The Wolf Who Dreamed First Part 2
1154 Words
Ashen
If anyone from her bloodline still lives, it is there.”
Veyra’s brows lifted. “You remembered.”
“I remember everything she told me.”
Especially the things he had not understood.
Especially the things he wished he had asked more about while there was still time.
“I will take you there,” he told Nara. “You will be safe. Then I will go back for the princess.”
Nara stared at him.
“No.”
“Nara.”
“No.”
“It is too dangerous.”
“She helped me.”
“I know.”
“She came looking for me when I didn’t show up.”
“I know.”
“She was taken because of us.”
Ashen flinched.
Veyra’s eyes sharpened, but she did not interrupt.
Nara stood, still trembling from Novett’s awakening but stubborn as the girl who had survived SilvaFrost by refusing to disappear completely.
“I am coming.”
“No.”
“You do not get to decide everything.”
“I am your brother.”
“And I am not a basket you can drop off with relatives while you run into fire.”
His jaw tightened. “You are Eighteen Now.”
"You're still my responsibility."
"I can take care of myself."
“No.”
Her eyes filled, but her voice hardened.
“Fine.”
Ashen hated that word.
Nothing good ever followed it.
“If you leave me there,” Nara said, “I will wait until you are gone and go by myself.”
“Nara.”
“I will.”
“You do not even know where Dorian took her.”
“Neither do you.”
“Novett—”
“Can help me too.”
Ashen turned away, dragging a hand through his hair.
His sister had been free for less than one night, and already she was trying to walk into danger beside him.
He wanted to be angry.
He was terrified instead.
“You are all I have,” he said.
Nara softened.
Then stepped close and took his bandaged hand.
“And you are all I have,” she said. “That is why you do not get to leave me behind and call it protection.”
The forest went quiet.
Ashen looked at Veyra.
The fae held up both hands. “Do not look at me. I am only here because your family makes terrible decisions in groups.”
“She could die,” Ashen said.
“So could you.”
“That is not helping.”
“I know. I disliked it as soon as I said it.”
Nara squeezed his hand.
Ashen looked at his sister.
At the girl he had promised to protect.
At the wolf now awake behind her eyes.
At the chain shattered at her feet.
Maybe protection was not always standing in front of someone.
Maybe sometimes it was standing beside them and praying the world did not punish you for trusting their strength.
He exhaled.
“You stay close.”
Nara’s eyes lit.
“You listen.”
“I will.”
“If I say run—”
“I run.”
“If I say hide—”
“I hide.”
“If I say leave me—”
“No.”
“Nara.”
“No. You can have the first two.”
Veyra smiled. “Negotiation. Beautiful. The child has royal instincts.”
Ashen shut his eyes.
“We find Mother’s uncle first,” he said. “We learn what we can. Then we go after the princess.”
Nara nodded.
Novett’s white form stood behind her, watching the northern road.
Above them, the moon shone cold and bright.
For the first time, Ashen wondered if freedom had not led them away from destiny.
Maybe it had only taken them around the long way.
Children, while the cinder boy and his sister followed the northern road, the princess was learning a cruel lesson of her own.
Not all cages looked like chains.
Some looked like lies wearing familiar faces.
Moon woke in a carriage that smelled of smoke, leather, blood, and fire magic.
Her head throbbed.
Her wrists were bound.
Across from her sat the boy with Ashen’s face.
He was bruised.
Bleeding.
Breathing hard.
Dorian Calder sat beside him, one arm stretched along the back of the seat as if kidnapping royalty was merely an inconvenient social call.
“You are awake,” Dorian said.
Moon’s eyes moved to the boy.
Ash-blond hair.
Winter-blue eyes.
Frost and roses in his scent.
But wrong.
Wrong.
Wrong.
Her wolf paced beneath her skin, furious and unsettled.
“Who is he?” she asked.
Dorian laughed. “Still playing?”
The boy lifted his head.
For a moment, his eyes met hers.
There was fear in them.
Not Ashen’s fear.
Ashen’s fear protected someone else.
This fear protected himself.
“I am Ashen,” he said hoarsely.
Moon’s stomach twisted.
The name felt right.
The boy did not.
Dorian leaned forward. “He is very stubborn for an omega. But do not worry, Princess. Fire loosens most tongues.”
“No,” Moon said.
Dorian smiled.
The carriage did not stop.
But later, when they reached an abandoned hunting lodge deep beyond the border road, Dorian made good on his promise.
He chained the fake Ashen where Moon could see him.
He asked questions Callan could not answer.
How did you enter the palace unnoticed? How did you make the princess chase you? What did the Rare Moon do? Where is your power hidden? Why does she look at you like that?
Callan screamed eventually.
Most wolves did.
Moon fought her bonds until silver-thread burned her wrists.
“Stop!” she shouted.
Dorian looked back at her, eyes bright with flame.
“Then tell me what he is.”
“I don’t know!”
“Liar.”
“I do not know!”
And that, children, was the terrible truth.
The princess knew that the boy being hurt in front of her was not right.
But she did not yet know why.
Her memories were bruised. Her instincts were snarled. The witch’s magic had turned certainty into fog.
But Storm remembered.
Storm watched.
Storm waited.
When Dorian finally grew tired of questions, one of his rogues entered and placed a small cloth bundle in his hand.
Dorian unwrapped it.
Moon went still.
Inside lay the ring.
Silver-white.
Cold.
Ancient.
Ashen’s ring.
Full of secrets
The ring Dorian’s rogue had found tucked in the folds of her cloak when they searched her.
Dorian held it between two fingers, turning it beneath the firelight.
“Well,” he said softly. “What do we have here?”
Across the room, Callan stared at it through Ashen’s stolen face.
Moon’s heart beat once.
Hard.
Storm growled.
Dorian smiled.
And the ring began to sing.
- Writer
