The Pool That Swallowed Her Voice
1289 Words
Adera stared at her wound long after the healer had left.
The room was dim, lit only by a single oil lamp that flickered against the stone walls. Shadows stretched and shrank as the flame trembled, making the symbols carved into the walls seem alive—watching, judging.
Her fingers hovered over the bandage on her back before finally touching it.
Pain flared instantly.
She hissed softly, breath catching in her throat. The healer had said the cut was deep—that skin had been torn away to be stitched cleanly. Not life-threatening, they had assured her. But pain was not measured by death alone.
This wound was not just flesh.
It was humiliation. Betrayal. Proof.
Adera’s shoulders began to shake.
She pressed her face into the rough pillow and wept.
Not quiet tears this time—no careful swallowing of sobs, no silent endurance. She cried the way someone cries when something inside them finally breaks.
“I saved her…” she whispered into the stone. “I saved her.”
Her hands curled into fists.
She remembered the moment clearly—Lyra’s body falling, the carriage wheels flashing dangerously close, instinct screaming louder than fear. She had not thought. She had simply acted.
And for that, she had been beaten.
Her tears soaked the bedding, each sob ripping painfully through her chest. She had grown up without parents, without protection, without a place that was truly hers—but she had always believed that truth mattered.
Tonight proved otherwise.
A soft knock sounded.
Adera wiped her face quickly, ashamed of her weakness. “Come in.”
The door opened slowly.
A man stepped inside—tall, broad, carrying authority without cruelty. His presence filled the room, steady and commanding, yet there was something gentler in his gaze than she had seen in many years.
Alpha Thane Blackmoor.
He stopped when he saw her.
His sharp gray eyes took in the pale face, the trembling hands, the faint blood staining the edge of the bandage. His jaw tightened.
“Moon above…” he muttered.
Adera straightened instinctively, pulling her cloak tighter around herself. “You shouldn’t be here.”
“That’s not your decision,” Thane said quietly.
He moved closer, anger simmering beneath his calm. “Who did this?”
She hesitated. “It doesn’t matter.”
His eyes hardened. “It matters.”
Before she could speak again, another presence entered the room—heavier, colder.
Kael.
The Alpha’s arrival sucked the warmth from the air. His gaze flicked to Thane first, displeasure clear.
“This does not concern you,” Kael said flatly.
Thane turned on him. “It concerns me when I see a woman beaten within your walls.”
Kael’s expression darkened. “Mind your place.”
Thane stepped forward, refusing to back down. “If you do not stop hurting her, Kael, I will.”
The room went deadly still.
Adera’s breath caught.
No one had ever defended her like that. Not openly. Not against Kael.
Kael’s jaw clenched. “She brought this upon herself.”
“That’s a lie,” Thane snapped. “And you know it.”
Adera found her voice then, small and strained. “Please… stop.”
Both Alphas looked at her.
Thane’s expression softened instantly. “Come with me,” he said gently. “Leave this place.”
Her heart twisted.
“I can’t,” she whispered. “Not yet.”
“Why?” Thane asked.
She swallowed. “I’m close to something. A lead. About my parents. About who I am.”
Thane studied her carefully, as if weighing her soul. “This pack will destroy you before you find answers.”
She managed a faint smile. “It already has.”
Silence fell.
Finally, Thane stepped back. “I’ll return.”
When he left, the room felt unbearably empty.
Kael said nothing.
He turned and walked away.
⸻
The walls closed in on her after that.
Adera waited until night deepened before slipping outside, seeking air—space—anything to quiet the storm inside her chest.
The courtyard was empty.
Torches flickered along the stone paths, their reflections dancing across the ceremonial pool at the center. The water shimmered under the moonlight, silver and deceptively calm.
She leaned against a pillar, breathing slowly.
“Still pretending to be strong?”
The voice cut through the silence like a blade.
Adera stiffened.
Lyra emerged from the shadows, her white gown pristine, her expression serene. Too serene.
“What do you want?” Adera asked quietly.
Lyra smiled. “To remind you of your place.”
Adera straightened. “I saved you.”
Lyra stepped closer. “And yet, he believed me.”
Her fingers brushed the bandage.
Then pressed.
Hard.
Adera screamed.
Pain ripped through her back, sharp and unbearable. Her knees buckled as she gasped, vision blurring.
From the corner of her eye, she saw movement.
Kael.
Lyra saw him too.
She stumbled backward, shrieking loudly. “Adera—!”
Her hands latched onto Adera’s sleeve.
They fell.
Cold water swallowed Adera instantly, shock seizing her body. She flailed, panic exploding as water filled her mouth.
“I can’t swim—” she tried to scream.
Above her, Lyra screamed louder. “Kael! Help me! I can’t swim!”
Kael ran.
He reached Lyra first, hauling her from the pool as she clung to him, sobbing dramatically.
Adera sank beneath the surface.
The world went silent.
Water pressed in from all sides. Her lungs burned. Darkness crept into her vision.
So this is how it ends, she thought faintly.
Lyra clutched Kael, shaking. “I only came to apologize to Sister Adera for the skin they cut from her back,” she cried. “She must have misunderstood me…”
Kael’s gaze swept the pool.
Adera did not surface.
“I think Adera isn’t coming out,” he said slowly.
Lyra sniffed. “She must be playing. She can swim.”
Her maid nodded eagerly. “She’s pretending to gain your attention.”
Kael hesitated.
Then Lyra gasped. “Ah—my head. I feel dizzy… Kael, I might faint.”
He caught her.
“Take her to the healer,” the maid urged.
Kael turned away.
“Punish Adera when she comes out,” he ordered.
The water remained still.
⸻
“ADERA!”
Thane’s shout shattered the night.
He saw her limp body beneath the surface and didn’t think—didn’t hesitate.
He dove in.
He dragged her out, laying her on the cold stone. Her skin was pale, lips blue, chest unmoving.
Fear unlike anything he had ever known seized him.
“No,” he breathed. “Stay with me.”
He worked frantically, forcing air into her lungs, pounding gently against her back.
Seconds stretched endlessly.
Then—
She coughed.
Water spilled from her mouth as she gasped violently, sucking in air like it was her first breath.
Alive.
Barely.
The maid stepped forward coldly. “The Alpha commands you to kneel for twenty-four hours to apologize for pushing Lady Lyra.”
Adera tried to rise, dizzy. “I didn’t—”
The maid struck her.
The sound cracked through the courtyard.
Thane’s hand moved instantly.
He struck the maid harder, sending her sprawling.
“How dare you touch her in my presence?” he roared.
Guards seized the maid as she screamed.
Thane turned to Adera. “Apologize to no one.”
She looked at him, eyes hollow. “Leave it,” she whispered. “I’m used to it.”
The words cut deeper than any wound.
Used to it.
Thane clenched his fists.
And far above them, the Moon shone—
silent witness to cruelty, to lies
- Writer
