The Fifth Howl

Chapter 11 The Aftermath

They locked us in the Tower for real this time.

Not wards that glowed violet and could be broken by a screaming god. Real, physical locks. Steel shutters over the windows. Enforcers at every stair. Elder Thorne himself sat on the bottom step with a bottle of something strong and a sword across his knees that was humming with old magic.

"Don't look at me like that," he grunted when I peered over the railing. "You blew up my favorite observatory, girl. The telescope was older than the continent. You're lucky the High Council didn't order me to put you in the Vault."

"Is Darius in the Vault?" I asked before I could stop myself.

Thorne's face hardened. "Your father is in the deepest silver cell we have. He will be there until the High Priest arrives. Which, thanks to your little show, will be in three days, not three weeks. You really know how to speed up a trial."

He said it gruff, but not unkind.

Upstairs, the common room was a disaster. Half the couch was in the kitchen. The rug was ash. My blanket nest was still miraculously intact - Jaxon had thrown his own body over it when the blast hit.

"My blankets!" he'd wailed when we came up. "I saved them! True love!"

Kade had punched his shoulder, but he was holding my elbow the whole time, like I would float away if he let go.

Now, hours later, the sun was setting, and the war beacons were still burning. From the Tower window, we could see the whole Academy campus below. No one was training. Everyone was staring up at our Tower.

"They know," Rhys said quietly, standing at the window. His blue eyes were tired. He'd been trying to mind-link with his parents in the capital all afternoon and getting only static. "The mind-net is screaming. Wolfless girl manifests as Fifth. Quad tethered. White Inquisitor flees. Every pack from here to the Frost Sea will have heard by midnight."

"Good," Kade said. He was sitting on the floor, back against the wall, shadows slowly knitting the cracked floor back together. "Let them hear."

Silas was next to me on the intact part of the couch. He hadn't let go of my hand since the mark. Our marks pulsed in sync - his over his heart, mine over mine, cold then warm then cold. Every pulse sent a little shiver through both of us.

"Does it still hurt?" I whispered to him.

He shook his head, silver hair brushing my cheek. "It feels... quiet. For the first time in my life, my head is quiet. The other souls... they used to whisper. Now there's only you."

My throat tightened. "What did they whisper?"

"That I would die alone," he said simply.

Jaxon, who had been pretending not to listen while rebuilding the blanket nest even bigger, made a furious noise and threw a pillow at Silas. "Dude! Don't trauma-dump on our girl five minutes after you soul-bonded!"

Silas blinked. "I thought honesty was-"

"Honesty later! Cuddles now! We almost died!"

He flopped into the nest and dragged me down with him. I squeaked - I was still in Kade's shirt and a sweater Rhys had forced over it to hide the mark, and Jaxon was shirtless and very warm.

"Kade! Rhys! Get in here! Pack cuddle, it's medicinal!"

"Absolutely not," Kade said instantly.

"It's for her surge," Jaxon argued, wrapping his arms around me from behind. His fire marks were warm against my back, chasing away the cold that had lived in my bones since the Inquisitor's visit. "Surge needs touch. It's science. Rhys, back me up."

Rhys looked at us. At me, small in Jaxon's arms, at Silas holding my hand, at Kade pretending not to care while his shadows crept closer under the blankets.

Rhys sighed, took off his glasses, and sat down on the edge of the nest. Formal, even when sitting on a floor pile.

"Surge does require co-regulation via pack touch," he admitted. "It's in chapter four of-"

"Ha! See! Get in here, Professor!"

Kade growled. "We have not all marked. Touch now will confuse the Tether. It will make the other marks harder."

"Or," Jaxon said, grinning wickedly, "it will make her want the other marks more."

He turned me in his arms to face him, amber eyes glowing. "Right, Little Howl? You want all four, don't you? Admit it."

My face went fire-red. "I- I- I don't know what-"

Lyra, traitor, purred: Say yes. Fire is fun.

Thankfully, the Tower door banging open downstairs saved me.

"Up! All of you! Decent! Now!"

Margot's voice, sharp with panic.

We scrambled. Jaxon shoved me behind him, Kade was suddenly in front of both of us, shadows up, Rhys and Silas flanking.

Margot stormed up the stairs, followed by... Seraphina?

But not the Seraphina I knew.

Her perfect silver hair was tangled. Her designer uniform was torn and stained with silver burn marks from the cuffs. Her eyes were red from crying, her wolf mark - the fake one - was flickering like a bad lightbulb.

Two Enforcers dumped her on the floor and left.

"Margot, what is this?" Rhys asked, cold.

"Thorne's orders," Margot snapped, but she looked guilty. "The High Priest arrives in three days. He will want to see both... vessels. The true and the false. She cannot stay in the silver cells, her wolf is too weak, it will kill her. So she stays here. Under Quad guard. With you."

The room went silent.

Seraphina lifted her head. Her eyes found me, in Kade's shirt, in a nest surrounded by four boys who had worshipped her last week.

Something broke in her face.

"You," she whispered, voice hoarse. "You took everything. My father. My pack. My-"

"You tried to have me nullified this morning," I said quietly. My claws flexed, but I kept them in. "You watched Darius chain me for nineteen years."

"He was protecting me! From you! He said if you ever woke up, you'd take them!"

She lunged. Not at me - at Jaxon, grabbing his arm, nails digging in.

"Jaxon, please, you know me, we were supposed to-"

Jaxon stared at her hand on his arm like it was a spider. Then, very slowly, very deliberately, he peeled her fingers off.

"Don't touch me," he said, and his voice wasn't funny anymore. It was Alpha. Fire Alpha. "You don't get to touch pack."

Seraphina flinched like he'd hit her.

Kade looked at Margot. "Get her a blanket. She sleeps downstairs. She does not come upstairs. She does not speak to Elara unless Elara speaks first. If she tries anything, I will throw her off the Tower myself and tell Thorne she slipped."

Margot nodded quickly and hurried downstairs to get a blanket, leaving Seraphina on the floor.

She curled in on herself, small, crying silently now.

I should have felt triumph. Nineteen years of being her boot-cleaner, and now she was on my floor.

I just felt tired. And the mark over my heart throbbed, cold.

Silas squeezed my hand. He felt it.

Pity is Soul's curse, Lyra whispered. But don't let pity make you stupid, little light.

I looked at the girl who'd made my life hell, and I did the one thing she never did for me.

I walked over, took the extra blanket from Jaxon's nest, and dropped it over her shoulders.

"Stay downstairs," I said quietly. "And don't touch what's mine."

Her eyes snapped up to mine, shocked.

Mine. I meant the Quads. I meant the nest. I meant this Tower that was finally warm.

Behind me, I felt four sharp intakes of breath.

Jaxon whispered: "Did she just claim us? Did our little god just CLAIM us?"

Kade's shadows wrapped around my waist and pulled me back into the nest.

"Yes," Kade said, his voice rough against my ear as he sat behind me, cage of shadows and arms. "She did."

Outside, the war beacons burned brighter.

Inside, Seraphina stared at the blanket I'd given her like she'd never been given anything kind in her life.