LOGINSavannahNo one moved at first. Mabel's words stayed in the medical wing like a stone dropped into deep water. Beneath the hearthstone.The study.The room that belonged to Asher's mother. The room where the cedar box had waited for years without making a sound. The room where the pendant opened, where a dead woman's voice whispered to me, where a strange man had looked into my head and called me little Luna.And beneath that very room, Asher's mother had left records. Records that no one had found. Records she had hidden before she died.Asher's hand slipped from mine. I didn't think it was on purpose. One second his fingers were wrapped around mine, warm and tense. The next, he was already turning toward the door. Rowan shifted on the bed."Asher.""You stay there." Asher said."Absolutely not." Rowan said, eyes narrowing.Mabel pointed a bloodied finger at him."You take one step off that bed and I will stitch you to it." "That sounds medically questionable." "So is bleeding
AsherMabel's expression changed. Only slightly. But just enough that I saw it."You've heard that name from her..."The room seemed to shrink around us. Savannah's hand tightened around mine."What did Valtheris have to do with my mother?" I asked.Mabel looked away. "Mabel. Please."She swallowed, then lifted her eyes to mine."Your mother knew that name too."No one moved.The words lingered between us, both terrible and impossible.My mother knew Valtheris.My mother, whose ashes had awakened for Savannah. My mother, whose pendant had shown Savannah the face of the Bloodborn that was now testing our walls.Suddenly, none of it felt separate anymore.Not the box awakening.Not Savannah.Not Valtheris.Not my mother's death. I looked at Mabel."Tell me everything."For the first time since I had known her, Mabel looked like she wanted to run.And that frightened me more than Valtheris.Mabel stood in the center of the medical wing with blood on her hands and fear in her eyes.S
AsherThe shears cut through Rowan's coat with ease. The sound should not have bothered me. It was only fabric giving away beneath Mabel's hands. Steady. Clean. Necessary.But every inche she peeled back, more blood was revealed.More damage. More proof that Rowan had gone out there in my place and paid the price for it.Four deep slashes carved across his side, red and angry against his skin. The edges had started to knit, but now fast enough. Dark bruising spread beneath them like storm clouds under flesh.A thin line of blood slipped down his ribs.My hand tightened where it rested against his face. He glanced up at me."I'm still breathing you know.""Yes but you're bleeding."His mouth twitched."That does tend ot happen when something sharp disagrees with me."Mable clicked her tongue."If sarcasm could heal wounds, you would be immortal."Rowan looked down at her."Is that your official diagnosis?""No. The official one is that you're a reckless fool with pretty cheekbones an
AsherFor a moment, I heard nothing beyond the blood rushing in my ears.Little Luna.The words replayed in Savannah's voice, but they belonged to him.This stranger from her vision. The thing that had somehow reacher her through my mother's pendant. "But how? How did it reach her?" I thought to myself. A growl rolled through my chest. Low. Uncontrolled.Nero pressed hard against my skull, furious enough that my fingers curled against my sides."He KNOWS her...""I know.""He called her Luna... before we did...""Nero... I know.""He doesn't get to call her that. He will die.""Working on that..."Savannah patted my hands as I stood, removing them from her face. As I looked away from her and back to Rowan, I noticed his face had gone still.Not confused, but recogition. Which was way worse."Rowan?"His eyes met mine."The thing you are describing, Savannah. Sounds like the man I fought outside. But first how did she know that if she was inside?""I'll explain in detail later but t
SavannahThe growl shook the room. Not metaphorically.It literally shook the room. The fire bent low in the hearth. The windows rattled. The golden light spilling from the cedar box flickered like it had been struck by a sudden wind.I flinched.Asher's hand tightened around my arms. It wasn't enough to hurt, but enough to remind me that he was holding himself together with claws dug into the very edges of his control.Gold burned through his eyes."Asher." I whispered.His gaze snapped to mine.For one terrifying heartbeat, I saw the wolf there.Searching, hunting. Trying to find whatever had touched me through the pendant so he could rip it clean from this world. Mabel stepped fully into the study."Alpha."The word cracked through the air like a whip.Asher's jaw flexed.His growled faded, but didn't disappear. It stayed low in his chest, a warning rumble that made the pendant warm against my palm."I'm okay." I said quickly."No." He said "You're not." I opened my mouth to argue
SavannahThe study was dark except for the fire. And the box?It sat on Asher's desk exactly where I remembered it, small and carved and ordinary enough that it should not have been able to make the entire house tremble.But it wasn't ordinary now.Golden light seeped through the seems in the wood. The lid had just barely cracked open. A thin line of warmth spilled out across the desk, catching on papers, the ink bottle, the edge of Asher's abandoned coat.Cedar hit my nose next, followed by smoke and something soft beneath it. Lavender maybe. Asher went very still beside me. Mabel stopped at the doorway and did not come farther in.I glanced back."You're not coming?""No, hun.""Why?""Because that," she said, nodding toward the desk, "is not calling me."The warmth in my chest pulled again.My feet moved before I gave them permission to move.Asher stayed beside me, close enough that his shoulder brushed mine. I could feel the restraint in him. Every instinct wanted me to allow







