The snow crunched beneath Michael's feet as he walked the castle grounds. Other than the inconvenience of a particularly heavy snowfall, winter weather did not bother him, but the chill in the air was so fierce that not even the midday sun could lessen its sting. The slight breeze whirling around forced him to shove his hands in his coat pockets and lower his head to protect his face from its unwavering assault.

He could have very well gone back inside the castle, but the outdoors offered the solitude he would not get were he to return. And besides, he could not remember the last time he had time truly to himself.

For weeks, time had not been his own, and was so entirely divided between the Woodlands and the castle that this sudden few hours free of any courting, pack meeting, secret meeting, or quest was... strange. But he was not going to let it go to waste, even if he had nothing in particular to fill that time with.

And so he kept walking—around the castle, past the burial grounds, and before he knew it, he was in front of the tall hedged garden labyrinth in the back courtyard, standing in the very spot the wolf and fairy from the past—Raphael and Kora—first met. The dagger was not on his person, but he did not need it for the memory it had shown him of that very night to come forth in his mind.

As if he had been there, Michael smelled the sweetness in the air as the breeze blew Kora's scent in Raphael's direction. As if he was Raphael, he felt a deep warmth spread throughout his own chest as Raphael marveled over her unprecedented beauty. He felt his own chest tighten, the strong urge to protect, and raging need to claim the moment their two worlds collided, and witnessed the unavoidable fate of two becoming one.

But then the memory morphed into one of his own—the night his and Ellette's worlds collided and brought forth a similar fate.

The sweetness in the air became overpowered by the metallic scent of his blood. The warmth in his chest was replaced by a deep coldness caused by the poison slowly spreading throughout his body. And the internal fight to claim became a fight to live because his life was slipping away.

Michael forced his eyes open to stop the memory from venturing off any further. He let out a heavy sigh before lowering his head and staring at the ground. Normally, he would have beat himself up over slipping up, but it was the first time he was able to go half a day without thinking of her.

That, at least, was progress.

"Michael?"

The sound of his name made him lift his head. When he turned it to the left, he saw his Aunt Emilia standing no more than five feet away, her blue eyes wide and full of worry as she stared at him. "Are you alright?"

He forced a smile. "I am fine, Aunt Emilia. Just a bit of a headache."

It was not entirely untrue as every thought of Ellette did cause him pain to some degree.

She crossed over to him and reached out to grab hold of his arm. "We should get you back inside. The cold is certainly not going to do you any favours."

"'Tis really not too bad."

She only continued to stare at him, scanning her eyes over his face before meeting his gaze. "Then shall we at least escape this ferocious wind? It has been ages since I last entered the labyrinth, but I am certain I still remember the way to its core. What do you say?"

Michael was not particularly in the mood to hang out with his aunt, but he had a feeling she would not take no for an answer. The fact she was roaming outside alone and not by his mother or Danica's side—the only two places he ever found her—meant either she, too, found herself with a bit of free time, or she had been looking for him.

And because she was his mother's sister, he was betting it was the latter.

"Sure."

She smiled then tightened her grip on his arm as they made their way towards the labyrinth.

Despite it being more of a landmark for show than a place to enter, the labyrinth, which was technically more of a maze, had always been well maintained. After a series of twists and turns that brought them nearly to the centre, his aunt spoke.

"Do you know why the Alpha turned the labyrinth his wife so dearly loved into a maze?"

"Out of grief after she died."

The story had been told to Michael many times, and he had always remembered wondering why the Alpha had destroyed rather than preserved the one thing that served as a reminder of his mate. But now that he knew that very Alpha was capable of stabbing his own son and so easily manipulated by the Witches into starting an unjust war against the Fae, doing nonsensical things seemed to have completely defined his character.

"That is what the stories say, but I believe that to be only partly true."

He looked at her. "Then what is your belief, Aunt Emilia?"

She glanced back at him long enough to offer a soft smile before she turned her sights back towards the path ahead of them. They were nearly to the centre. A single turn all that was left.

"That he had it built so he could litter every path with his love for her, and bury every memory of her within every dead end, so that by the time he reached the centre, there would be nothing left. Only emptiness."

Once they made it to the said centre, they both stopped and looked ahead. It was large but had always been void of anything to fill the space.

She let go of his arm only to slip her hand in his. When he turned to look at her, she was already looking at him, sadness swimming in her blue eyes. "I believe he built it in order to let her go."

He looked down at their hands. His immediate urge was to pull his away, but he could not move. In that moment, as his heart began to race, pumping ice cold panic through his veins, Michael realized exactly why his aunt had sought him out.

She knew about Ellette.

"My mother told you? Everything?"

"Reina may be older, but I am fiercely protective of her, and as a result, there is very little she can keep from me."

True as that may have been, for her own safety as well as Ellette's, his mother should not have told his aunt anything.

"What is it you wish to say, Aunt Emilia?"

She let go of his hand to instead place it on his cheek. Her warm touch was a welcomed contrast to the cold, yet he could not say it was comforting. But just as quickly as she placed it there, she dropped it.

"A century ago, our people went to war against the Fae because a wolf and fairy fell in love. And the world that created that love became the same world that wanted to destroy it. We cannot control who we love, but we can control how we act upon it and as a result of it.

"My dear nephew, I am glad you have found both love and your mate, as that is truly a luxury in our world. But a fairy and a wolf cannot be. The conflicts of our worlds have made it so."

"I do not plan on being with her. I swore to take Danica as a mate and I will do so." He knew what would happen if he did not.

"I want nothing more for you than to be happy, Michael, but sometimes happiness in our world comes in the form of being content. Our world is not always fair nor just, but it is ours, and we must accept its cruelties and live our lives trying to at least lessen them rather than add on to them."

She gazed down at the snowy ground for a few moments before looking back up at him. "I do not expect you to love Danica, only that you keep our world from entering another century long war."

"The Fae are gone. She is all that remains, but as I am sure you know, that will not be for much longer."

"Not a war on the outside," she lifted her hand and placed it on his chest, "but a war within."

Michael looked down at where she had placed her hand just over his heart.

She did not have to voice her implications for him to know exactly what she was getting at. If he did not let Ellette go, his feelings will only drive him to be at war with himself. And as the future Alpha, his people and those closest to him will only end up suffering for years to come as a result.

But should he not take his aunt's words with a grain of salt? She may have loved him and his mother, but she was still a member of Danica's father's pack and her loyalties laid with them.

Or would it due him good to heed her warning? He knew how powerful grief could be and how quickly it consumed those who became its prey, but taking her advice would mean truly severing his connection to Ellette once and for all.

Could he let her go in order to spare the world from enduring a long, unyielding darkness? Was he confident if he did not, he would not become like the Alpha from the past, or a similar—if not worse—version of his father?

He did not know the answers, only that he could not let either scenario's outcome come to pass.

He looked up at his aunt.

She dropped her hand from his chest and a soft smile spread across her lips as she stared into his eyes. "I think I will head back now. Will you join me, or would you like to stay a while longer?"

"I... I will stay."

She nodded. "Stay as long as you need." She then turned and began making her way out of the labyrinth.

Michael watched her go, and once she was out of sight, he turned his attention to the centre of the labyrinth. Despite its emptiness, the beautiful sight of the unsoiled snow blanketing the ground and the sunlight reflecting off its surface made up for what it lacked.

He could not think of a better place to let her go.

* * *

Standing behind his seated mother, Michael placed the sheathed dagger on top of her vanity table. Through the mirror, he watched as she stopped brushing her hair, glanced down at it, then up at him. He expected the look of confusion she gave him, but not the soft smile that followed it.

"I thank you for your concern, but I am well protected." She resumed brushing her hair.

"'Tis not for your protection, but for the Witches."

The only reason he had gone to her chambers was to give her the dagger so that she could give it to Moreena, as his many calls to Zanna had gone unanswered for days.

Again, she looked down at the dagger. She placed the hair brush down next to it before picking it up by the hilt and holding it up to her face. "The dark object?"

He no longer found himself fazed by how much his mother knew. "Yes."

She turned her head and looked up at him. "How? Where?"

"Inside of the locked room in the West Wing." As for the how, he was still not entirely sure why the room had opened itself to him, but it had and that was all that mattered. "I came to ask you to deliver it to Moreena."

She turned her head away and faced her mirror once again. She traded the dagger for a bottle, opened it and dabbed its contents on the inside of her wrist. Within seconds, the familiar aroma of peony filled his nose.

"Moreena? Why not give it to Zanna yourself?"

"She has been ignoring my calls."

"Are you sure she has been ignoring you and not the other way around?"

He crossed his arms. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"You have been spending a lot of time with Danica these past days."

"And where else should I be other than by the side of the girl forced upon me?"

"I just worry if all of your time is being spent with her, then what about your fairy?"

"What about her?"

Was her concern a result of finally realizing her own safety relied on getting Ellette out of the Woodlands? Or was she aware Ellette was dying, and that was why she asked?

"If you care so much about her, you should not have told aunt Emilia of her existence."

"Emilia will not tell."

"You cannot be certain of that."

"She is my sister."

"Who is not a member of this pack—"

"No, but she is my blood. There are few things I am absolutely certain of in this world, and Emilia's loyalty to me above all else is one of them."

And was it out of loyalty to her that prompted his aunt to tell him to bury every memory and all feelings for Ellette in the labyrinth a few days prior? He could see her actions as a means to protect his mother, but it also could have been her way of ensuring the union between him and Danica happened no matter what. Loyalty was, after all, a two-way street.

"Clearly, I have not forgotten about her, as I have done everything required of me to help get her home, but I no longer wish to be involved. That is what I came to tell you and why I have given you the dagger. The Witches now have everything they need to open the door, which means the rest is up to them."

His mother let out a heavy sigh before rising from her seat and turning to face him.

"Can you truly so easily remove yourself from the plan after all this time? After coming this far?"

"I can and I will."

"She is your true mate, Michael."

"Which means nothing in our world. She was a mistake."

She shook her head. "You do not mean that. To find fault in our Goddess is to curse her."

"You lost a son, I, a brother, and she, her family and people, because of me. So what else can I do but curse the Goddess for bestowing such a fate upon us?"

She did not respond, only continued to shake her head. And the more she did, the angrier he became.

"I went to the Woodlands to find Gabriel and nearly died. If I had never gone, she would not have had to save me and I never would have fallen in love with her. Remember the bird I tried to save? Father snapped its neck right in front of me and tossed it at my feet. Every time I tried to help, I only made things worse. With Gabriel, with Ellette, with the bird. The best thing I can do for her is stay away. None of this would be happening if I had only stayed away."

Her eyes filled with tears as she gazed at him with that all too familiar look of sadness and pity. "Do you love her?"

"Does it matter?"

"Of course, it matters."

"Does it? I cannot be with her. I cannot spend the rest of my life with her. I cannot..." he paused, trailing his eyes from her to the dagger on the table behind her. "A wolf cannot be with a fairy. So, tell me," he returned his gaze to her, "does it matter?"

She closed the space between them and placed a hand on his cheek. He watched as her eyes trailed over his face, not looking but as if she was seeing him for the first time. The difference was subtle, but noticeable. Just as noticeable as the fear that replaced the pity he could now clearly see due to their closeness.

She met his eyes, her tears threatening to spill over. "Do you know why Ellette is dying?"

"Because she has been away from the Fae."

"Yes, but that is not the only reason. 'Tis also because she does not have half her light. And do you know where that missing half is?" Her tears finally fell when she moved her hand from his cheek and placed it on his chest. "In here. Inside of you."

Michael looked down at her hand then back up at her. Unease slowly started to creep in and he felt his body begin to tense. "What are you talking about?"

"Think back to that night, Michael, and you will find the truth."

He remembered Ellette performing a spell.

A blinding white light.

Gabriel, in wolf form, biting her.

The light going out.

Rushing to her side.

Her broken staff, and the debilitating pain when his memories flooded back the moment he picked it up.

He shook his head because it was impossible.

'Impossible.' Was that not what Ellette had said to him the night he discovered her in the Woodlands protecting the door? When she had placed her hand on his very chest, just where his mother's very hand currently laid, had he not felt an undeniable warmth underneath her fingertips?

Her light within him had yearned to be reunited with its owner.

Ellette knew? This whole time she knew and said nothing when saying something—anything—could save her? Why did she always choose everyone but herself?

He glared at his mother.

"Why did you not tell me?"

"Ellette did not want you to know."

"How kind of you to choose respecting her wishes over saving her life."

"Over saving her life? I put my first born down to save her life, Michael. To save the Fae. Do not speak as if I have done nothing."

Michael paused. As wrong as she was, she was also right. "You are right. You have done everything but tell me the truth."

"There were many reasons why I did not want you to remember that night, and that was one of them. If you knew that you carried a part of her inside of you—her lifeline, that could kill you if extracted, she explained—I knew you would do anything to give it back no matter the cost. And I could not lose another child, especially not the only one I had left. And so her wishes aligned with mine."

"Then why tell me now? If you did not care whether she lived or died as long as I lived, why force me to take responsibility for her? Why go along with the plan to get her to the Fae world? Was it your guilt?"

"Because it is the right thing to do. If only we lived doing the right things, perhaps the world would not be such a cold and dark place filled with all of our wrongs. If we wish for even the slightest bit of light and warmth, we must do what is right. The right thing to do is save her. Do not view the deaths of your brother and the bird as failures. You are strong enough to protect her, Michael. You quite literally have that ability inside of you."

"Even if it costs my life?"

She gave him a soft smile but it did not reach her eyes. "To find fault in our Goddess is to curse her."

He knew right away that was not his mother's way of saying fate will always play out the way it is meant to, but her accepting the unchangeable fact that Ellette would always choose him and, no matter how hard he tried to do otherwise, he would always choose her.

Before he could respond, she turned and walked back over to her vanity. She sat down, picked up her brush and began to run it through her hair.

He followed after her and picked up the dagger. He looked at his mother before leaning down and placing a kiss on top of her head.

He wished he could promise her she would not lose him, but they both knew he could not. All he could do was fight his hardest to get Ellette home—with her light intact—and try to do the same.