Chapter 10

Chapter 10
Violetta’s POV

I was getting ready for the night when there was a knock on my door.

I had barely managed to remove the outfit I had worn for most of the day, and my hair was still tied back from the journey when I turned toward the door.

“Come in.”

The door opened, revealing Lyra.

I raised a brow immediately, definitely not expecting her here so late at night. “Everything alright?”

She stepped inside and closed the door behind her. “I wanted to talk to you. I couldn't sleep.”

“About?”

“The body. It makes me restless especially since this is the second one,” she admitted with a sigh.

I sighed as well. “I thought we were planning to investigate it tomorrow.”

“And now I have realized that might not be a good idea.”

I stopped what I was doing and looked at her. “Why?”

“Because the longer we wait, the more difficult it will be to figure out what happened. Kade had some of the wolves secure the area, but we don’t know what we’re looking for yet.”

I nodded slowly.

“Well, I guess you're right,” I muttered to myself.

“What?”

“Nothing. Just said you're right.”

I turned back toward the table and picked up the cloak I had discarded earlier. “You want to show me the body now, right?”

“I can take you there myself tonight.”

“Okay then. Let’s go.”

Lyra smiled faintly. “I was expecting more of an argument.”

“I’ve spent the entire day arguing with my council and with yours. I don’t have the energy to argue with you too.”

She chuckled. “That bad?”

“You have no idea,” I groaned as I grabbed my cloak. “Give me a few minutes.”

She nodded and walked toward the door, but before she left, she turned around.

“Violetta.”

I looked at her.

“I meant what I said earlier. I’ll help you with this… I trust you.”

I smiled faintly. “Cautiously?”

“Very. You broke Selene's heart.”

I laughed softly despite the guilt that was clawing at my chest. “Fair enough.”

I finished fastening my cloak and reached for the small wooden carving I turned into a pendant around my neck. The moment my fingers touched it, my heart skipped.

I swallowed.

Why was I thinking about her again?

I closed my fingers around the carving and tucked it beneath my clothes.

Then I followed Lyra outside.



The woods were almost completely dark by the time we reached the location as the moon was barely out tonight. A few wolves had remained behind to guard the area, and they immediately stepped aside when they saw Lyra. The body had been left exactly where it had been found, just like when I had glamoured myself and come here to inspect it, just that I didn't look too closely.

I crouched beside it and then began to carefully study the wounds from the claws and the position of his body. If he was struck by a claw, why would he fall in this direction? He was fae, how would he just die so easily?

Lyra remained a few feet away, allowing me to work without interruption while I racked my brain for an answer. It needed to be more bloody than this if a fight had ensued.

“Anything?” she eventually asked.

“Not yet.” I stood straight and moved around the body. There were the same signs I’d noticed earlier. The same obvious attempt to make the murder look like the work of a wolf when deep down I knew the body was planted.

I crouched again and my heart stopped the moment I noticed something strange. Carved into the skin near the wound was a familiar mark of a signature I used whenever I carved something.

My breathing became shallow.

It was mine… There was no mistaking it.

My hands began to shake because I hadn't killed this fae. Someone had done so and used my markings to do what? Send a message? Place suspicion on me? How, when? The marking wasn't something I flaunted around. I barely even carved pieces and dropped them carelessly about.

“Violetta?”

I didn’t answer. I reached out but stopped before touching the body.

I had never shown anyone outside the people I trusted. Thorne had seen it once, but he made no comment on it, and he was far, far away from here.

The only other person who had received one of my carvings—
Selene.

My heart began pounding so hard that I could hear it in my ears as I stood abruptly.

Lyra looked at me, knowing immediately that something was definitely wrong. “What is it?”

“Nothing.”

She frowned and lifted her brows. “That doesn’t look like nothing.”

I forced myself to breathe. “I need to speak to Selene. Now, please.”

“Now? Why?”

“Yes. I can’t explain… I just need to find out something.”

“Did you find anything… or have a clue?”

Lyra studied me for a moment. “Did you find anything relating to this?”

“I don't even fucking know. But I have to ask her something.” Something in my voice must have told her not to question it because she simply nodded.

“Alright.”

She left.

I remained beside the body. My mind was racing with a thousand and one impossible thoughts.

Someone had carved my mark into a dead fae. Someone knew that mark and had purposely used it… I didn’t believe it was a random coincidence, especially because it was literally trying to turn the heads of fae and wolf together. The question was how and why.

I looked at the corpse again.

Yep. There was no way this was a coincidence.

A few minutes later, I heard footsteps approaching, making me turn around.

Selene walked toward me, looking at me with a very irritated stare.

Of course she did; I had probably disturbed her as she was about to go to bed or had maybe even slept.

“What do you want?”

I pulled out the pendant around my neck which was a smaller version of what I had carved for her.

“Do you still have it?”

Her brows furrowed. “Have what?”

“The bird.”

She stared at me for a long while before her eyes dropped to my neck and her expression changed.

“The one you carved?”

“Yes.”

She folded her arms. “Who says I have it?”

I gave her a long look.

“It’s in my room.”

“Where? This pack house?”

“In my parents’ house.”

I frowned.

“Why?” She asked, looking at me suspiciously. “Why do you care?”
“I just really need to know.”

“Is this some way of finding out if I’m still hung up over you?” She scoffed, staring at me as she took a step back.
My chest ached at her words. “Selene—”

“Because if it is, you don’t need to worry. I don't give a shit about you. I just liked it, that's why I kept it. It had nothing to do with you.”

“Stop making things personal,” I said in a cold voice. “Selene, I saw my signature carving marks on the body. I don’t show people that signature.”

She froze. “What?”

“The mark.”

I pointed toward the corpse. “It’s mine.”

She slowly turned toward the body and her face drained of colour. I watched as she took a step closer and then another, her eyes moving over the mark.

And suddenly, she whispered, “Shit.”

“What?”

“I saw it on the first one too.”

I stopped breathing.