Titus

Yasemin Venator warned me to be careful when falling in love, or else I'd have my face stolen from me.

I never believed my mother. Not until now.

Vyra's once rounded face was carved from exhaustion. Not by starvation. The plate of dinner I left her earlier in the night lay empty by our feet.

Limbs remained muscular, perched as they clung to her heavy door.

Shining out against the light, her eyes were glassy, like she'd taken some sort of tincture. Her head swiveled from side to side, scenting the air, looking around me and into the hall.

Just in case she caught sight of her target.

Instead her gaze found me. Sharp and absent. 

Just like Seren's.

A shiver ran through me. Then guilt. Heavier than hands squeezing around my neck.

"Vyra?" I asked. Just to be sure it was really her.

"Yes?" A nightingale, she sighed gently. Distant from all the carnage. "I know. I'm a little different." She opened the door wider. "I'm beautiful now, aren't I? I look like one of you."

Swallowing was difficult, my chest pinged with an unfamiliar ache. We are all to blame for how she feels.

I deserved to watch my friend go through this pain that I have helped build.

"You're scaring me, Princess." I couldn't keep the worry from flooding my voice.

She shook her head. "Is there something you need Titus?"

Vyra has the same aura as weeds that return every spring, or a hornet's nest you swat at but can't keep from swarming back. She burrows into your chest, and no matter how hard you try, she doesn't leave.

The harder you try to get rid of it, the more it grows.

"I'm not really sure what to say or how to do this without making an ass out of myself, so I'll do my best to speak from the heart. I am sorry for what happened. We don't really talk about your family, you don't tell me how you feel about losing them, but I know this is the hardest thing you could ever deal with."

I sound stupid, don't I?

What she wanted was her grandmother back, and I couldn't give it to her. "If I had known I would've tried to talk some sense into him. I tried to get to you. The barracks were locked from the inside, I don't even know how."

"You're not an ass." A small smile illuminated her face. "You didn't know?"

"Of course not. I had no idea." My stomach revolted at the thought. "I-I didn't expect this. I didn't even know who she was to you."

A split already formed in my skull, one person holding onto each section and pulling.

I'd urged him, over and over.

Even if you love her, you must win. You're the rightful heir, the true Alpha. She might care for you more than we know, be careful. She must complete the third trial, it's already too late.

And yet somehow I couldn't contend with the fact

he'd actually done it.

He kept the fact that Vyra wasn't the only member of Clan Lunae left alive from us. From the council. A threat that could've left us vulnerable.

"She's not a threat anymore." Seren remarked when I confronted him, crossing his hands over his stomach. "It didn't benefit me for either of you to know."

"Was all this just a game to you?" The pounding in my head only got worse. "Did you even love her at all? Or was that a lie too?"

He spoke only once more. "Games are only for the fools who play them. The pieces have already been dealt, and I am just following their path."

Whatever the fuck he'd meant by that.

Now, Seren won't talk at all, catatonic.

Already gone.

A slight nudge to my shoulder brought me back, her feather-like voice drifted through the air. "Then don't apologize for the mistakes of others."

She's still in there, in the cage of betrayal and grief. I felt a little lighter seeing it. "Then I'm just sorry."

She gave my hand a squeeze.

"I promise I'm not upset with you, as long as you're not here to ask me to forgive him." Some of the light dimmed, her black eyes shifting. "Because I can't."

"I wouldn't ask that of you."

"I know it's how you feel. I know as much as you've come to enjoy me, you can't part with him. But don't ask me to spare him." She said it simply, voice thinned. "I've tried to be good, you know."

She took a deep breath, collecting herself. But I could see the tremble in her fists.

I winced. As if she needed my cynicism weighing on her.

Vyra hadn't chosen cruelty. Even with her freedom, she'd been fair.

I didn't want her to cry. Not again. Not now. And not because of me. I've never had a little sister, all I could do is hope to distract her.

"Good doesn't mean perfect. Now..." I clapped my hands together. "Are you ready to hear why I'm actually bothering you in the middle of the night?" Flesh strained, I offered the best attempt at optimism I could manage. "The Oak Moon will be here by next week."

She nodded, lip pressed together, heel tapping the floor. "So it seems."

Putting leather gloves out of my pocket, I put them on and leaned over to grab the surprise I kept out of sight. "I had this made for you. It's much more useful than an apology."

I nudged the ornate chest plate between us, urging it into her slack hands. Her mouth dropped open, light beaming across her face from the mirror-like finish.

She huffed in disbelief. "Made from silver? You mad man, how'd you even the black smith to—"

Not a single being in this pack would make only armor she could wear.

I held a finger up to my lips.

"—I have an ally in a human village. Don't tell anyone."

She hugged the metal to her chest. I was still in awe of how her flesh refused to burn. "Careful, Titus. Or I might start to believe you want me to win."

I tapped the end of her nose, her whole face flickering before some of the darkness slipped away.

"Wouldn't be the worst thing to ever happen."

I cleared my throat, hitting door playfully, and backed away further into the hallway

"I'll leave you to sleep, or to plot the Alpha's murder. Whatever it is you do at night now." I kept his name from slipping off my tongue. "Tomorrow I'll show you how to wear the armor."

"Thank you, friend." She went to close the door, before she suddenly stopped. "My grandmother wasn't the only person I lost that day."

Understanding passed between us.

"Even if he was the worst thing to happen to me, you are one of the best."

No other Luna would recognize me, just a simple guard, with such honor. I bowed my head, hand placed over my heart, and bid her goodnight.

Before she could see just how much her words meant to me, to one who always seemed to fade between open flame and vast shadow.

And, with a heaviness I wish would disappear, that one day I'd come to this room to bother her and find no one inside.

A miserable scent slammed into me, causing my jaw ache and mouth to water. Sunlight. Evergreen trees in the winter, so piercing they felt like shards of ice to inhale. Wilted rose. It clung to my throat, scoured my nose, purged my tongue.

What the fuck was she doing following me? Why now, of all times?

I turned stiffly to face the wall as her willowy form slipped out from behind the arched stone, a pale green night dress trailing behind her with every step.

"How benevolent of you." She started off, arms crossed, eyes narrowed. Slow, ambered, her voice was sap from maple. Sickening in the way everyone thought it was kind, yet it was anything but. "To treat the Fracti like one of your own. The gods will surely forgive your transgressions."

Oh, fuck me. I could barely breathe. I focused on the stone right behind her rather than her face.

Pacify. Ignore. Leave. It would only take a few moments before she felt insulted and would storm off anyways.

"What are you doing here?" I was exhausted. Dealing with her was the last thing I needed. "Eavesdropping as per usual?"

Her infuriating smile cracked, then vanished. It tore my damn attention from the wall, wrenching me into her sea of rage.

"I came here to be with Vyra. Your friend tore her heart straight from her chest. What could you be doing here, if not soothing your own guilt?"

If she actually thought that about me, then she knew nothing. Nothing at all.

"I don't know. It seems like you've got it all figured out for me, and I won't bother to convince you of anything different." That's it, I'm done.

I wasn't going to spend another second being the target of her ill-fitted vitriol. I kept walking down the hall, my shoulders locked, lungs at bay.

She ran out in front of me, almost causing us to collide. I leapt away from her sudden nearness, chest thrumming. "I don't trust any of you."

So she's looking to fight? Fine, if she won't let me walk away, I'll give her one.

Anything to rid myself of her.

"Clearly." I placed my hand on my chin, pretending to be distraught with realization. "Wasn't Petir guarding the dungeons? I swear, I pulled him out from his post right before the start of the games."

It never crossed my mind that he would help Seren hurt Vyra. In fact, I know he never would.

But he was flint to her. I watched it now as it caught, and spread. Curious. That's all I was. How when he was around she was mellow, a cool touch of water.

And at my simple mention, she erupted.

Her eyes bore into mine a second too long. I tilted my head to the side. Bit my tongue.

Cherry spread across her pale cheeks, pooling. Her words slithered closer with each step until I could feel the air bend between us.

"I find it interesting that every time you're lacking, you insist on his inadequacy." Her steps melted closer, and I refused to be suffocated. "Do you ever admit when you're wrong?" She mimicked my concern."Oh, right you don't have to. You have a wife that makes sure everyone knows all the faults you possess."

"Keep her out of your insolent, assuming mouth." The words slashed before I could stop them. Mena didn't belong here. They couldn't touch, even in name, and yet she was forcing us all together. "So quick to attack, but my gods, do you ever look in the mirror?"

She snorted, leaning on her hip. "Come on. Tell me how Seren hurting Vyra is my fault."

Stoking me as if I didn't have anything to say about her. I've seen enough.

"If you hadn't been so stuck in your own head, you would've realized I was around you two all the time. 'Seren loves you, Seren will give up his life to save your own'." I spit her own musings back at her, savoring her flinch.

She stuttered, losing some of her inferno, her hands falling down to her sides. "I believed it from his end. I didn't know she...I just wanted her to have fun and not worry for once."

Thoughtless. Careless. Instead of Vyra being able to focus on herself, every choice she made took into account the three of them.

It brought her more shit during the second trial. It caused more Lycan of the pack to side with Cyrus and his followers.

"You filled her head with fairy tales and grandiose ideals of men with noble intentions, when that is not our world. It's not our nature. And she doesn't know, because she's the good we forfeited ages ago."

Sonya let out a huff of breath, her chest rising and falling rapidly. I could feel it.

When did we become this close?

I shifted back toward the stone, my shoulder grinding against it, but she followed.

Until her breath tangled with mine.

I felt caged in by her heat, her eyes daring me to shove her away.

My teeth nearly cracked from clenching, but before I could wrench myself free, her fingers caught my chin, cold and scorching all at once, and forced my gaze back to her.

Thwarting my only defense.

She's touching me without reason. Sweat sprouted above my brows, my upper lip. That single point of contact screamed at me. And she's not letting go.

Inconceivable.

"And what is our nature?" She took advantage of my disarray. Tugging me closer, letting me glimpse the hatred that flourished she'd buried within her. "If Fracti are others, not true Lycan, we are not entirely alike."

I made a mistake.

Her eyes were the exact same as the small lake I'd swam in as a child. It thawed only during midsummer, when the fights between my parents grew too loud, too tedious. I'd dive to the bottom, eyes open, scraping deposits loose from dull stone.

Those azurite eyes seared over me. Too astute, too observant for me to pretend she was simple.

And worse, they burned against the red locks that brushed my wrist and the small of her back. A pairing I had never seen in anyone else, a thing that belonged to nature alone, and possessed by her.

Red like sunsets I waited for, because night brought peace. Red like blood pooling under my hands after a hunt gone wrong.

Skin flush as cream on my tongue.

Her rosy mouth parted, bottom lip heavy, begging to be bitten.

As if she could hear every wretched, lascivious thought in my mind. As if she wanted me to.

Just as before.

The night of my wedding. The night I couldn't forget, no matter how much I tried.

Her hips moved in my mind, black dress dragging her sunlight body into the night, her eyes calling to me in that instant.

Disgust rose in my throat, her scent filling my aching lungs.

No. I'm stronger than whatever the fuck that was, and whatever this can't be.

It's some strange delusion. A trick of the mind. Panic at being tied to someone who doesn't share their emotions openly.

I love Mena. She has me.

This unsettling, satin desire is something only weak men would fall for, men who believe in illusions and temporary satisfaction.

I am not that man.

This is nothing.

"I was wrong about Vyra. But you and I? All of us?" I leaned closer, sneering as I yanked her hand away. My teeth itched to sink into the sprouting flush of her neck in warning, but I held back, every fiber of me alert to how her anger might twist, or whether she'd mask it with feigned propriety. "At our core, Lycan are selfish. We take what we want, when we want. And be damned the rest."

Sonya nursed her wrist between us. I hadn't been rough enough to cause her pain, I made sure of it.

"Not all," she hissed, her once-open features hardening into a mask of condescension. Chin tilted, ego slicing over my face. Reading me."Some are too afraid."

She's thought about me. A little too much.

The beast in me craved that.

A buzzard I plucked its eyes first, ground my knife into its organs. Get out of my damn head.

I backed into the wall entirely, using the chilled stone against my back to ground me. Gritting my teeth and sending her a deadly smile. "Because some things aren't worth the risk."

Sonya backed away, creating some distance, and the world still felt off-kilter.

"It is. For the people you love. I'd do anything for her." She jabbed a finger down the hall, at the only reason I tolerated her.

How dare she imply I wouldn't.

Glorious frustration arose, clarity with it. "I've scoured countless books, pricked myself with herbs and venom, all to see if I could break them. To see if there's some way out of this fucking mess."

A landslide of words crashed out of me, striking blindly. "What have you done? Did you even know the Mistress was her grandmother? Did she even think to tell you?"

The flame dimmed. Her eyes were clear water. She backed away, step by step, face written with betrayal, but that wasn't meant for me.

She slipped away as quietly as she had appeared, a phantom down the empty halls.

Did I go too far?

My hand hovered in the air, wanting to reach for her, to stop her from leaving, even though I knew I shouldn't.

The ghost of her presence lingered, close enough that each step away tugged at something I couldn't name. Sharp. Raw. Unsettled, even though I had done the right thing.

Not far enough.

***

Vyra

My grief carried me to the dungeons, all the way to her empty cell. Almost empty.

A single, used blanket remained.

I wrapped it around myself, closing my eyes as if she were beside me, pretending she was whispering stories I already knew by heart.

Slowly, I let the silence settle, imagining her sighing contentedly, finally asleep.

Hours later when I rose to leave, my fingers brushing the cold bars, knocking unsteadily against the stone wall before righting myself.

A scrap of paper slipped from a loosened crevice, fluttering to the floor. Smudged, hastily written, yet unmistakably hers:

"Save your tears. Only one can awaken what refuses to die."