Chapter 26 Let’s Try - Amelia’s POV
I sat curled in a window seat of the royal library, a book balanced on my knees, sunlight warming my shoulders through the glass. It was my third afternoon at the castle, and I'd discovered this hidden corner yesterday—tucked away behind shelves of ancient texts, with a cushioned alcove perfect for disappearing into someone else's story. The library had quickly become my sanctuary, its towering shelves and hushed atmosphere a welcome contrast to the basement room I'd called home for four years. Here, surrounded by more books than I'd ever seen in one place, I could almost forget why I'd been sent here, almost believe I was just a normal girl enjoying an afternoon read.
'You're getting comfortable,' Kaela observed, though without her usual edge of suspicion. 'I like this room too. It smells of paper and ink and quiet.'
I smiled to myself, turning a page. In three days, I'd noticed subtle changes in both of us—my shoulders no longer hunched automatically when doors opened, and Kaela's constant vigilance had softened into something more like cautious observation. We weren't safe, not really, but we were... breathing easier.
The heavy library door swung open, and I glanced up, pleasantly surprised when my heart didn't immediately leap into my throat. Aleksandr's tall figure appeared in the doorway, his broad shoulders blocking most of the light from the corridor beyond. But it was the smaller woman beside him who caught my attention—elderly but straight-backed, with sharp eyes and silver-streaked dark hair pulled into an intricate braid.
'Who's that?' Kaela asked, instantly alert but not fearful.
"Good afternoon, Aleksandr," I said, the informality still strange on my tongue despite his insistence. I set my book aside and started to rise.
He smiled—a genuine expression that transformed his severe features into something almost gentle. "Amelia," he greeted me. "Please, stay comfortable. I've brought someone I'd like you to meet." He gestured to the woman beside him. "This is Elder Nora, one of our scholars. She has knowledge in cases similar to yours and Kaela's."
Something electric surged through me—not my emotion but Kaela's, a sudden jolt of excitement so powerful it made my fingers tingle.
'Someone who can help us?' Her mental voice trembled with an emotion I rarely heard from her—hope, raw and desperate. 'Someone who knows why we can't shift?'
Aleksandr's smile widened slightly, his purple-tinged gaze meeting mine. "I believe Kaela is very happy to meet you, Nora."
The elder's eyes sharpened with interest at this exchange. "You can sense the wolf's reactions," she observed, studying Aleksandr before turning that penetrating gaze on me.
I nodded, a small smile forming despite my nervousness. "She is too. Happy to meet you, I mean."
Kaela was practically pacing in my mind, her usual cynicism momentarily forgotten. 'Ask her if she's helped others like us. Ask her if it worked.'
Aleksandr glanced at a grandfather clock standing sentinel between two bookshelves. "I'll leave you two to chat. I have a council meeting to attend, but I'll find you afterward." His eyes met mine again, something unspoken passing between us. "Nora knows more about trapped wolves than anyone in the kingdom."
With that, he departed, the door closing softly behind him. I was left alone with Elder Nora, whose gaze hadn't left my face since our introduction.
"Come, child," she said, her voice carrying an accent I couldn't place—something ancient in its cadence. "The weather is beautiful. We'll talk in the garden."
I nodded and stood, marking my place in the book before setting it aside. As we walked together through the castle corridors, I studied her from the corner of my eye. She moved with surprising grace for someone her age, her steps measured and purposeful. There was something timeless about her, as if the centuries had polished rather than weathered her.
"The meditation garden will serve our purposes best," she explained as we descended a curving staircase. "It's designed to help wolves focus their energy."
The garden she led me to wasn't the staff garden where I'd eaten dinner that first night, nor was it the formal garden where Aleksandr and I had taken breakfast the past three mornings. This space was smaller, more intimate, nestled in what felt like the heart of the castle grounds. Stone paths wound between beds of night-blooming flowers just beginning to open in the late afternoon light. Several small streams trickled over carefully arranged stones, creating a gentle music that seemed to quiet my thoughts.
"Beautiful," I whispered, inhaling the subtle scents of water and stone and growing things.
"It's built on ley lines," Nora explained, guiding me to a circular bench surrounding a still pool at the garden's center. "Energy pathways that enhance a wolf's natural abilities."
We sat, the stone bench surprisingly warm beneath me despite the cooling afternoon air. The pool before us reflected the sky perfectly, creating the illusion of infinite depth.
"Tell me about Kaela," Nora said without preamble, her gaze direct. "What does it feel like, carrying a wolf you cannot release?"
The question was so precisely what I needed someone to ask that it momentarily stole my breath. No one had ever acknowledged Kaela as real, let alone asked how it felt to have her trapped inside me.
"She's..." I began, searching for words to describe something I'd never articulated aloud. "She's opinionated and angry most of the time. Protective. Frustrated." I traced patterns on the stone bench with my fingertips. "It's like having another person in my head, except she feels things more intensely than I do. More... raw."
'Tell her I'm sick of being trapped,' Kaela interjected, though her tone lacked its usual bite. 'Tell her I want to run.'
"She says she's sick of being trapped," I translated. "She wants to run."
Nora nodded, unsurprised by this communication. "And when you try to shift? What happens?"
"Nothing," I said, the admission still painful after all these years. "It's like... nothing happens. I feel this warmth, like my skin is heating up from the inside, and then..." I shrugged helplessly. "It just stops. Like hitting a wall."
'It's exactly like hitting a wall,' Kaela agreed, agitation building in her voice. 'A brick wall with no doors or windows.'
Nora's eyes narrowed thoughtfully. "I've encountered similar cases in my research," she said. "Some wolves become trapped due to trauma, others due to curses or magical interference. A few are simply born with barriers between their human and wolf forms that must be overcome through specific rituals."
My heart quickened at her words. "You've helped people like me before?"
"Some," she acknowledged with a slight nod. "Not all. Each case is unique." She reached into a pocket of her long dress, withdrawing a small vial of clear liquid. "This is distilled moonflower essence. It helps thin the barriers between forms."
She uncorked the vial and tipped three drops into the still pool before us. The liquid created perfect circles that expanded outward, distorting our reflections.
"First we meditate, child," she instructed, her voice taking on a rhythmic quality. "We'll see what we can feel from your Kaela."
I took a deep breath and closed my eyes as she directed, focusing on the sound of water, on the warmth of the stone beneath me, on the presence of Kaela in my mind.
"Picture your wolf," Nora murmured. "Not as separate from you, but as another aspect of yourself. Two halves of the same whole."
I tried to follow her instructions, visualizing Kaela as I'd always seen her in my mind—massive and black-furred, with mismatched eyes like mine, her presence both comforting and fierce.
'This isn't working,' Kaela growled, pacing restlessly in my consciousness. 'It's like there's a lock on the door and we don't have the right key.'
"She says it's like a locked door," I whispered, keeping my eyes closed. "And we don't have the key."
Nora's hand covered mine, her skin cool and paper-thin but surprisingly strong. "Then we'll find the key," she said with quiet certainty. "Or forge one if necessary."
Suddenly, I felt that familiar brush against my consciousness—that foreign presence that had become increasingly familiar over the past few days. Skoll. Massive and ancient, his energy distinctive as he touched Kaela's mind. I felt her response immediately, a mental tail-wag of excitement as their consciousnesses bumped together in greeting.
I opened one eye to find Aleksandr approaching along the stone path, his powerful form silhouetted against the setting sun. Despite everything—my situation, my fear, the uncertainty of my future—I found myself smiling at him. A real smile, not the careful, guarded one I'd perfected over years of servitude.
"Good evening, Your Highness," Nora said, straightening beside me.
And as Aleksandr's eyes met mine across the garden, I felt something shift between us—something neither of us was ready to name, but something real nonetheless.