even the mother of his heir apparent.

She was an outsider, and that was a position she was all too familiar with.

Averic seemed to realize it as well, because he gave her a long look before speaking again.

“You have something to say.”

Elaris shook her head.

“I don’t know what the council would hear if I said it.”

“They will hear the truth.”

“Will they?”

The words came out before she could stop them.

Averic did not answer right away.

Elaris continued, “They already believe she has a child.”

“And I know whose child she claims.”

“That isn’t the same thing as knowing the truth.”

Averic looked at her.

“I know.”

It was the most honest conversation they had ever had.

Elaris knew what he meant.

The council would force Averic to choose how open he wanted to be about Elaris and the child.

They would demand a public trial, one that would make it clear that Virelle was unwelcome in the capital.

They would make certain that no one would accuse Averic of keeping his pack’s heir in secret.

It would not be much different from what had happened before, when Harwin and his pack had tried to claim Virelle.

Averic would have to choose between protecting his pack and protecting Elaris.

By first light, the trackers had returned.

Averic met them in the council chamber, but Elaris remained with Neryss in the hall.

The lead tracker dropped to one knee. “We found Virelle.”

Averic came forward. “Where?”

“Beyond the east wall.”

“Dead?”

“No, Alpha.”

The warrior seemed surprised by his own words.

“She was at the old shrine.”

Elaris knew where he meant.

It was one of the oldest places in the capital, a site where wolves had once gathered to swear their oaths before the pack.

It still served that purpose, though rarely.

Averic asked, “What was she doing there?”

“Waiting.”

“For whom?”

“The patrol.”

Elaris’s stomach twisted.

She nearly asked if Virelle had tried to escape, but she stopped herself.

“Did she try to get away?” Averic asked instead.

“No.”

“Did she ask for you?”

The tracker shook his head.

“She wanted to be taken to the council.”

Elaris barely heard his next words.

“She kept one hand over her stomach the whole time.”

Averic said nothing.

Elaris knew what Virelle was doing.

She was making a spectacle of herself, choosing a public place to make her appearance.

She was choosing witnesses, people to stand with her when she accused Averic of keeping her imprisoned.

Virelle had made certain that no one would believe Averic’s protests, not when she was holding herself out as a pregnant woman.

A woman who had once been the pack’s favorite daughter.

A woman who now accused the Alpha of trying to steal her unborn child.

Averic was still staring at the tracker when the captain arrived from the shrine road.

“Alpha,” he said.

Averic turned to him. “What now?”

The captain looked unhappy.

“Virelle is back under custody.”

Elaris exhaled.

“But not ours.”

Averic’s expression darkened.

“The council took possession of her.”

“They arrived before our people reached the shrine.”

Elaris moved toward the doors.

“Where is she?”

“In the palace.”

It hardly surprised her.

The council would keep Virelle close, as a matter of convenience if nothing else.

They would be certain she was kept safe.

They would be certain no one, not even the Alpha, could take her from their custody.

Averic moved toward the great hall, and Elaris followed close behind, despite the captain’s objections.

When they reached the doors, Elaris saw Virelle waiting, her borrowed cloak draped over her shoulders.

Her hair was loose, though she had clearly taken care to arrange it in a manner that suggested hardship.

She kept one hand over her stomach, the other held lightly by a council attendant.

She looked beautiful and frightened and far too proud.

But her gaze shifted when she saw Averic, and a strange look passed over her face.

It was the same one she always wore when witnesses were present.

A carefully modulated smile curved her lips.

She spoke before Averic could ask anything.

“I was never a prisoner.”

The council representatives stood behind her.

“I am carrying the Alpha’s child.”

Her hand rested lightly against her stomach.

“You will not lock me in the dark again.”