Celeste
My wolf made a small, terrible sound inside me that no one else heard.
Mated.
“The second.” Barnabus’s voice did not soften. “Was born into a slave house. She watched her mother beaten to death. She drew the Shadow Gladius in rage, and she let the rage make her. She carved a decade of ruin out of the world before the blade’s own weight consumed her.”
Alec made a low, pained sound.
“The third.” Barnabus turned to me. “Is you. And you should not fear your sword. You are who you are. Trust it.”
He did not say what he had read on the last tablet.
I did not know. I could feel, from the way he was watching me, that there was more. I could not see the shape of it yet.
I stood up.
Alec stood with me.
“I never planned to draw it.” My voice was raw. “And now you are telling me I ha
