Chapter 131 THE AFTERMATH: GRIEF

Chapter 131 THE AFTERMATH: GRIEF
CORMAC.
AGE 16

The palace didn’t feel like home anymore.
It was too quiet, and when people did move through the halls, they did it like they’d forgotten how. Like they were trying to remember what normal looked like and coming up empty.
I couldn’t stop seeing her.
Lorelai on the stone. Her skin so pale it looked gray. Her eyes barely cracked open, staring at nothing, and the blood—goddess, the blood had been everywhere.
We’d gotten back four hours ago and I still saw her every time I closed my eyes.
The monitor beside the bed beeped softly and I looked down at Merrielynn, watching the rise and fall of her chest. She looked so small in that bed, so still, and I kept having to remind myself she was breathing. That she was alive.
She hadn’t moved since they brought her in, except for earlier when she’d opened her eyes for just a second and looked right at me.
I’d felt this rush of relief so strong it almost knocked me over.
Then she’d asked me who I was.
My throat tightened just thinking about it. The confusion in her eyes. The way she’d looked at me like I was a stranger. Then her eyes had rolled back and she was gone again before I could even answer her.
The bandage around her head stood out stark white against herblonde hair. I tried not to think about what the doctor had said.
Serious head trauma. No way to know the extent until she woke up.
But she had woken up, and she hadn’t known me, and when I’d told the doctor that he’d gotten this careful look on his face.
Memory loss, he’d said. It’s possible. Could be temporary.
Could be.
I was holding onto that word like my life depended on it.
I’d already lost Lorelai today. I couldn’t lose Merrielynn too.
Voices rose somewhere down the hall, sharp and overlapping, people yelling over each other about something I didn’t care about.
They’d been fighting since we got back. About blame, probably. About whose fault it was. About how my sister was dead and someone needed to pay for it.
My hand curled into a fist at my side.
I’d been the one to tell my mother. Had to stand there and watch her face crumble when the words left my mouth. She’d collapsed right there, screaming Lorelai’s name over and over, and I’d had to leave the room because I couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t handle her grief on top of my own.
Then I’d taken Lorelai to the morgue and watched them cover her with a sheet like she was just another body. Like she wasn’t my sister. Like she wasn’t the person who knew me better than anyone.
After that I came here, to this room, because I couldn’t be anywhere else.
The door opened behind me.
“You’re being called in.”
It was Valtor.
His voice sounded hollow, and when I looked up at him standing in the doorway, his eyes were so red and swollen I almost didn’t recognize him. He looked at me first, then his gaze drifted to Merrielynn on the bed, and something crossed his face that I couldn’t read.
I didn’t want to leave her. Everything in me was screaming to stay right here.
But I stood up anyway.
We walked through the empty hallways and our footsteps echoed too loud, and I kept thinking about how this morning everything had been fine. Normal. Lorelai had been alive and Merrielynn had known my name and I’d thought the worst part of my day would be covering for them stealing Mom’s car.
This morning felt like it had happened to someone else.
When we reached my father’s office, Valtor pushed the door open and I stepped inside and immediately wished I hadn’t.
My mother was curled up in a chair in the corner, a maid hovering over her while she sobbed. My father stood behind his desk with his hands clasped behind his back, his face completely expressionless. And Otto was pacing back and forth, his movements jerky and desperate.
“She killed my daughter.”
My father said it so calmly, like he was stating a fact, and it made my stomach turn.
“No, she didn’t.” The words left my mouth before I could stop them.
Everyone turned to look at me.
“It was an accident,” I continued, my voice stronger now. “The roads were pure ice. She lost control. That’s not the same as—”
“She was driving the car, Cormac.” My father’s voice was cold. “She was behind the wheel when your sister died.”
“Because Lorelai called us for help!” My hands clenched into fists at my sides. “They were stuck. We told them to stay put but the car started sliding on its own. Merrielynn wasn’t even trying to drive, the ice—”
“She never should have taken the car in the first place.”
“That was Lorelai’s idea!” The words tore out of me. “You know it was. Merrielynn wouldn’t have—she would never—”
“Cormac.” My father’s tone was a warning.
“No.” I took a step forward. “You can’t do this. She didn’t kill anyone. It was an accident. A horrible, terrible accident, but that’s all it was.”
Otto had stopped pacing, staring at me with this desperate hope in his eyes that made my chest ache.
“Your Majesty, please,” Otto said, his voice shaking. “The Prince is right. My daughter couldn’t have known—”
“She was driving. She lost control. Lorelai is dead because of it.” My father’s eyes moved back to Otto. “By wolf law, I am owed justice for my daughter’s death.”
“There’s no justice in this!” My voice rose. “You’re talking about executing a sixteen-year-old girl who just lost her best friend in the same accident that—” My voice cracked. “That took Lorelai from us.”
“The law is clear, Cormac.”
“Fuck the law!” I shouted, and my mother’s crying hitched. “This isn’t justice, this is—this is just you needing someone to blame because Lorelai’s gone and it hurts and you can’t—”
“Enough.” My father’s voice cut through the room like a blade.
Silence fell.
“The girl will be moved to the cells,” my father continued, his tone final. “There will be a public execution in two weeks.”
“No!” Otto surged forward. “Please, Your Majesty—”
“Dad, you can’t do this.” I moved toward the desk. “Please. She’s—Merrielynn didn’t do anything wrong. She’s lying in that clinic right now with her head split open, she doesn’t even remember who I am, might never, and you want to—”
“I want justice for my daughter’s death.”
“Then take me!” Otto dropped to his knees so hard the sound echoed through the room. “Please, I’m begging you. Take my life. Spare her. Please don’t kill my daughter.”
I stared at Otto on his knees and felt something crack inside my chest.
This couldn’t be happening.
"Dad, please,” I said, my voice breaking. “She’s innocent. You know she is. This isn’t—Lorelai wouldn’t want this. She wouldn’t want Merrielynn to—”
“Do not,” my father said quietly, dangerously, “tell me what your sister would have wanted.”
My throat closed up.
My father was quiet for a long moment, just standing there behind his desk, and I held my breath, praying he’d see reason. That he’d remember Merrielynn was just a kid. That she was Lorelai’s best friend. That she was—
“Very well.”
Otto’s head jerked up, hope flooding his face.
“I will have my justice. The girl will be cast out to the edges of our territory where she will have no pack, no protection, no place in our society. She will live as nothing.”
“No,” I breathed. “Dad, please—”
Otto was nodding frantically, desperately. “Yes, yes, thank you—”
“And you will be executed for failing to protect the royal family.”
Everything stopped.
“What?” The word barely made it out of my throat. “No. No, you can’t—”
“You offered yourself,” my father said to Otto. “I accept.”
“Dad, stop this!” I moved around the desk. “This is insane. You’re going to kill him? Execute him for what? For his daughter being in the wrong place at the wrong time? For—”
“For failing in his duty as Beta to protect the royal family.”
“He wasn’t even there!” My voice cracked. “How could he have protected anyone when he wasn’t—this doesn’t make any sense!”
I turned to Valtor, desperate, pleading. “Say something. Tell him this is wrong.”
But Valtor just stood there with his jaw clenched and his eyes hard, and I realized with a sick twist in my gut that he agreed with this. He actually thought this was right.
“Valtor,” I said, my voice dropping. “Please.”
He looked at me, and for a second I thought I saw something flicker in his expression. But then it was gone.
“Lorelai’s dead, Cormac,” he said quietly. “Someone has to pay for that.”
“It was an accident!”
“It was her fault.”
The words hit me like a punch.
“Cormac.”
My father’s voice cut through everything and I looked at him, my chest heaving, my eyes burning.
“Go get the head guard. Have him escort the former Beta to the cells.”
I couldn’t move. My feet felt rooted to the floor.
“Dad, please.” My voice came out broken. “Please don’t do this.”
“Now, Cormac.” He said, “Someone will be escorted to those cells today, and if I have to repeat myself, I can assure you it won’t be anyone standing in this room as of now.”
My body moved on its own. I walked to the door, my hand closing around the handle, and I looked back one last time at Otto on his knees, at my mother broken in the corner, at Valtor standing there like stone.
At my father.
“I’ll never forgive you for this,” I said.
My father didn’t respond.
I left, and every step down that hallway felt like pieces of me were breaking off and falling away, and I didn’t know if there’d be anything left by the time I reached the end.