Chapter 9

Veyra’s POV

The question remained between Kael and me. I watched him study my face, searching for an answer I wasn’t ready to give.

The report lay on the table beside us, its location bringing back every suspicion I had tried to keep separate. Seren’s threat.

My mother’s message.

The infected wolf that had recognized something in me. I couldn’t prove they were connected. But I was beginning to fear they were.

“Before you accuse my family of anything,” I said, “tell me what happened at that trade route.”

Kael’s eyes narrowed. “You’re changing the subject.”

“I’m asking about the creature you brought up.”

“Convenient.”

“Would you prefer I leave?”

“No.” He pulled out the chair opposite him. “Sit down, Veyra.”

This time, I did. He placed another sheet of paper on the table. “A northern patrol discovered an infected wolf near one of our trade routes. It wasn’t moving when they found it.”

“Dead?”

“That was their first assumption.”

My stomach tightened.

“Then what happened?”

“The patrol approached. According to the report, the creature remained motionless until they were close enough to secure the area. It moved only when one of the guards stepped forward.”

I stared at him. The creature at my estate had done something similar. It hadn’t behaved like an animal driven by hunger. It had watched me. Recognized me.

And then it spoke.

Bloodline.

One word. One impossible word that had followed me into every waking moment since.

“What did it do when it moved?” I asked.

“It attacked one of the patrol members before the others restrained it.”

“Did it make any sounds?”

Kael paused. “Why?”

“Because I asked.”

His expression warned me that my answer had not satisfied him.

“I’m not giving you unrestricted access to intelligence reports because you happen to be curious,” he said.

I leaned forward. “The creature at my estate was not an isolated incident. You have another infected wolf behaving abnormally, and now you’ve admitted it was found near a trade route. A threat like this could affect my property, your territory, and everyone who travels between them. If the creatures are changing, I have a right to understand what we’re facing.”

“You’re assuming the incidents are connected.”

“I’m asking you to consider that they might be.”

“And what makes you qualified to interpret the evidence?”

Anger rose so quickly that I had to take a breath before answering.

“Because I was there when the first creature reacted to me. Because I watched your healer struggle to explain what happened. And because you keep asking me for answers while refusing to acknowledge that I might be able to help you find them.”

Kael held my gaze. I knew I was pushing him. He was a king, accustomed to deciding who could access information and who had to wait outside the door.

But I had learned what happened when people with authority decided that their judgment was more valuable than someone else’s warning. I would not stand quietly while another disaster took shape around me.

Finally, Kael slid the report across the table.

“You may read it here. You don’t leave with it, and you don’t share its contents without my permission.”

I looked down at the document.

“Your generosity is overwhelming.”

“Would you prefer I change my mind?”

I said nothing and began reading. The first section contained the patrol’s location, the time of discovery, and the condition of the infected wolf. Most of it resembled the report from my estate.

The creature’s wolf signature had been difficult to identify, and its movements had been inconsistent with the expected progression of infection. Then I reached the witness account.

One of the patrol members had observed that, for a brief moment, the creature appeared aware of its surroundings. Not merely responsive to movement or sound.

Aware.

The witness described its eyes turning toward the patrol before it moved. For several seconds, it seemed to recognize the people standing before it. Then the moment passed, and the creature attacked.

I read the passage again. My fingers had begun to tremble.

If the witness was telling the truth, then the transformation might not erase everything that made an infected wolf who it was.

Some part of it might remain. Some part might watch from inside the thing it had become. A terrible memory rose uninvited.

In my first life, I had seen infected creatures hesitate before attacking. I had once believed those moments meant there was still something human or something wolf left inside them.

I had wanted to believe it so badly that I had made mistakes.

People had died because I had hesitated when I should have run. I swallowed hard and forced myself to continue reading. The report offered no explanation for the creature’s behavior. The patrol had contained it, transported it to a guarded holding area, and waited for further instructions.

The word seemed almost laughable now.

I remembered the creature at my estate collapsing after it spoke. I remembered the strange reaction in its blood when I approached.

I remembered how the healer had been unable to explain the energy that responded to my presence.

What if the infected weren’t simply reacting to me?

What if something inside them could recognize my bloodline?

The thought made my skin crawl. I didn’t know what my bloodline had to do with any of this. I didn’t know why Kael had seen me in his vision, or why the infected wolf had spoken that single word.

But I was beginning to suspect that the catastrophe had a connection to me that went far beyond the strange bond pulling at my wolf. And if that connection was real, my child might be caught in it too.

“Veyra.”

Kael’s voice dragged me back. I realized I had been staring at the same paragraph for too long.

I set the report down carefully. “The witness said the creature appeared aware.”

“Yes.”

“Did anyone question the patrol member further?”

“We did. He maintains that the creature looked directly at them before attacking. He couldn’t explain what he saw.”

“Did he say whether it recognized anyone?”

“No. Why would that matter?”

I looked at the report again.

“Because there’s a difference between a creature reacting to a threat and a creature recognizing something.”

Kael’s expression shifted.

“You believe it recognizes you.”

“I believe we don’t understand what we’re dealing with.”

“That isn’t what I asked.”

I hated how easily he noticed the gaps in my answers. I hated even more that part of me wanted to tell him everything.

There was a steadiness to his attention that made it difficult to dismiss him as another powerful man who only wanted obedience. He listened when I spoke, even when he disagreed with me.

But listening was not the same as trusting. And trust was something I could no longer afford to give away simply because I wanted someone to understand.

“I’ve seen what they can become,” I said.

The words came out quietly.

Kael went still.

“What does that mean?”

“It means you should stop treating these creatures as ordinary infected animals.”

“Have you encountered them before?”

I looked away.

“Veyra.”

“Yes,” I whispered. “I’ve seen what they can become.”

It was the truth. It was also nowhere near the truth he wanted. Before he could press me further, the door opened abruptly. One of his intelligence officers stepped inside, breathing hard.

“Your Majesty, we have a problem.”

Kael turned toward him. “Speak.”

“The infected wolf from the second incident has disappeared.”

For a moment, nobody moved.

“What do you mean, disappeared?” Kael demanded.

“It was being held under guard. The officers checked the enclosure during the last watch, and the creature was still there. When the next patrol arrived, the holding area was empty.”

“Was the enclosure damaged?”

“No, Your Majesty.”

“Were the guards attacked?”

“No one has reported an attack.”

Kael’s face hardened. “Then how did it leave?”

“We don’t know.”

I stared at the intelligence officer, cold spreading through my limbs. A creature that could remain motionless until someone approached. A creature that might still possess fragments of awareness.

A creature that had been secured behind guards and walls, only to vanish without explanation.

This was no longer a question of whether the Hollowborn were dangerous.

It was a question of whether anything we built could keep them out. Kael looked at me, and I saw the same realization settling behind his eyes.

“You said you’ve seen what they can become,” he said quietly.

I couldn’t look away.

He took one step closer.

“Tell me, Veyra. What happens when they stop behaving like the dead?”