LOGINCHAPTER 27The Empty HouseThe house on the Blackwater docks looked like any other.It was a squat brick building with boarded windows and a rusted gate, wedged between a fish warehouse and a shipping yard. A seagull stood on the roof. The air smelled of salt and rotting rope. There were no guards. No cameras. No lights."It's too quiet," said Rowan."Agreed." Kaelen crouched beside Wren behind a stack of crates. He had changed into black fighting clothes, and a thin scar still showed on his side where Voss's blade had gone in. "Six wolves on the roofs. Four at the doors. Two on the water. Nobody goes in until I give the word.""And me?""You stay with me.""Kaelen.""I know. You can fight. You've proven it twice." A very small smile tugged at his mouth. "But the last time I let you out of my sight, you were nearly kidnapped by a hired actor. I am a nervous man.""You're a ridiculous man.""Yes. Come."Lyra, Wren thought. Can you feel anything?Cold, said the white wolf. Old metal. An
CHAPTER 26Vivienne's Last CardThe note was slipped under Wren's clinic door on Saturday night.It was written on pink stationery in a loopy hand she knew all too well. Meet me at the old mill bridge. Midnight. Come alone or don't come at all. — V."No," said Kaelen."I haven't said anything.""You were going to.""I was going to consider it." Wren turned the paper over in her fingers. "She wouldn't ask me out there for nothing. She hates me. Something has changed.""She may have been paid to lure you.""She may have.""Wren.""I'll take Rowan." She held up her hand before he could object. "And you'll be in the trees with a dozen warriors. And Kor will be in my head the whole time. That's not alone. That's a parade."Kaelen's jaw worked. A long pause followed."Fine," he said at last. "But if she so much as sneezes in your direction...""You can bite her.""I will bite her in half.""That's my wolf."* * *They drove out to Silverpine in the dark.Kaelen did not talk much. He kep
CHAPTER 25Damien on His KneesThe Silverpine car arrived at dawn, driven by a boy who looked about fifteen and terrified."Please," the boy gasped, when the guards stopped him at the gate. "Please, I have to see the Luna. It's my Alpha. It's Damien. He's dying."Wren was in the kitchen, drinking tea in her robe, when the message came. She set down the cup."Let him in," she said."Wren." Kaelen stood in the doorway, already half dressed. "This could be a trick.""It could be.""Then why...""Because if it isn't," she said quietly, "and I do nothing, I will have to live with it."* * *Damien Blackthorne lay in the back seat of a station wagon, covered with a blanket.Wren almost did not recognize him.He had been a big, handsome man, broad in the shoulders, golden-haired and arrogant. Now he was a skeleton wrapped in gray skin. His hair had thinned. His eyes were sunken. His breath rattled in his chest like dry leaves, and when he saw her, his cracked lips moved."Wren.""Damien.
CHAPTER 24Council of WolvesOrla held the locket under a lamp for a long time.She turned it. She tilted it. She pressed a tiny glass lens to the silver and breathed out through her nose."Moonsilver," she said at last."What does that mean?" asked Wren."It means this is not a trinket from a market stall." Orla set the locket down. Her old hands were shaking a little. "Moonsilver can only be made by a Soul Link. It is metal that has been soaked in the light of a Link's power. There are only a few dozen pieces in the world. Each one is a gift from one Link to another."Wren stared at the little crescent. "My name is on it.""Yes. Engraved by a loving hand." Orla looked up. "Luna, I do not think your mother died in a fire."The room went silent."I think," Orla went on, very softly, "that your mother was a Soul Link. And I think someone has been hiding her, or hiding what she was, for a very long time."Kaelen's hand found Wren's. She gripped it hard."The crow carried a Hollow Moon m
CHAPTER 23FatedThe best days of Wren's life began on a Thursday.It was nothing special. There was no ceremony. There was no music. She woke up in her own bed in the pack house, with sun on her face and a warm weight at her back. A heavy arm lay across her waist. A face was pressed into her hair.She had never woken up like this before.Kaelen was asleep.She lay very still, afraid to breathe. They had not done anything. Not yet. He had simply held her last night, on the sofa in the sitting room, after a long evening of talking. At some point they had both fallen asleep, and at some other point he had carried her to bed and climbed in behind her, still in his shirt, with one hand tucked carefully at her hip as though to say, only if you want.She wanted.She turned over very slowly. He looked younger in his sleep. The lines around his mouth had softened. A dark curl had fallen across his forehead, and without thinking, she brushed it back.His eyes opened."Good morning," Wren whisp
CHAPTER 22The Truth Under the MaskKaelen woke in the infirmary with the sun in his eyes.For one blissful second, he felt perfect. His body was light. His head was clear. He could feel Kor inside him, calm and wide awake, stretching like a cat in a warm window.Then he remembered everything.He sat up so fast that the nurse at the foot of his bed dropped a clipboard."Alpha! You shouldn't...""Where is my wife?""Resting, Alpha. She has been asleep for two days. Dr. Marsh says...""Where?"The nurse pointed.She was in the next bed, curled on her side with a blanket tucked to her chin. Her hair was loose over the pillow. She looked small. She also looked, for the first time since he had met her, completely peaceful.Kaelen sat very still and watched her sleep.It was her, he thought. It was her all along.He had known it on the road. He had said it out loud. But in the daylight, with his head clear, the truth struck him again, wave after wave. Every little moment came back: the scar







