Chapter Six: Name the Dead
1160 Words
The first name was marked. Lucille Farrow remembered. She hadn’t spoken my name, hadn’t looked over her shoulder—but the silver coin turned black all the same.
She was guilty.
One of ten.
I kept her secret. For now.
Because I needed to know how far the rot went.
---
I waited until midnight again before moving. The Keep was quieter after the witching hour. The guards were tired, the halls half-patrolled, and those with secrets were most active.
I slipped from my quarters with the coin in my palm and Thalia’s words in my head:
“Blood remembers.”
Tonight, I was going after the next name.
Rhea Drayke.
The infirmary was dimly lit, the scent of herbs and blood sharp in the air. Rhea’s office was tucked in the back, surrounded by heavy stone walls and a door she never locked. She didn’t need to—no one questioned the woman who kept the warriors alive.
I crept through the rear hall. Her quarters were attached to the supply chamber—another sign of her trust. Her bed was neat, her room too still.
I placed the coin under the wooden frame.
Waited.
She returned an hour later.
Tired. Silent. She undressed methodically, set her boots by the wall, and lay down.
She didn’t pray. She didn’t flinch. She slept like the dead.
By the second hour, I retrieved the coin.
The crescent was black.
The eye was red.
My breath caught.
Rhea wasn’t just a witness.
She had participated in the ritual.
I carved a notch into my hidden scroll.
Name the dead.
Two down.
---
The next morning, Dax was waiting outside my door.
“Early,” I said, brushing past him.
He followed.
“You didn’t sleep in your bed.”
“You watching me now?”
“You’re acting like someone who doesn’t want to be seen.”
I stopped in the corridor. Turned to him slowly.
“What are you accusing me of?”
“Nothing,” he said. “But I’m not the only one with questions.”
“Then ask them.”
He held my gaze. “Who are you really?”
“Someone who’s tired of lies.”
We stared at each other for a long moment.
Then I walked away.
---
That night, I went after Elias Korr.
He ran the archives beneath the library—a maze of stone shelves and crumbling texts. No one ventured down there but him.
It took me an hour to find the door to his sleeping chamber.
I waited until the sconce lights faded, then slipped in. Placed the coin beneath the cot. Hid behind a pillar of ancient scrolls.
He came in humming.
Lit a single candle. Wrote in a journal I couldn’t see. Talked softly to himself.
Then, like a ritual, he removed a small box from under his desk.
He opened it.
Inside—
A lock of silver-blond hair.
Mine.
I covered my mouth with both hands.
Elias stared at it for a moment.
Then whispered, “We had no choice.”
He closed the box.
Laid down.
Did not sleep.
When I retrieved the coin, both sides had turned.
Red eye. Black moon.
He was a planner.
The rot ran deeper than I feared.
---
Three names. Three traitors.
And I hadn’t even touched the surface.
---
The next day, Kael summoned me.
The council was gathering. A formal strategy meeting. And I was to be present.
I hadn’t stepped into that chamber since my death.
I walked in like a soldier.
Lucille sat to Kael’s left. Jace Ironfell stood by the map wall. Orlan Vey had returned, his robes rich and arrogant. Rhea Drayke offered a tight smile. Elias Korr stared at nothing.
They didn’t look guilty.
But they didn’t look innocent either.
Kael stood.
“We have a threat. Coordinated movements outside our western flank. Not rogues. Not loners. Something trained. Fast. Organized.”
“Another pack?” someone asked.
“Possibly. But they leave no tracks. No scent. They’re ghosts.”
My spine stiffened.
Ghosts.
“Sel—” Lucille caught herself. “The girl. She encountered the mark again, yes?”
I nodded.
“The Severed Moon,” Kael said grimly.
They exchanged glances.
No one admitted recognition.
But I saw it. In the way their eyes avoided mine.
They remembered.
All of them.
And they didn’t know I remembered too.
---
After the meeting, Dax cornered me outside.
“What was that?” he asked.
“What?”
“You knew something. You felt something.”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“You looked at them like—”
“Like I’d seen them die before?” I finished.
He flinched.
I walked away.
---
That night, I didn’t use the coin.
I didn’t need to.
Because Jace Ironfell came to my quarters himself.
He knocked once. Hard.
When I opened the door, his face was shadowed.
“You don’t belong here,” he said quietly.
“Excuse me?”
“I don’t know what Kael sees in you. But I see a problem. And I eliminate problems.”
My pulse steadied.
“Then try.”
His eyes flashed. “Careful, girl. You’re not the only one with secrets.”
Then he left.
I waited until he was out of sight.
Then I smiled.
Another one marked.
---
The list grew heavier in my hands.
Lucille. Rhea. Elias. Jace.
Four out of ten.
Still no proof on Doran, Maris, Orlan.
Still no confrontation with Kael.
Still no confrontation with…
Dax.
---
That evening, I found him by the watchtower.
Staring into the night.
He didn’t turn when I approached.
“I saw your name,” I said.
Silence.
“In a list. The night I died.”
He turned.
His eyes were unreadable.
“You’re not supposed to know.”
“But I do.”
“I didn’t kill you.”
“Did you try to stop it?”
He looked away.
“I was told to guard the door. I didn’t know what was happening inside. When I heard your scream—I tried. But it was too late.”
I stepped closer.
“And you said nothing after?”
“I wanted to. They told me if I spoke, I’d be marked next. I was nobody then, Selene.”
My name on his lips made me still.
“I should’ve done more,” he said. “I’ll live with that.”
I looked at him, pain twisting in my chest.
Then I turned and left.
I didn’t know if I believed him.
But I hadn’t marked him yet.
---
That night, I returned to the crypt.
Placed the scroll in the fire.
One name left uncrossed.
Kael.
The one who stood by as they killed me.
The one who would burn last.
I stared into the flames.
And behind me—
A blade whispered from its sheath.
- Writer
