Lumina.
“Mina, wake up!”
I jolted forward in the cage.
That was Bram’s voice which frightened me out of my slumber.
I couldn’t even remember what the dream was about, but it seemed so real.
I sighed.
My heart ached for him.
And Fenris.
Once they learned of my location, I knew they would come for me. It was just a matter of when.
I glanced around, rubbing my sleepy eyes.
And that’s when they fell on her.
Slowly, the activity in the room crept up on me. My brain began adjusting to what was happening.
Alora was awake.
Aegor was there, seated by her bedside, holding her hand gently. He cooed and smiled at her. It was the first genuine smile I’d seen on his face since I got here. His hands combed through her scanty hair, and he whispered sweet nothings to her. I’d have never known he was capable of such warmth if I hadn’t witnessed it.
“Seventy pulse cycles, my love,” he said as he kissed the back of her hand. “You were away from me for so long.”
The maids and healers were scurrying about like headless chickens. The difference was that their movements were out of excitement. Of course, if Aegor was happy, no one would lose their heads.
“Where… where am I, and who are you?” she asked softly.
“You’re home, my love.” His voice was gentle and patient. “And it’s me, Aegor, your mate and husband. You’ve been sick for a while. You were in a coma, and you just recovered.”
She held his gaze for several heartbeats. Then recognition flashed in her eyes. She reached out and stroked his face, smiling faintly. “Aegor.”
The Alpha cocked his head to the side and lifted his hand, placing it over hers. “Yes, darling. It’s me. I missed you so much.”
“What happened? How? The last thing I remember was…” She paused, trying to recollect the memories. “It felt like my head was on fire, and then I collapsed and it went dark.”
He nodded. “We tried everything but couldn’t identify what was wrong. All herbs and treatments failed. But you’re okay now because you were sung back to health by a Velari.” He said, gesturing toward me with his chin.
Alora turned to look at me, and I saw nothing in her eyes. They weren’t unfocused, just vacant. I could have made up an excuse, concluding it was as a result of her recovering from an illness. However, I knew that wasn’t the case. When she stared at me, her eyes were blank. No compassion. No pity. Nothing. Her face was completely devoid of any expression.
Was she just like Aegor?
I didn’t need to wonder for too long when my suspicions were confirmed.
She turned back to him. “You got her for me? To heal me?”
Aegor’s smile almost tore up his face. “Yes, sweetheart, I did. I made a promise to myself that I wouldn’t let you rot away in this bed. It took me a while, but I finally got my hands on a Velari.” His gaze locked on mine as he spoke. “She didn’t come cheap, but seeing you awake in my arms was definitely worth it.”
She raised her free palm over her mouth and coughed into it. “Thank the gods. I would have hated to spend my life in this bed.”
“It’s a miracle, Luna,” the head maester chimed in. “We almost lost you.”
She shifted her gaze to him. “No, it wasn’t. You just heard my lord husband. It was the Velari.” Her eyes landed on me again. “I believe the gods created them for this reason. To cater to the needs of wolves and humans. They were made to be useful to us.” She turned back to him. “Think about it. Is it any wonder that their gifts bestow good health and wealth? Two of the most important things to humans and wolves alike.”
The maester bowed and said nothing.
That was when all the pity I felt for her disappeared. My instincts were right. She was just like him. Which was why I didn’t feel bad about what I knew was coming next. Instead, I made peace with it. And if I lost my life because of that, I’d have no regrets whatsoever.
TWO DAWNS LATER.
In the dawns following her recovery, Alora barely spared me a glance.
The Duchess acted like I wasn’t even there, and when she did notice, she treated me like I was a nuisance when I asked for food or water. She basked in Aegor’s attention and affection while ordering the servants about. They were all on their toes in her presence, especially when the Alpha was around.
Two dawns later, her malady returned, and this time it was much worse than before.
I was quietly humming to myself in the cage. A maid was folding away her washed clothes when, out of nowhere, she surged forward and projectile-vomited thick, black bile onto the floor.
The stench in the chamber was immediate. It stank of rotted eggs and death.
I didn’t move. Didn’t react. My tired eyes just watched her as her face contorted in pain and she released another waterfall of bile right beside her bed. This time, it was accompanied by live, wriggling maggots.
As for the maid?
She dropped the clothes she was folding and let out a blood-curdling scream. She stepped back several paces while covering her mouth with her hands.
The door flew open, and the guard who was on the other side looked in. His eyes found the maid first before they rested on the duchess. He stood by the threshold, watching Alora empty her insides onto the marble floor.
He gasped. “I’ll go get help!” He then ran off. His cries for help travelled down the hall the further he got.
The maid backed herself against a wall, frozen in fear, while Alora clutched her stomach, writhing in pain on the bed. “It hurts,” she whined. “It hurts a lot.”
Less than a second later, Aegor was the first through the door. His countenance was cocooned in terror. “Alora, what’s wrong?”
Shortly after, the maesters and healers followed. They set to work on her immediately.
The chamber smelled of sweat, blood, and burned herbs. She lay twisted in the sheets, her back arched off the mattress as another wave of pain pierced through her.
“Make it stop,” she gasped, her fingers clawing at the air. “Please—please, it hurts, it hurts—”
“We’re doing everything we can, my lady,” one healer whispered, but her voice cracked.
The healers worked frantically—pressing cool cloths to her brow, forcing bitter tinctures between her clenched teeth, chanting soft incantations that did nothing.
The Alpha moved around them restlessly. “What in the name of the Dawnfather is wrong with her?!” Aegor demanded. “What is going on?!”
“We don’t know, Alpha,” one of the maesters spoke up as they worked. “Somehow, her sickness returned, and it’s even worse than before.”
“How can that be possible? The Velari sang her back to health… she’s—was fine.”
The maester shot him a glance and then directed his gaze my way but said nothing. I could see it in his stare; he knew. He knew it was the lament I sang to her. His eyes returned to Alora.
“Aegor,” she whimpered.
He dashed to her side. “I’m here,” he said, stroking her hair. “Don’t talk. Just let the maesters work, okay?”
Alora screamed. A raw, throat-shredding sound that echoed off the stone walls and buried itself in my chest like a blade. The Alpha stood frozen, his hands quivering as he watched the life drain from the woman he loved, being utterly powerless to stop it.
Then, as soon as it started, the screaming stopped.
The silence that followed was worse.
The lead maester turned, his face ashen. “My lord… I’m so sorry. We did all we could. But she’s gone.”
The words didn’t register. Not at first. He stared at his wife’s still form, at the way her hand had gone slack against the sheets, at the emptiness where her life had been. Then the grief hit him like a collapsing mountain, buckling his knees and ripping a sound from his throat that was more animal than man.
Everyone in the room bowed their heads in sorrow.
He knelt there for minutes, but it felt like hours. When he finally rose, he turned his eyes on me. They were bloodshot, dry, and hollow. His face turned a dark mottled red as it finally dawned on him.
“You,” he breathed, crossing the room in a few strides. “You did this.”
I didn’t flinch. “I tried to warn you.”
“Bring her back.”
“I can’t.”
“BRING HER BACK!” He slammed his fists against the cage. The iron groaned, bars bent.
I scampered backward, but my voice remained steady and quiet. “I told you what my lament would do. You didn’t listen. You wanted me to sing her to health, but rather, that just sealed her fate.” I met his eyes, my hands shuddering. “My voice heals, but when forced in poor conditions, it turns deadly. Now it’s done the opposite of what it was meant to do—and you have no one to blame but yourself.”
I watched as his profile was consumed by blinding rage. He ripped the cage door off its hinges, and his hands closed around my throat. I didn’t fight him or beg. Somehow, I knew it would make no difference.
My throat tightened until I couldn’t draw a breath.
He flung me across the room. Curling into a fetal position, I braced for impact. My back slammed against the stone wall, and I heard a dull crack. Pain spiked up my spine, and heat flared in the spot where the crack emitted.
He called in his guards. “Take her to the dungeons,” he ordered, his voice dead and flat. “She awaits execution at dawn.”
As the guards dragged my exhausted body out of the room, Aegor turned back to the bed, sank to his knees beside Alora, and wept.