CHAPTER 4 - Secrets and Scars
1278 Words
The warmth of the cabin wrapped around me like a blanket I didn't deserve.
I sat in the chair, shivering despite the fire, my wet clothes clinging to my skin. Everything hurt. My feet. My chest. My head where my two wolves still snarled at each other, quieter now but not silent. Never silent.
Thalia moved around the cabin with quick efficiency, pulling supplies from a cabinet. Bandages. Dried herbs that smelled sharp and medicinal. A clay jar filled with something dark and thick.
"Take off your shoes," she said without looking at me.
I almost laughed. "I'm not wearing any."
She turned, saw my shredded feet, and her expression hardened. Not with disgust. With anger. The kind that wasn't directed at me but at the people who'd made me run until my feet bled.
"Riven," she said quietly. "Get her dry clothes.
There's a spare shirt in the chest."
He moved to obey without question, pulling out a worn grey shirt that looked three sizes too big for me. He tossed it to Thalia, who caught it one-handed.
"Turn around," she told him.
"Thalia, I'm not…."
"Turn. Around."
Riven's jaw tightened, but he turned to face the wall. Thalia gestured at me, and I understood. She wanted me to change. Here. Now. With Riven less than ten feet away.
My hands shook as I peeled off my soaked shirt. The cold air bit into my skin, raising goosebumps across my arms and chest. I pulled the dry shirt over my head quickly, grateful when the soft fabric settled around me, hanging down to my thighs.
"Done," Thalia said.
Riven turned back. His eyes flicked over me once, quick and assessing, then away. Like he was forcing himself not to look.
Thalia knelt in front of me and began cleaning my feet. The cloth she used was rough, and the water stung, but I bit down on the pain. I'd endured worse tonight. So much worse.
"You ran through the Blackwood," she said. Not a question. A statement.
"I didn't know where I was running. I just ran."
"The Blackwood doesn't let just anyone pass through. The trees there are old. Cursed, some say. They don't take kindly to wolves."
I frowned. "They didn't stop me."
Thalia paused, her hands going still on my ankle. She looked up at me, something strange flickering in her eyes. "No. They wouldn't."
"What does that mean?"
She didn't answer. Just went back to cleaning my wounds with renewed focus. The silence stretched, heavy and deliberate. Like she'd said something she shouldn't have and was trying to pretend she hadn't.
Riven cleared his throat. "We need to talk about what happens next."
"Next?" I repeated. "What happens next is they hunt me down and kill me. That's what Cael wants."
"Cael wants a lot of things," Riven said, his voice hard. "Most of them he doesn't deserve."
"He's your brother."
"He's a coward." The words came out sharp, edged with years of bitterness. "And cowards are dangerous when they're scared."
I looked at him. Really looked at him. The hard set of his jaw. The scar that cut across it like someone had tried to split his face open. The storm in his eyes that never quite settled.
"Why were you exiled?" I asked.
The question hung in the air like smoke. Thalia's hands went still again. Riven's expression closed off, becoming unreadable.
"That's not a story for tonight," he said finally.
"When, then?"
"When you're ready to hear it."
Anger flared in my chest. Hot and sudden.
"Stop treating me like I'm fragile. I'm not fragile. I'm still here, aren't I? Still alive. Still standing."
"Barely," Thalia muttered.
I ignored her. Kept my eyes locked on Riven.
"You said you owed me. What did you mean?"
He was silent for a long moment. Then he crossed the room and crouched in front of me, bringing himself to eye level. This close, I could see the silver flecks in his grey eyes. Could smell pine and rain and something darker underneath.
"I mean," he said quietly, "that I should have protected you a long time ago. And I didn't. And people suffered because of it."
"What people?"
"People who deserved better than what they got."
He stood before I could ask more questions.
Turned away. Shut down.
Thalia finished wrapping my feet in clean bandages and sat back. "You need rest. Real rest. You're no good to anyone if you collapse."
"I can't rest. They're still out there. Still hunting."
"They won't find you here," she said with absolute certainty. "This cabin is warded. Hidden. Even Silvercrest's best trackers couldn't sniff it out."
"How?"
She smiled. Thin and sharp. "Old magic. The kind your precious Alpha doesn't believe in anymore."
My golden wolf stirred at that. Interested. Hungry for more information. But my silver wolf pressed down, urging caution. These people knew things. Dangerous things. And they were keeping secrets.
"Why are you helping me?" I asked. "Both of you. You don't know me."
"Don't we?" Thalia stood and crossed to the fire, staring into the flames. "You're not the first wolf to be marked by two mates. You're not the first to have your bond split and your wolves tear each other apart."
My breath caught. "What?"
"It's happened before. A long time ago. And just like you, she was hunted. Hated. Called an abomination." Thalia's voice went soft. Sad. "They killed her for it."
The room felt colder suddenly. "Who was she?"
Thalia didn't answer. Just kept staring at the fire like she could see something in the flames I couldn't.
Riven moved to stand beside her. They exchanged a look. Silent communication passing between them. Then Riven shook his head once. Sharp. Final.
"Not yet," he said.
"She deserves to know."
"She will. When the time is right."
Thalia's jaw tightened, but she didn't argue. Just nodded and turned back to me.
"Get some sleep. We'll talk more in the morning."
"I can't sleep. Every time I close my eyes, I see it. The ceremony. The crowd. Cael's face when he rejected me."
"Then don't sleep," Riven said. "But rest. Your body needs it even if your mind doesn't."
He gestured to the cot in the corner. It looked old and lumpy, but right now it might as well have been a cloud. I stood, my bandaged feet protesting, and limped over to it. Sat down carefully. The thin mattress sagged under my weight.
Thalia threw a blanket at me. "Try anyway.
Dawn comes fast, and you'll need your strength."
"For what?"
Her smile was all teeth. "Training. If you're going to survive what's coming, you need to learn how to fight."
"I don't know how to fight."
"You will."
She and Riven moved to the table, speaking in low voices I couldn't quite hear. I lay down, pulling the blanket over myself, and stared at the ceiling.
My wolves were still restless. Still fighting. But quieter now. Like they were listening to something I couldn't hear.
I closed my eyes and tried to breathe. Tried to quiet the chaos in my head.
And in the darkness behind my eyelids, I heard it. That voice. The one that wasn't mine. Wasn't my wolves.
"They're lying to you, child. Not about everything. But about the things that matter most."
My eyes snapped open.
Across the room, Riven and Thalia had stopped talking. Both of them were staring at me with expressions I couldn
't read.
And I realized with cold certainty that whatever secrets they were keeping, they were willing to let me die before they told me the truth.
- Writer
