Chapter 7 Celeste Forgot Wolves Can Smell Lies
1958 Words
Celeste forgot one simple thing.
Pretty tears could fool eyes.
They could not fool noses.
The silence after Cassian's question was so complete that even the chandelier crystals seemed to stop trembling.
My sister stood in the center of the hall with her hands folded against her skirt, lace gloves hiding the smear of black wax at her wrist. Her eyes were wide, her mouth trembling, as if the accusation had wounded her too deeply for words.
It was beautiful.
It had worked on them before.
My father moved first.
"Lord Reed," he said, voice tight with embarrassment, "there must be a misunderstanding."
Of course.
There was always a misunderstanding when Celeste was caught.
When I was accused, it had been evidence.
When Celeste was questioned, it became confusion.
Cassian did not look at my father.
"I asked Miss Vale a question."
The room shifted toward me.
Rowan's gaze burned against my skin. The mate bond pulsed once, painful and demanding, as if he had any right to demand my fear, my explanation, my softness.
I gave him nothing.
I looked at Cassian.
"Because she touched it."
Celeste gasped.
"Aria!"
There it was again.
My name as a wound.
My name as proof that she was the victim.
I turned slowly. "Did you not?"
Tears gathered in her blue eyes. "How can you say that? I only went near Lord Reed's table when Tessa dropped the tray. Everyone saw me helping."
"Everyone saw you move toward Tessa."
"Because she was frightened."
"She was frightened before you reached her."
Celeste pressed a hand to her mouth.
Around us, pack members whispered.
Cruel girl. Jealous sister. Rejected mate losing control.
The old script tried to settle over my shoulders.
Wear the guilt, Aria. Lower your head. Make it easy for them.
My wolf growled.
Not this life.
Cassian lifted his hand. "No one leaves the hall."
The royal guards moved before Silvercrest could object. Doors shut. Blackthorn warriors watched Rowan for an order.
Rowan gave none.
His eyes remained on Celeste's hidden wrist.
For the first time, he was not looking at her tears.
He was looking at her hands.
A cold satisfaction moved through me. Not joy. Something sharper.
Cassian stepped toward Celeste.
"Show me your glove."
Celeste's tears spilled.
"My lord, this is humiliating. I am the daughter of this house."
"Stepdaughter," I said.
Her eyes flashed.
Only for a second.
But Rowan saw it.
So did Cassian.
Celeste recovered quickly. "I know you have never accepted me as family, Aria, but must you shame me before our guests?"
My father snapped, "Enough, Aria."
His Alpha blood pushed against the hall. Weaker wolves lowered their heads. Tessa whimpered beside the broken glass.
The command brushed my skin like heat from a dying fire.
Once, it would have folded me.
Tonight, something inside me answered.
Deep.
Ancient.
My wolf rose.
The air around me tightened.
My father's command broke against it.
His eyes widened.
Elder Maren inhaled sharply.
"Let Lord Reed finish," I said.
My voice was calm.
Too calm.
It carried anyway.
Several wolves straightened as if their bodies had obeyed before their minds understood.
For one heartbeat, I saw fear behind my father's anger.
Good.
Let him wonder what kind of daughter he had trained himself not to see.
Cassian's mouth curved faintly.
"A practical suggestion."
Celeste's face had gone pale beneath her powder. She knew the crowd was slipping.
So she did what she always did.
She collapsed.
Not fully.
Never too messy.
Just enough that Rowan moved by instinct.
He caught her elbow before she hit the floor.
The bond sliced through me.
Pain.
Memory.
His hand on her arm.
His voice in my first life, cold as execution silver.
She was afraid of you, Aria. Even now you still lie.
My nails bit into my palms.
Rowan glanced at me, and unease flickered in his eyes. He did not understand why his hand on her made me look as if I had been stabbed.
He did not remember the blade.
I did.
Celeste leaned into him.
"I feel faint," she whispered.
Of course she did.
"Then sit," Cassian said. "Sit, Miss Vale. Then remove the glove."
Rowan's jaw flexed.
For a moment, I thought he would defend her.
The old Rowan would have.
The first-life Rowan would have put his body between Celeste and truth, then called it honor.
This Rowan looked down at her covered wrist.
"Remove it," he said.
Celeste went still.
So did I.
It was only two words. It was not repentance. It did not erase my death.
But it was the first time I had ever heard Rowan Black ask Celeste for proof.
Her scent soured.
Lavender, fear, anger.
And underneath it all, the bitter thread of a lie preparing itself.
Celeste pulled her hand away from him as if he had burned her.
"You believe her?" she whispered.
Rowan's face hardened. "I believe Lord Reed asked a question."
"Because of Aria!"
There.
The crack widened.
Her voice rose too sharply, too quickly. Tears still shone on her cheeks, but the softness beneath them had turned brittle.
"She has hated me since my mother married into this family. She rejected you, Alpha Rowan, and now she is trying to ruin me because you showed me kindness."
A murmur moved through the crowd.
Smart.
She tied herself to Rowan.
If he defended his pride, he defended her.
If he admitted doubt, he admitted Aria might have been right to reject the bond that should have honored her.
Celeste was dangerous because she knew where men hid their vanity.
Rowan's aura darkened.
For one second, his pride filled the room.
Then his eyes met mine.
I did not plead. I did not explain. I only looked back.
He had believed her once.
I would make sure he had no choice now.
"The glove," Cassian repeated.
Celeste's lower lip trembled.
Slowly, she peeled the lace from her wrist.
Black wax stained her skin.
Gasps broke through the hall.
My father took one step forward, then stopped.
Tessa began to cry silently beside the broken tray.
Cassian reached for Celeste's wrist but did not touch her.
"Royal sealing wax," he said.
Celeste shook her head. "I do not know how that got there."
"When did you touch my case?"
"I didn't."
The lie was instant.
Too instant.
Every wolf in the room caught the scent.
Sour. Sharp. Ugly.
The hall changed.
Not fully against her.
Not yet.
But uncertain.
Celeste felt it.
Her eyes darted to my father, then Rowan, then me.
"Aria planted it," she said suddenly.
I almost laughed.
There it was.
The old knife.
When cornered, put blood on my hands.
"How?" I asked.
She blinked.
"What?"
"How did I plant royal wax on your wrist while standing with Lord Reed in full view of the hall?"
"You could have done it earlier."
"Earlier, I was with my mother. Then Elder Maren. Then Lord Reed." I looked toward the back of the hall. "All three can confirm."
Liana's voice did not shake.
"She was with me."
Elder Maren tapped her cane once. "And with me."
Cassian added, "And with me."
Three witnesses.
Public.
Clear.
Celeste's mouth opened.
No sound came out.
I stepped closer, but not close enough for her to fall into my arms and call it assault.
"You said you only went near Lord Reed's table when Tessa dropped the tray," I said. "But the wax is on the inside of your wrist. The seal on the case is low, near the latch. You touched it before the tray fell."
Celeste's eyes filled again. "No."
"Then perhaps the head steward can tell us who asked Tessa to drop a tray near Lord Reed's chair."
Tessa sobbed.
The doors opened.
The head steward entered between two royal guards, sweating through his formal coat.
"Who assigned the wine tray?"
The steward looked at my father first.
Then at Celeste.
Wrong choice.
Cassian noticed.
"Answer me, not your pack."
The steward swallowed. "Miss Celeste requested that Tessa serve the eastern balcony."
Celeste made a wounded sound.
"I only wanted the guests well served."
"And the second errand?" I asked.
Her head snapped toward me.
The steward's face drained of color.
Cassian turned slowly. "What second errand?"
Tessa broke.
"Please," she whispered. "I didn't know what was inside. Miss Celeste said it was a prank. She said Miss Aria had been cruel to her and deserved a little embarrassment."
My father looked as if she had struck him.
"Tessa," Celeste hissed.
There was no sweetness now.
Just command.
Weak, angry, desperate command.
Tessa flinched, but my aura moved first.
I did not mean to release it.
It simply happened.
A warm pulse rolled from my chest and settled over the maid like a shield.
Tessa stopped shaking.
The hall went still again.
Elder Maren whispered something I could not hear.
Cassian heard it.
So did Rowan.
True Luna.
Celeste heard them too.
Her face twisted.
Only for a moment.
But the innocent girl vanished completely.
"She tricked me," Celeste snapped.
The mask shattered around the edges.
"Aria always does this. She stands there like some poor little victim while everyone turns against me. She planned this. She knew. Somehow she knew."
Rowan stared at her.
Not with tenderness.
Not with certainty.
With suspicion.
At last.
It should have felt like victory.
Instead, I felt tired.
Because one crack in a mask did not bring back the dead.
It did not erase the silver.
Cassian looked at Celeste with cold royal patience.
"You will explain the prank."
Celeste shook her head. "I won't be interrogated like a criminal."
"Then do not behave like one."
A few wolves sucked in breaths.
My father finally found his voice. "Lord Reed, she is young. Whatever mistake was made tonight can be handled within the family."
I turned to him.
"Within the family," I repeated.
He stiffened.
I smiled, but there was no warmth in it.
"That is what you always say when the truth embarrasses you."
My mother closed her eyes.
Rowan looked at me as if he had never understood what kind of house I had lived in.
Good.
Let him learn slowly.
Celeste suddenly lunged toward me.
"You ruined everything!"
Rowan caught her before she reached me.
This time, he did not hold her gently.
He held her back.
The difference was small.
The room noticed.
So did I.
Cassian's guard stepped between us.
Tessa was crying openly now, but she was still standing.
Protected.
Alive.
A witness.
Not this life.
Cassian looked at me.
There was no softness in him, but there was recognition.
"Miss Vale," he said, "you seem to have prevented a serious incident."
"I only asked questions."
"Questions can be weapons."
"So can lies."
His eyes flicked to Celeste. "Indeed."
Rowan released Celeste into the grip of a royal guard.
She stared at him as if he had betrayed her.
The irony almost made me smile.
"Aria," Rowan said.
My name in his mouth sounded different tonight.
Less command.
More confusion.
More hunger for an answer he did not deserve.
"How did you know?"
The hall listened.
Celeste listened hardest.
I could not tell him that I had watched him condemn me.
I could not tell him that in another life, he had severed our bond while Cassian's stolen ring glittered inside my jewelry box.
So I stepped over the broken glass and looked at the black wax on Celeste's wrist.
"Because liars repeat themselves," I said.
Celeste's face crumpled with rage.
"You tricked me."
I finally smiled.
Small.
Calm.
"No, Celeste."
My wolf settled beneath my skin, warm and watchful.
"I simply stopped saving you from your own lies."
- Writer
