My tortured Luna

Chapter 16

Valens POV

The room had gone quiet in a way I had only ever heard around death.

Not peaceful. Not calm. Just quiet. As though every person in the room was afraid that even breathing too loudly might pull her further away from us. Valeria sat on the chair closest to the bed with one hand pressed against her mouth, her eyes red but dry. Jayden stood behind her, one hand resting on the back of her chair, his usual warmth stripped from his face until only something hard and frightened remained. Deletio hadn’t moved from the other side of the bed in almost an hour. His hand rested near Sage’s ankle, not touching her, just close enough to remind himself she was still there. Amelia moved quietly around the monitors, checking numbers she had already checked ten times, but even she had stopped pretending the machines could explain what was happening.

I sat beside Sage and held her hand.

Her fingers lay limp between mine, too light, too cold, and every few seconds the bond crackled faintly beneath our skin. Tiny sparks of warmth. Weak. Almost gone. I stared down at our joined hands for longer than I should have, because if I looked at her face too long, I felt something inside me begin to fracture.

But eventually, I looked.

Really looked.

Her cheekbones stood out sharply beneath skin that had grown too pale. The soft roundness that had still been there when I carried her out of Jack’s basement had vanished, leaving shadows beneath her eyes and hollows beneath her cheeks. Her collarbones pressed against the thin hospital gown, fragile and too visible, and her wrists looked so narrow I could almost circle them with my fingers. Her hair, which had once caught the light like silver even when she was covered in blood, lay dull against the pillow. Lifeless. Like the rest of her was slowly following.

My gaze drifted lower.

Old scars crossed her arms. Some silver. Some white. Some angry and raised, carved too deeply for even a wolf’s healing to erase completely. Bite marks lined her forearms where she had sunk her teeth into her own skin to keep herself quiet. I hadn’t noticed them the first time. I had seen wounds. Bruises. Blood. I had seen what Jack had done.

But I hadn’t seen this.

I hadn’t seen the places where she had hurt herself just to survive what others were doing to her.

My thumb brushed over the back of her hand, and another weak spark flickered between us.

Cain was silent.

That scared me more than his rage ever had.

I lowered my head, listening past the machines, past the quiet breaths of everyone in the room, until I found her heartbeat. It was there. Barely. Soft and slow, as if each beat had to be dragged out of somewhere far too deep.

Something cold settled inside my chest.

She wasn’t healing.

She was fading.

“Call the Mage.” My voice sounded calm, but my eyes never left Sage’s face.

Amelia went still beside the monitors.

“Valens…” She said my name carefully, but I heard the hesitation beneath it.

“Call her.” I looked up then, and whatever she saw in my face made her stop arguing.

She nodded once and left the room.

No one spoke after that. Valeria lowered her hand from her mouth, her gaze fixed on Sage’s face. Deletio closed his eyes, his jaw tightening as though he was holding something back. Jayden looked at me, and for the first time in years, he looked as lost as I felt.

I didn’t let go of Sage’s hand.

Not even when the door opened almost twenty minutes later.

The woman who stepped inside wore no crown, no jewels and nothing that marked her as powerful. Her grey hair was braided over one shoulder, her dark dress simple enough that anyone who didn’t know better might have mistaken her for a servant. But the air shifted around her the moment she entered. Not with force. Not with threat. With knowing.

Her eyes went straight to Sage.

Then to me.

“Move.” Her voice was quiet.

I didn’t.

My fingers tightened instinctively around Sage’s hand.

The Mage’s gaze didn’t harden. She didn’t look offended or impatient. She simply looked back at Sage.

“Move.” This time, the word landed differently.

I forced my fingers to open.

The spark between Sage and me flickered once before disappearing.

My chest tightened as I stood and stepped back. Not far. Only enough for the Mage to move beside the bed. She never touched Sage. Not once. Her hands lifted, hovering just above Sage’s forehead, then slowly moved down over her throat, her chest, her stomach. Her fingers remained a breath away from her skin, following something none of the rest of us could see.

The silence became unbearable.

Valeria stood slowly.

Deletio’s eyes followed every movement.

Jayden didn’t breathe.

The Mage’s hands paused above Sage’s chest.

Her expression changed.

Not fear.

Not surprise.

Sadness.

Then she looked at me.

“Why haven’t you marked her?” Her question was soft, but it struck the room like thunder.

I stared at her.

“Because she’s terrified of me.” The answer came immediately. Too immediately. I had repeated it so many times it no longer felt like a thought, only a fact.

The Mage held my gaze.

“Her mind is terrified of you.” She looked back down at Sage, her fingers still hovering above her heart.

I frowned.

“That is not the same thing.”

No one spoke.

The Mage slowly lowered her hands and stood completely still beside the bed.

“By staying away from her, you have been preparing her to die.” Her voice held no cruelty. No accusation. Only truth.

The world stopped.

“No.” The word left me before I could think.

“Yes.” She looked at Sage again. “Every time you came close, her soul reached for you.”

My breath caught.

“Every time she caught your scent, every time she heard your voice, every time your bond touched hers, something inside her remembered that she was not alone.” The Mage’s eyes lifted back to mine. “And every time you left, you took that hope with you.”

I couldn’t move.

I couldn’t breathe.

“I was protecting her.” My voice barely sounded like my own.

“You were protecting her fear.” The Mage’s tone remained gentle. “Not her soul.”

The Mage looked down at Sage again, her eyes lingering above the place where her hands had hovered moments before.

“She isn’t dying because her body is failing.”

Her fingers drifted ever so slightly, as though following something invisible beneath Sage’s skin.

“Her body has survived things that should have killed her many times over.”

She was quiet for a moment.

“It is her soul that can no longer carry the weight.”

The words settled heavily over the room.

I stared at Sage, unable to reconcile the woman lying before me with everything I had seen her endure.

“What happened in those woods?” My voice came out rough. “Why did she go there?”

The Mage didn’t answer immediately.

Instead, she closed her eyes.

For a long moment, she simply listened.

When she finally spoke, her voice had softened even further.

“She wasn’t trying to escape.”

My heart stumbled.

“She was searching for silence.”

No one moved.

“Her mind has lived in fear for so long that it no longer knows how to rest. Her soul was exhausted.”

Her gaze lifted to meet mine.

“The forest was the only place that felt quiet enough.”

My chest tightened painfully.

“She went there because, for a little while, she wanted the pain to stop.”

Valeria let out a shaky breath beside me.

Jayden lowered his head.

Even Deletio closed his eyes.

I couldn’t.

I couldn’t look away from her.

The Mage’s attention returned to Sage.

“And her wolf…”

For the first time since entering the room, hesitation crossed her face.

“…has been carrying far more than any wolf was ever meant to bear.”

Cain stirred inside me.

“What do you mean?”

The Mage exhaled slowly.

“Your wolves protect your minds.”

She glanced briefly toward me.

“They shield you from memories. Fear. Grief.”

Then back to Sage.

“Hers has been doing that alone for nearly twenty years.”

Silence.

“Every nightmare.”

A pause.

“Every beating.”

Another.

“Every violation.”

My stomach twisted.

“Every moment Sage could not survive on her own…”

Her voice became almost a whisper.

“…her wolf survived for her.”

I felt the blood drain from my face.

“So now…”

I couldn’t finish the sentence.

The Mage did it for me.

“Now her wolf is tired.”

Her eyes remained fixed on Sage.

“Very tired.”

The Mage looked at Sage for another long moment before slowly lowering her hands.

“There is still time.”

Every head in the room lifted.

“But not much.”

Her eyes settled on me.

“The next choice is yours, Your Majesty.”

The words barely reached me.

I looked back at Sage.

Her face had grown so pale.

Her breathing so shallow.

Every instinct inside me screamed the same thing.

Save her.

Cain pushed hard against my mind.

Mark her.

The words echoed through every part of me.

It would complete the bond.

It would anchor her soul.

Wouldn’t it?

I looked back at the Mage.

“If I mark her…”

The question caught in my throat.

“…will it save her?”

The room fell silent once more.

The Mage held my gaze for several long seconds before she finally spoke.

“No.”

The single word stole the air from my lungs.

I frowned.

“You said—”

“I said her soul is searching for yours.”

She stepped closer to the bed, her eyes never leaving Sage.

“A mark alone cannot save her.”

Confusion tightened inside my chest.

“I don’t understand.”

“You believe the mark is what creates a true mate bond.”

She looked back at me.

“It isn’t.”

Her voice remained calm.

“The mark is only a promise made visible.”

She glanced down at Sage.

“If that promise is forced upon a frightened soul…”

She paused.

“…it becomes nothing more than another wound.”

The words struck harder than anything she had said since entering the room.

“You could mark her now.”

Her eyes met mine again.

“You are strong enough.”

A heavy silence settled over the room.

“But if you do so without her heart accepting what your soul already knows…”

She slowly shook her head.

“…you may save her body.”

Another pause.

“And lose the very trust she has not yet had the chance to give you.”

My chest tightened until it hurt.

“So what do I do?”

For the first time, the Mage smiled.

It wasn’t a smile of comfort.

It was one of certainty.

“You stay.”

I stared at her.

“You stop leaving.”

Her eyes softened.

“Her soul has spent twenty years believing everyone eventually walks away.”

She looked down at Sage.

“Prove that you won’t.”

The room remained silent.

Then the Mage turned toward the door.

As she reached it, she stopped.

Without looking back, she spoke one final time.

“Do not make her soul wait any longer.”

Then she walked out.

No one moved.

Valeria was the first.

A tear slipped down her cheek as she leaned over the bed, gently brushing a strand of silver hair away from Sage’s face.

“I’ll be right outside,” she whispered. “If she wakes up…”

She kissed Sage’s forehead before quietly leaving the room.

Amelia lingered beside the monitors for another moment.

“I’ll check on her again soon.”

There was nothing else she could offer.

She left without another word.

Jayden stopped beside me, resting a hand briefly on my shoulder.

“You heard her.”

His voice was quiet.

“So don’t leave.”

Then he followed the others.

Only Deletio remained.

He stood beside his sister for a long time, staring at her sleeping face.

“I finally got her back.”

His voice cracked.

“I’m not ready to lose her again.”

Carefully, he pulled the blanket a little higher around her shoulders.

Then he turned and walked out.

The door clicked softly shut behind him.

Silence settled over the room once more.

I looked down at Sage.

At the woman I had spent weeks trying to protect…

Only to learn I had been protecting the wrong thing.

Slowly, I reached for her hand again.

The bond answered immediately.

A tiny spark.

Fragile.

Weak.

But still there.

I closed my fingers around hers.

“I’m done leaving.”

The promise wasn’t made because she could hear it.

It was made because, from this moment on…

I intended to keep it