Chapter 178: The Forgotten Character

Daniel's POV

The vow burned in my chest and then I let it go…for the moment. There was a storm to outrun.

We'd stopped at a neighboring pack to wait it out. The thing with storms is they tell you who they are before they arrive; this one lied. One second the sky was stupidly, violently blue. The next it was like someone threw a thick blanket over the world.

No warning. No birds dropping from the sky. Just a silence that tasted wrong.

We rested at Peak Pack. We decided to wait; better to move when the road didn’t look like a war. Ivy was a live wire in a limp suit…the second she woke, her eyes searched for exits like she knew doors were the only thing that mattered.

So we kept knocking her out until she slept like a stone. It felt ugly, but it worked. When she surfaced, she’d be scanning for a door. When she was down, she was weight and warmth and something I could carry without worrying she’d slip away.

They welcomed us like guests of honor…probably because Ezra was the king’s beta and his presence opened doors easier than a key.

We were given rooms, hot food, a place to wash grime out of hair and sleep on a bed that didn’t creak. We kept watch through the night; Ezra paced once, twice, then settled into a silence that looked like worry.

The sky outside never righted itself. Even when the clock slid past eight in the morning, the heaviness stayed…a dark hush that didn’t belong to dawn.

Then, like someone snapped fingers, the blanket lifted. No slow lightening. No gray turning gold. Just: gone.

The sky snapped back into existence like a stagehand pulling a curtain. Ezra shot me a look that said everything without words.

"We need to head back, now," he said, voice tight.

We left without hesitation. The road back to the palace felt smaller, more urgent. When we crested the ridge and saw the courtyard, my mouth went dry for an entirely different reason.

It was…beautiful. Banners reading Welcome home queen! Welcome home luna draped the entrance and the walls; ribbons threaded through the stone like celebration had grown right out of the mortar.

The courtyard glowed with lantern light even though the morning sun was blazing…people must’ve stayed up decorating all night. Flower garlands looped from pillar to pillar, and fresh petals littered the marble steps like someone had spilled heaven.

The palace that Ezra had, in low moments, warned me was cold and distant was alive with color and noise. Musicians tuned stringed instruments. Servants carried steam-wreathed platters. The scent of grilled meat, spiced stews, sugared breads…everything delicious…split the air into temptation.

My stomach growled loud enough to embarrass me and I almost laughed because my task could wait one second for food.

Ivy was still unconscious when we stepped out of the car. I carried her bridal-style, and as we approached the gates, guards bowed and parted like we were royalty returning from a triumphant war.

Inside the palace was even brighter than the courtyard…heavier with flowers, with trays of food that sang when the steam hit the air. The aroma of the kitchen reached us first and my throat tightened. A quick bite, I told myself. One bite and then business.

A woman in white moved through the crowd like light itself had decided to take human form.

If a pure sorceress of light had a uniform, the woman Ezra referred to as Shina wore it. White that wasn’t just fabric but a thin armor of glow…long sweeping panels that fell like liquid moonlight, a high collar embroidered with silver runes that caught torchlight and scattered it, sleeves trailing just enough to hint at ceremony.

Her hair was braided and pinned in a clean crown, and small beads…maybe mother-of-pearl, maybe glass…threaded through the braid, flashing like distant stars.

Around her throat sat a collar of hammered silver that looked like it had been forged from moonbeams. When she moved, the air seemed to take a measured breath. She gave the impression of someone who had been told everything and forgave nothing.

Beta Ezra straightened like a man who had just reached shore. “Shina,” he said, pride softening his voice into something almost reverent. He couldn’t hide the way his shoulders eased when he saw her. “I'm home and look...” He pointed toward me, to Ivy across my arms, and that gesture was all ceremony and reward. Instinct made me tighten my hold on her.

"I brought the queen back. We can finally end this once and for all so that the king..." he began, breath hitching with hope and the weight of a promise.

“We're late.” Shina's voice was a cold blade wrapped in silk. She shook her head minutely as if disappointed in a child who’d missed their cue. Ezra blinked, confused.

His face crumpled with the kind of uncertainty I'd seen before…the look a man gets when the ground under his feet moves.

"I'm confused. Late to what?" he asked.

Before anyone could answer, a voice slipped into the hall like honey stained with acid.

"Well, well, well. Aren't y'all a bit late to my coronation?" A voice cooed.

The sorceress didn't move. She closed her eyes and shook her head, as if she’d been punched by fate. I looked at Ivy…still limp, lashes against skin…and then I looked at the figure sauntering toward us. She moved like she’d practiced this exact walk in a dozen mirrors.

It was the other version of her. Lila. The one-armed version that should have been a memory and a prison.

She catwalked into the light as if courtyards were her stage and the world owed her applause.

Ezra’s posture snapped into anger. “What the hell is going on here? Who the fuck are you?” he growled, teeth bared like an animal that was suddenly regretting its confidence.

Lila clicked her tongue and smiled something thin and oily. “Ah that's not a way to talk to your queen, dear beta. Or would you rather I have your tongue chopped off?” Her threat was casual, like offering to pour tea.

Every rational thought I owned tried to assemble itself into a plan. How did she get in? How had she escaped Alpha Connor's prison? Why was she strutting in the palace like she owned it? Had I made a mistake bringing Ivy here?

Ivy chose that exact moment to open her eyes. My hands tightened instinctively around her…not because she was fragile, but because everything felt fragile all at once.

For a heartbeat, her gaze was unfocused, searching. Then she found the scene unfolding and a laugh…small and incredulous…escaped her.

Why the hell is she laughing?