Shadows & Secrets

Chapter13

A wide bed. A wooden desk beneath the window.

A stone hearth laid but not lit. A couple of arm chairs.

A woven rug faded by years of sun.

A small, minimal kitchenette. An ensuite bathroom.

Nothing ornate.

Nothing unnecessary.

And yet the entire room felt held.

Standing at the window and watching the last of the afternoon thin into gold across the trees, below her, the pack moved through its evening in the small unhurried rhythms of people who had lived beside each other for generations.

A child laughed somewhere. A door opened and closed. A woman called a name Aurora didn't recognize and someone answered from farther off.

Ordinary sounds.

Under them, the pull she'd been carrying since Mooncrest.

Quieter here. Contained, not gone.

As though something in the walls had softened it before it could reach her the way it wanted to.

She rested her fingertips against the window frame.

The runes carved into the stone below the sill were faint. Easy to miss. She wasn't sure whether she was looking for them or whether her attention kept finding them on its own.

The same thing had happened at the gate, at the perimeter, along the outer wall as Damien had led them in.

Not light or movement, only the certainty that the wards of Bloodmoon knew she was here.

A knock sounded at the door.

Aurora turned.

"Come in."

Marcus stepped inside without waiting to be invited a second time, hair still damp from a quick wash, holding two mugs.

"Contraband from the kitchen," he said.

She took one automatically. Hot Chocolate. Perfect and necessary.

"You made friends with the cooks quickly."

"I make friends quickly when snacks are involved. Got popcorn too," he added as he pulled a package from his pocket and started the microwave.

He crossed to the desk and leaned against it, watching her over the rim of his own mug. Not casual. Never fully casual when it mattered.

For a moment neither of them spoke.

Then Marcus said, "You want to tell me what happened at the gate?"

Aurora didn't answer immediately.

She turned back to the window.

The forest was darker now. The runes below the sill were quiet under her fingertips. The pull that had followed her all the way from Mooncrest waited at the edge of her awareness like something that had decided to be patient with her.

"They knew me," she said finally. "The runes."

Marcus didn't answer right away.

He didn't tell her she was imagining it. Didn't try to soften it. Didn't offer a cleaner explanation she hadn't asked for.

He just nodded once, like a man accepting information he'd already half expected.

"I knew something happened. Your stride changed." He lifted one shoulder. "Very briefly, no one else noticed."

"And Damien," Marcus continued. "He looked at you like he'd just found a page he'd been missing."

Aurora exhaled slowly.

"Yeah," she said.

Marcus took another sip of tea. "So. Possibilities."

She moved away from the window and sat on the edge of the bed. The mattress dipped under her weight, grounding.

"Old bloodline," she said. "Something Bloodmoon has history with. Something Mikhail knows enough about to manage but not enough to speak openly in front of the team." She looked down into her cup. "Something connected to whatever happened before I was seven."

Marcus was quiet.

"You think it's that direct."

"I don't know what else fits."

"Neither do I."

That mattered more than agreement would have from anyone else. Marcus wasn't soothing her.

He wasn't being loyal for loyalty's sake. He was weighing the evidence the same way she was and arriving at the same conclusion.

The room fell quiet for a moment.

Then Marcus said, "You want the good news or the bad news first?"

She gave him a flat look. "Since when do you ask permission before saying something unhelpful?"

"Consider it character growth," he commented with a smirk.

She gestured for him to continue.

"The bad news is that Mikhail definitely knows more than he's saying. The good news is Damien and Kiyiya do too, and neither of them looked like people interested in playing games for the sake of control."

Aurora let that settle.

It was true.

There had been caution in Damien's expression. Deliberation. Recognition.

But not the kind of tight, evaluative watchfulness Mikhail had been carrying since Mooncrest.

Bloodmoon felt like people holding a truth carefully.

The Order felt like people holding it back.

That distinction mattered.

"Then the next question," Marcus said, "is whether we wait for them to come to you or whether you go looking."

Aurora's fingers tightened slightly around the mug.

"I don't think I can wait."

"Good," Marcus said. "I was hoping you'd say that. Waiting has never been your best skill."

She almost smiled.

Before she could answer, a sharp official knock at the door.

Marcus set his mug down first and crossed to the door.

Althea stood in the hallway.

Her purple eyes flicked once to Aurora, once to Marcus, and then settled with careful neutrality somewhere between them.

"Alpha Damien requests your presence," she said. "Privately. If you're willing."

Aurora stood. "Now?"

Althea nodded. "He said he'd understand if you wanted time first. But he thought you might prefer not to spend the evening wondering."

"I'll come now," Aurora said.

Althea's expression softened by a fraction. "He'll meet you in the West Study."

She stepped back from the doorway, then hesitated.

"And Aurora?"

Aurora looked at her.

Althea held her gaze for a beat. "Whatever this is, you're safe here."

Then she turned and walked back down the corridor.

Marcus closed the door.

The words lingered in the room after she was gone. They were Pretty much the same thing Mikhail said the night before. “Bloodmoon is the safest place you can be.”

"Well," Marcus said quietly, "that answers the waiting question."

She set the cocoa down carefully. "Come with me," she said.