Chapter 10

Chapter 10

ELENA

My throat closed up. I couldn't breathe.

"You," he said. "You were singing."

I didn't remember. I was too young. But I remembered my mother coming up from the cellar with her apron covered in blood, and telling me she had been cutting meat.

"I owed her my life," Kade said. "I swore to her that if she ever needed me, I would come. She sent word to me once, years later, when the winter fever came to Willowbrook. I sent medicine. She never asked for anything else." His voice went rough. "Then the fire came, and I was too late. I was too late for her, Elena. I'm sorry."

I couldn't look at him. Tears ran down my face and dripped onto the bread in my hands.

Find Kade. Only Kade. He will keep you safe.

She knew him. She trusted him. All those years.

"Then who burned the village?" I whispered. "If it wasn't you. Who?"

His jaw tightened.

"I don't know yet," he said. "But I'm going to find out."

He was lying. Not about not knowing. About something else. I could feel it through the bond, a small dark knot of something he was holding back.

But I was too tired to fight him anymore.

That night, I dreamed again.

I was in the cellar. Dark. Cold. My side was on fire where the blade had gone in. I was lying on the dirt floor, pressing my hands over the wound, trying not to make a sound.

Above me, through the wooden floor, I could hear footsteps. Heavy boots walking through my mother's house. Things breaking. Glass shattering.

And then a voice.

A man's voice. Calm. Smooth. Almost gentle.

"Leave no one alive," the voice said. "Burn every house. And find the girl. Especially the girl."

Someone else answered, too low to hear.

"She saw my face at the gate," the smooth voice said. "She can't be allowed to talk. Find her."

Then the boots walked away, and the smoke started pouring down through the cracks, and I heard my mother screaming my name somewhere outside.

I woke up choking.

I sat up in the dark, my hand pressed over my mouth. My heart was pounding so hard I thought it would break my ribs.

The voice. I knew that voice. I had heard it somewhere. Recently. I knew I had.

But I couldn't remember where.

I didn't sleep again.

The full moon came too fast.

On the second night, they led me out to the ring. It was a wide circle of packed dirt in a clearing behind the pack house, surrounded by flat stones. The moon hung huge and white over the trees. The whole pack stood around the edge of the ring, shoulder to shoulder, their eyes shining silver in the moonlight.

Kade walked beside me as far as the edge of the circle. Then he stopped. By law, he couldn't go any farther.

"Remember," he said quietly. "Patience. Let her come to you."

I nodded. My mouth was too dry to speak.

He looked at me like he wanted to say something else. Then someone stepped up beside us.

Silas.

He was smiling his warm, kind smile. He held out a small dagger in his bandaged hand. It had a black handle and a thin, bright blade that shone in the moonlight.

"For luck," he said. "Better than a wooden stick, don't you think? The law allows one blade."

Kade frowned but nodded. "Take it."

I reached out and took the dagger.

Silas leaned in closer, just a little. Just enough that his mouth was near my ear, and nobody else could hear. His voice was soft. Calm. Smooth. Almost gentle.

And every drop of blood in my body turned to ice.

I knew that voice.

Leave no one alive. Especially the girl.

"You should have died in that fire, little human," Silas whispered. "Don't worry. Today you will."

Then he stepped back with his kind smile, patted my shoulder like an old friend, and walked away into the crowd.

I couldn't move. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't even scream.

On the other side of the ring, the crowd split open. Vera walked out into the moonlight, tall and smiling, rolling her shoulders.

And the pack began to howl.