CHAPTER EIGHT THE SECOND HEARTBEAT
2446 Words
“It’s a lock.”
Cole closed his hand around the cracked yellow tooth.
“A lock for what?”
Cora did not answer immediately.
Her violet eyes followed the black cord around Cole’s neck, then moved to the rough square on his coat where the Frost Fang crest had been cut away.
Adam stepped between them.
“That is enough.”
Cole looked up at him. “You know what she means?”
“No.”
“But you knew the tooth mattered.”
“I knew your mother told you to protect it.”
“That isn’t the same thing.”
“No,” Adam said. “It isn’t.”
Cora wiped the blood from her palm onto the side of her coat.
“If you two are finished deciding what the child is allowed to hear, I can test it.”
Adam turned toward her. “No.”
Cole looked from Adam to Cora.
“What kind of test?”
“One that tells us whether the tooth is holding something inside you or keeping something outside.”
“What happens to me?”
“If I’m right, it hurts.”
“And if you’re wrong?”
Cora glanced at the broken ward circle.
“The hall may fall on us.”
Mason moved away from the damaged wall.
“I vote against the test.”
“No one asked you,” Cole said.
Mason pointed toward the missing half of the roof. “The building is already losing an argument with gravity.”
Adam held out his hand to Cole.
“Give me the tooth.”
Cole stepped back.
“No.”
“I’m not taking it from you.”
“That’s what everyone says before they take something.”
Adam’s hand remained between them.
“You were nearly killed twice in three days.”
“My father said there was nothing inside me.”
Adam’s expression tightened.
“The Elder said it too,” Cole continued. “The rogue bowed. Mason followed me. The hunters smelled Alpha blood, and now she says this tooth is a lock.”
He looked at Cora.
“I’m done walking away without answers.”
For a moment, no one spoke.
Then Cora crossed the ruined hall and kicked aside the remains of a broken bench.
A square iron door lay beneath it.
Mason stared. “There’s a room under the hall?”
“There were three,” Cora said. “Two collapsed.”
She pulled the iron ring.
The door did not move.
Adam stepped forward, took hold of the ring, and lifted. Stone dust fell from the edges as the door opened.
A narrow staircase descended into darkness.
Cora took one of the unbroken lamps from the wall and lit it with a touch of her blood.
Violet flame filled the glass.
Mason looked at her cut palm.
“You could have used the fire.”
“Not for what is below.”
Cora went down first.
Cole followed.
Adam stayed close behind him, while Mason came last, limping heavily on his injured leg.
The chamber beneath the meeting hall was round and windowless. Nine stone wolves stood against the walls, each carved with its head lowered toward the center.
A flat black stone occupied the middle of the room.
Dark stains covered its surface.
Cole smelled old blood.
“An oath room,” Adam said.
Cora set the violet lamp beside the stone.
“White Ridge Alphas were recognized here.”
Cole looked at Adam. “You stood on that?”
“Once.”
“What happened?”
“The stone accepted me.”
Mason leaned against the wall. “Then your Pack threw you out.”
Adam looked at him. “Those two things are not opposites.”
Cora removed a small leather case from beneath her coat. Inside were bone needles, black thread, three glass vials, and a narrow silver mirror.
Adam saw the mirror and moved closer.
“You said a test.”
“That is what this is.”
“You do not put silver against him.”
“The silver never touches his skin.”
Cole climbed onto the black stone.
Adam caught his shoulder.
“You still have time to say no.”
Cole looked at the hand holding him.
“Did anyone ask you before they made you Alpha?”
“No.”
“Did anyone ask me before they decided I had no wolf?”
Adam released him.
“No.”
Cole sat in the center of the stone.
“Then I’m saying yes now.”
Cora placed the silver mirror in front of him.
Its surface was too dark to show his reflection.
She arranged three bone needles around the tooth hanging from Cole’s neck, trapping it between them without piercing the cord.
“What do I do?” Cole asked.
“Nothing.”
“That doesn’t sound difficult.”
“It is usually where people fail.”
Cora tied black thread around each needle, then connected the threads to the nine stone wolves around the chamber.
Mason watched from the wall.
“What happens if the tooth opens?”
“It won’t.”
“You sound certain.”
“I built locks before you were born.”
Mason glanced at Adam. “Apparently everyone in this room did everything before I was born.”
Cora ignored him.
She cut her thumb and pressed one drop of blood to the silver mirror.
The dark surface rippled.
“Cole,” she said, “tell me the first thing you remember about the tooth.”
“My mother gave it to me at the gate.”
“The first thing you remember. Not the last.”
Cole looked down at the cracked surface.
He had seen it before the exile.
Not clearly.
A hand holding it above him.
Warm skin.
His mother’s voice.
He had been very young.
Maybe too young to remember.
“I was sick,” he said.
Adam’s attention sharpened.
Cole kept his eyes on the tooth.
“I couldn’t breathe. Mira put it against my chest.”
“What happened?”
“I don’t know.”
Cora touched the mirror.
“Then remember.”
The silver surface brightened.
Pain went through Cole’s jaw.
He grabbed the edge of the stone.
The tooth became hot against his chest.
A deep удар struck beneath his ribs.
Once.
The nine stone wolves raised their heads.
Mason pushed away from the wall.
“Cora.”
“Do not move.”
The black threads pulled tight.
Cole felt something on the other side of the tooth.
Not a voice.
Not a shape.
Pressure.
It recognized the room.
The second удар came harder.
One of the stone wolves cracked down the center.
Mason’s eyes turned silver.
Adam stepped toward Cole.
Cora raised one hand. “Stay back.”
“He’s bleeding.”
Cole touched his nose.
His fingers came away red.
The pressure behind the tooth pushed again.
The dark mirror filled with two pale lines.
One moved quickly.
The other moved slowly.
Cora leaned closer.
Her face changed.
Adam saw it. “What?”
Cora did not answer.
The chamber disappeared from Cole’s sight.
He smelled wolves.
Hundreds of them.
Some alive.
Some dead.
He smelled fear, obedience, hunger, and blood.
Mason stood nearest.
Young.
Injured.
His.
The thought did not sound like Cole.
Mason dropped to one knee.
“What are you doing?” Cole asked.
Mason’s claws dug into the floor.
“I’m not doing it.”
Adam moved between Mason and Cole.
The pressure inside Cole turned toward him.
Adam’s scent filled the chamber.
Old wolf.
Old blood.
Alpha.
Not his.
A growl moved through Cole’s chest.
Adam stopped.
His eyes changed from brown to burning gold.
“Cole.”
The name barely reached him.
The thing behind the lock pushed against the tooth.
The c***k in its surface widened.
A sound came from inside the stone wolves.
Not one growl.
Nine.
Cora grabbed the black threads.
“They’re feeding it.”
Adam looked at the carved wolves. “Break the lines.”
“I can’t. The test has to close from the center.”
Cole heard the words, but they seemed far away.
Adam stood in front of him.
Not bowing.
Not leaving.
A challenge.
The pressure surged.
Adam’s knees bent slightly.
Mason was already on both knees, fighting to keep his head raised.
Cora’s breathing shortened.
Even she had lowered one hand to the floor.
Cole looked at them.
He remembered Frost Fang’s Awakening Circle.
His father’s command rolling over the Pack.
Everyone kneeling.
Everyone except Cole.
He had hated Alton for forcing them down.
Now something inside Cole was doing the same thing.
“Stop,” Cole said.
Nothing changed.
The stone wolves continued growling.
The pressure pushed harder against the tooth.
Cole wrapped both hands around it.
“Stop.”
This time, he was not speaking to Mason.
He was not speaking to Adam.
He was speaking through the lock.
Pain tore through his chest.
The thing behind it turned its attention on him.
For one moment, Cole felt its certainty.
It was stronger than everyone in the room.
It had been trapped.
It wanted out.
Cole wanted it out too.
He wanted to return to Frost Fang with enough power to break the southern gate. He wanted Vance to feel the same helplessness Cole had felt beneath his claws.
He wanted his father to kneel.
The tooth split a little farther.
Far to the north, Mira woke on the stone floor of her room.
The iron band around her wrist had cut through the skin.
Blood ran between her fingers.
She dragged herself toward the wall, trying to stand.
“Cole,” she whispered.
In the oath chamber, Cole heard nothing.
But the tooth pulsed twice.
One beat was huge and furious.
The other was faint.
Almost lost beneath it.
Cole froze.
There was something else inside the lock.
Not another wolf.
A heartbeat.
Weak.
Familiar.
The same rhythm he had heard with his head against his mother’s chest when he was small.
Mira.
Cole released the pressure immediately.
“No.”
The thing behind the lock struck back.
The force threw Cora against the wall.
The black threads snapped.
One of the bone needles shot past Mason’s face and shattered against the stone.
Adam caught Cole before he fell from the center slab.
The tooth burned between them.
“Cole,” Adam said. “Look at me.”
Cole could barely breathe.
Adam gripped the back of his neck.
“Name everyone in the room.”
“What?”
“Name them.”
Cole looked toward the wall.
“Mason.”
Mason was on one knee, one hand pressed against his injured leg.
“Cora.”
Cora had blood at the corner of her mouth, but she was already pushing herself upright.
Adam tightened his grip.
“And me?”
“Adam.”
“Again.”
“Mason. Cora. Adam.”
“Who decides whether they kneel?”
Cole looked at the cracked tooth.
“I do.”
“No.”
Adam’s voice hardened.
“Who decides?”
Cole understood.
“Mason decides.”
Mason raised his head.
“Cora decides.”
Cora wiped the blood from her mouth.
“You decide,” Cole told Adam.
The pressure inside him weakened.
The nine stone wolves lowered their heads.
The gold faded from Adam’s eyes.
Mason stood slowly.
Cora pulled the remaining threads away from the tooth and covered the silver mirror with both hands.
The chamber went dark except for the violet lamp.
Cole stayed in Adam’s arms until his breathing steadied.
Then he pushed away and sat upright.
“What did you see?” Cora asked.
Cole touched the tooth.
The c***k had widened, but it had not broken.
“My mother.”
Adam looked at him.
“Inside the tooth?”
“Not inside.”
Cole tried to explain the second rhythm.
“It was like her heartbeat was tied to it.”
Cora uncovered the silver mirror.
The two pale lines remained on its surface.
The stronger one still moved quickly.
The weaker one barely moved at all.
Cora stared at them.
Adam crouched beside her. “What are those?”
“The lock has two living anchors.”
Cole slid off the stone.
“One is me.”
“Yes.”
“And the other is Mira.”
Cora did not answer.
She did not need to.
Cole grabbed the mirror.
The pale lines shook in his hands.
“What happens if the tooth breaks?”
Cora took the mirror from him before he dropped it.
“The lock opens.”
“My wolf comes out.”
“Yes.”
“And my mother?”
Cora looked at the weaker line.
“I don’t know.”
“You said you built locks.”
“Not this one.”
Cole closed his fist around the tooth.
“Then learn.”
Adam stood between him and Cora before either could move closer.
“No more tests tonight.”
Cole looked up at him. “She knows what it is.”
“She knows more than she did an hour ago. That does not mean she knows how to open it safely.”
“I don’t want it opened.”
The words surprised everyone, including Cole.
Mason looked at him. “You don’t?”
Cole remembered Mason forced onto his knees. Adam fighting not to follow. Mira’s heartbeat fading beneath the wolf’s power.
“Not until I know what it does to her.”
Cora studied him.
“The thing behind that lock is an Alpha wolf.”
Cole looked at the nine stone wolves.
“How strong?”
Cora glanced at Adam.
Adam did not answer for her.
Cora closed the leather case.
“Strong enough that a dead Pack recognized it.”
Cole looked at the cracked tooth in his hand.
For the first time, the truth did not make him feel stronger.
It gave him something else to protect.
Cora lifted the silver mirror again.
The second pale line flickered.
Then it disappeared.
Cole’s heart stopped.
“What happened?”
Cora tapped the mirror.
The line returned, weaker than before.
“She is still alive,” Cora said.
Cole stepped closer.
“Then why is it fading?”
Cora looked toward the north, beyond the stone walls and the ruined valley.
“Because someone is draining her.”
Cole’s grip tightened around the tooth.
“Who?”
Cora’s violet eyes met his.
“Take me to the last place you saw your mother.”
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