Chapter Nineteen: Wolves in Silk
522 Words
By dawn, Ayla had ordered the castle locked down.
No one in. No one out.
Every servant, warrior, and noble remaining inside the palace was summoned to the Great Hall for screening—under the guise of routine health checks. But the truth ran deeper.
Crimson Claw spies had infiltrated the palace.
And Rhea’s cursed body was proof.
---
Kael watched from the upper balcony as Ayla moved through the court with quiet authority.
Gone was the soft-spoken healer.
Now, she walked like a queen sharpened by betrayal.
Selene stood beside her, holding Ayla’s supply of moonroot extract and silver ash—a blend Ayla had created to detect the shadowbind curse, a magical trace left behind on anyone who had been in contact with Crimson Claw dark magic.
It didn’t hurt the innocent.
But it would burn the cursed.
One by one, the court came forward—nobles, cooks, pages, warriors.
One by one, they passed.
Until the sixth in line.
Lady Nessa, one of the noble women who had once sneered at Ayla for her Omega rank.
She stepped forward, haughty and smug—until Ayla’s poultice touched her wrist.
And her skin sizzled.
The scent of burning flesh filled the air.
She screamed.
Guards moved instantly.
Kael leapt from the balcony, landing beside Ayla just as Lady Nessa dropped to her knees, writhing.
Her skin shimmered—and the glamour dropped.
Beneath her royal robes was not the Lady Nessa they knew, but a pale, dark-eyed creature with markings crawling up her arms like veins.
“Shadow-sworn,” Ayla whispered.
The woman hissed. “You think your crown makes you untouchable?”
Ayla didn’t flinch. “No. But my rage does.”
---
Interrogation began at once.
Under silverlight cuffs, the woman revealed only bits of her orders:
> "We were told to watch. To wait. To weaken you slowly. The real blow is yet to come."
When asked who gave the order, she laughed.
“Not your usual monster. Not a wolf. Something… older.”
Kael’s fists clenched. “Witchcraft.”
Ayla’s thoughts raced. “So Crimson Claw is no longer working alone.”
Rhea, still bedridden but recovering, confirmed it later.
> “They’re working with a coven. Old blood magic—untraceable unless you’ve seen it before. I tried to warn you without betraying them too openly. But they always knew when I spoke too much.”
---
Later that night, Ayla stood before a map of the realm, her fingers tracing battle lines that hadn’t even been drawn yet.
Kael entered, voice low. “We’re bleeding from within.”
“I know,” she said.
“You’re building a reputation, Ayla. Wolves are beginning to follow you more than me.”
She looked up, startled.
He stepped closer.
“And I’m not afraid of that.”
She stared into his eyes.
“Then what are you afraid of?”
Kael didn’t answer right away.
Then: “That they’ll take you from me. That this curse… wasn’t the end. That there’s more coming.”
Ayla stepped into him, eyes blazing.
“Then let them come.”
- Writer
