Chapter Six: The First Lie
1276 Words
The rain beat like furious sheets on the roof as Rhydian bolted the door closed behind him. The wooden latch moaned, scarcely able to support the pressure of the wind. Liora was at the cot, her hand upon the burning forehead of Kael. His flesh shook under the blanket she had thrown over him, his breathing irregular and hasty. He still felt the fire of the wolfsbane burning him like poison, and his skin was getting pale.
“I need fire,” Rhydian said, already moving across the shack. He found the rusted hearth buried under debris and old ash, then dug into his own satchel, pulling out a dry bundle of twigs and a small vial of oil. “Get me that tarp near the window, and tear that sack into strips.”
Liora didn’t hesitate. She worked fast, right beside him as he stabbed kindling wildly together and coaxed a spark into a flickering flame from the dry tinder. In a minute, warmth filled the cramped quarters. The wolves outside had reappeared. But their absence was harder somehow. Calculated. Watching.
Rhydian bent beside Kael again, unwinding the red-soaked bandage Liora had wrapped and tightened earlier. His lips set in a hard line as he studied the wound, which had gone darker still, the surrounding skin turning gray.
"This is not just wolfsbane," he muttered. “It’s mixed with ashroot.”
"What is that?" Liora inquired, fighting to sound calm.
“It slows the blood’s healing. Keeps the wolf from shifting, from burning the poison out. Selene didn’t want to kill him fast, she wanted him weak and broken.”
Liora swallowed hard and looked down at Kael. “Can you fix it?”
Rhydian hesitated for just a second before nodding. “I’ve seen it before. We need heat, bloodroot, and a binding agent. I can make a paste, but it’ll hurt like hell.”
Kael stirred at the word “hurt,” his eyes fluttering open. They were unfocused but locked on Rhydian.
“You ought not to be here,” he rasped.
“I know,” Rhydian answered in a low tone. “But I am.”
Kael made a movement to raise himself up, but raised his head only a little and then fell back. “No one lays hands on her,” he growled. “You need not believe him, Liora…”
“I am not doing this on her behalf,” said Rhydian, and his voice was cool, controlled. “I am doing it for the pack.”
Liora frowned and the tension broke like a live wire between the brothers. She laid a hand on the shoulder of Kael, to soothe him; but Kael did not look away from Rhydian.
Rhydian was grinding crushed herbs within a small pouch that he was carrying by rubbing them on the stone floor. Liora stared at his hands, the skillfulness with which he moved them, as though he had done it a hundred times before. In her mind, she remembered the warning by Kael. When no one was there Rhydian would appear. He had assisted her. Now he helped Kael.
“Why did he not trust you?” she asked in a low voice.
Rhydian was not looking up. “We both have been wrong.”
“This is not an answer.”
He ceased to grind, and raised his eyes to hers. “You’re right. It isn't. Then with his fingers he dipped into the paste and rolled it into the wound of Kael. Kael hissed in pain and all the muscles of his body were strained.
Liora came up to him and took his hand. “It’s alright. Breathe.”
Kael held her hand more firmly and briefly the connection swung back and another wave of heat rolled through her body.
Rhydian drew back on his heels and heaved a deep sigh. “He needs to sleep. That is the best that I can do now.”
Liora mopped dampness off Kael's forehead, her thoughts in a turmoil.
“What are you doing here?”
“I tracked the rogues. When I heard the howls, I knew Selene had moved. I’ve been watching her. She’s not just after Kael’s title anymore. She’s after you.”
“Why?” she asked. “I’m nothing to her.”
Rhydian looked at her like she had missed something obvious. “You’re the human mate. The one the bond chose. You represent everything the old laws say can’t exist. If Kael marks you and it works, the council loses control. The laws are questioned. That terrifies them.”
Liora leaned back, trying to absorb it. “So I’m a threat.”
“To the entire structure they’ve built, yes.”
Kael stirred again, mumbling something too faint to hear. Rhydian moved toward his bag and pulled out a worn scroll, wrapped in leather. He unrolled it carefully and held it out to her.
“What’s that?” she asked, peering at the faded ink.
“Proof.”
The symbols were archaic, but familiar. Liora’s historian mind instantly recognized the pattern, Dravenian script, written before the dynasty was formalized.
“This passage here,” Rhydian said, pointing to a line, “mentions a breaking clause. A fated bond that can be severed by betrayal or silence. The pack believes the bond is eternal, unbreakable, but this says otherwise.”
She looked up at him, shaken. “You’re saying Kael could lose me?”
“If he lies to you,” Rhydian said, voice steady. “If he withholds the truth of the curse, the bond can fracture. Permanently.”
Liora stared down at the scroll, her heart thudding harder. “What hasn’t he told me?”
Rhydian paused just long enough to make her skin crawl.
“He knew about you before you ever set foot in the Carpathians.”
“What?” Her voice was barely a whisper.
Rhydian nodded. “Your father. Lord Veyne. He made contact with the council years ago. In exchange for protection, he agreed to a union, your union with a Draven. Kael was the one chosen.”
“No,” she said, shaking her head. “He saved me. He didn’t know who I was, he—”
“He didn’t recognize your face,” Rhydian said softly. “But he knew your name.”
Liora stood up too fast, her knees wobbling. The room spun as realization dawned in slow, brutal waves.
“I have been a pawn this entire time.”
“No,” Rhydian said quickly. “You’re more than that. You’re the only one who can choose your fate now. But you deserve to know what’s been done behind your back.”
Liora glanced at Kael, whose face was regaining color now, and was breathing more freely. He had lost hold of her hand. He seemed calm, ignorant of the devastating reality being seeded in the room.
“You should rest too,” Rhydian said. “You’ll need your strength.”
Liora turned toward the window, rain still tapping against the glass. “No. I can’t sleep. Not until I talk to him.”
She was silent for an impossibly long time, her fists clenched.
Without turning back around she said, “Thank you, thank you so much.”
Rhydian made no response. He just looked at the smoldering fire, the dancing shadows on his face, impenetrable and still.
Outside the storm had passed. The forest quieted.
But inside the shack, a c***k had opened, one that would not be easily closed.
And by dawn, something far worse than wolves would be waiting.
- Writer
