Chapter 3

My head snapped to the side as a metallic taste spread through my mouth.

"Rosalie is willing to give up the one trip she's wanted for years just to make you feel better, and you can't even answer her. This is her Saintess ceremony, Elara. Does everyone still have to revolve around you?"

I no longer had the strength to explain myself.

The slap sent my already blurred vision reeling, and I had to brace myself against the counter to keep from collapsing in front of them.

Astra gave a weak whimper somewhere deep inside me. She tried to spare me some of the pain, but her presence faded again almost at once.

The allergic reaction was draining Astra's last reserves, while her failing strength left my body unable to heal itself.

Caught between the two, even my heartbeat had begun to falter.

Kael finally frowned. "That's enough, Aiden. This is Rosalie's Saintess ceremony. Don't turn it into a spectacle."

I looked up at him and realized he had not even asked whether I was hurt. He had only stopped Aiden because he did not want Rosalie's ceremony ruined.

Rosalie stood in my mother's arms with tears sliding silently down her face. "Please don't be angry with Elara. This is all my fault. I never should have accepted the title, and I shouldn't have asked Kael to take me to Moonstone Falls."

Even as she offered to surrender everything, her fingers tightened around the sleeve of the moonstone gown, as though she feared someone might believe her and take it away.

My father's gaze settled on me, heavy with exhaustion and disgust.

"Why must everything become a competition with you?" he asked. "Rosalie wants one ceremony that is entirely her own, and you still have to ruin it for everyone."

I opened my mouth, but my throat felt bound in wire. "I'm... having an allergic reaction."

The words came out so faintly that my mother leaned closer. "What did you say?"

I forced myself to try again. "I need the emberroot tonic."

Aiden cut me off with a laugh. "You were standing perfectly well a few minutes ago. Rosalie starts crying, and suddenly you can barely stay on your feet?"

Kael's Alpha pressure bore down harder.

Astra was already fading, and the force of his command crushed what little strength she had left.

My whole body began to shake.

I tried to speak again, but my throat had closed too far for any sound to escape. All I could do was brace myself against the floor and struggle for air, though to them, it was only another attempt to keep up the act.

Rosalie gave a small cough.

Her knees buckled, and she sagged into my mother's arms.

"Mom, I feel dizzy."

Kael's attention snapped away from me.

My mother tightened both arms around Rosalie.

"Is the gown too heavy? Did Elara frighten you?"

My father turned on me at once. "Look what you've done to your sister."

A breathless laugh slipped out of me before I could stop it.

All Rosalie had to do was cough, and the fact that I could no longer breathe ceased to matter.

I pushed myself upright and staggered toward the door.

Aiden stepped into my path. "Apologize to Rosalie first."

I shook my head and tried to move around him.

He caught my wrist, and when I instinctively pulled free, his expression hardened.

"If you can't control your temper, you can cool off in the back."

He seized my arm again and dragged me toward the rear of the bakery, ignoring my attempts to pull away.

Fear cut through the haze in my head. "What are you doing?"

"Giving you time to calm down."

He opened the storage room.

Silver-moon flowers had been stacked inside for the Saintess ceremony, along with boxes containing Rosalie's moonstone crown.

The moment the door moved, pollen-heavy air rushed over me.

My throat tightened the moment I breathed in the pollen.

I caught hold of the doorframe and tried to warn Aiden, but my swollen throat closed around the words, leaving only a broken gasp.

Aiden lost what little patience he had left when I refused to release the doorframe, and he peeled my fingers away one by one.

"A few minutes in there won't kill you."

He shoved me inside. My phone slipped from my pocket and skidded beneath the farthest shelf before I landed hard on the floor, my lungs fighting for every breath.

Aiden shut the door behind me, and the lock clicked into place.

I crawled toward it and pounded with what little strength remained, but my swollen throat produced nothing more than a broken rasp.

Everyone outside was gathered around Rosalie. No one heard the faint sounds from the storage room while the pollen settled deeper into my lungs.

My airway narrowed, darkness crowded the edges of my vision, and the silver markings continued to climb.

An ordinary pollen reaction might have yielded to one dose of emberroot tonic.

With my Wolf Soul Decay Syndrome already in its final stage, the pollen trapped inside that room could push the reaction beyond what my body could survive.

Astra's voice brushed weakly through my thoughts.

"Elara... I don't think I can protect you anymore."

Tears finally slipped down my face. "It's all right. None of this is your fault."

I refused to collapse there without trying to escape.

Using the wall for support, I forced myself upright and drove my shoulder into the door again and again before feeling along the walls for another way out.

The door was locked from the outside, and bundles of silver-moon flowers blocked the only vent.

I spent the last of my strength trying to move the shelves away from it, but my legs gave out first, and I crashed to the floor.

My fingers brushed against a smooth case beneath the shelf, and I remembered the phone that had fallen when Aiden shoved me inside.

I dragged it into my palm and called the Silver Moon Clinic's emergency line with shaking fingers.

"Silver Moon Clinic. Tell me your location."

I opened my mouth, but only a broken rasp came out. With the last of my strength, I forced out, "Moonlight Bakery... storage room..."

The phone slipped from my hand, and the screen went dark.