14

14
Nadine’s POV

The Luna’s chambers never stopped whispering.

At night, when the fire guttered and the velvet curtains billowed against the draft, it felt as if the walls themselves remembered. The scent of her perfume lingered, faint but suffocating, clinging to the carved wood of the vanity, the silken sheets, even the robes the servants pressed into my hands. Lavender and rosewater, a phantom that made my wolf pace restlessly.

I told myself I would never wear them. And yet, the palace left me no choice. Every gown shoved into my arms belonged to her once. Every stitch reminded me that I was living in the grave of a woman who had hated me.

And the servants never let me forget it.

\---

That morning, I rose late, unable to sleep after hours of tossing, haunted by the weight of Madden’s eyes on me the night before. I sat at the edge of the bed, staring at the floor until I heard voices outside the chamber doors.

The maids.

Their whispers slipped through the wood like smoke.

“Did you see her glare at the King last night? Brazen. Just like the old days.”

“Hush don’t say it too loudly. But you’re right. She’s the one who ruined him. If not for her, the Luna would still be alive.”

A pause, then a softer hiss:
“Seraphine’s blood is on her hands. That rejection was the beginning of it all.”

My breath caught in my chest.

They didn’t stop.

“They say he went feral after that night. That she twisted the bond until he was half-mad. Seraphine couldn’t bear it, poor soul. She wasted away from the pain he carried.”

“Tragic,” the other muttered. “And now this one dares to walk the halls she does not deserve. A cursed mate, nothing more.”

I pressed my palm against my mouth, biting back the sound threatening to tear free. Rage, shame, grief I didn’t know what name to give it. Their words clawed at me, gnawing like carrion birds.

Because I remembered that night.
The night I said the words.
The night I tore the bond myself.

But did my rejection truly kill Seraphine? Could a single choice unravel her?

I had always told myself no. She was older, fragile in ways I couldn’t see, already consumed by the sickness in her heart. I had thought Madden would be safe in her arms, chained to her kindness, spared from me.

But what if I had been wrong?

What if it was my fault?

\---

I couldn’t stay in the chambers. My lungs burned with the weight of the whispers. I wandered the halls, ignoring the guards’ eyes, until I found myself in the gardens. The air was cool, the night heavy with the scent of damp earth.

But it didn’t soothe me.

That night, sleep dragged me down violently. And when it came, it came with teeth.

I stood in the Luna’s chambers, but they were cloaked in shadow. The mirror gleamed faintly across the room, and within it stood Seraphine.

Her skin was pale, too pale, her lips tinged blue, her gown hanging like funeral silk. Her eyes gleamed with something cruel.

“You thought you could take him from me,” she whispered. Her voice was sweet and sharp, like poisoned honey. “But he was always mine. Even your rejection couldn’t sever what I bound.”

I tried to speak, but my throat closed.

Seraphine laughed, a brittle, shattering sound that echoed against the walls. “Do you know what killed me, Nadine? It wasn’t sickness. It wasn’t fate. It was him bleeding for you, breaking for you. And you left me to drink his ruin.”

I stumbled back, clutching my chest. My wolf snarled weakly in my head, but even she felt small against the weight of the dream.

Seraphine’s reflection stepped closer. “You are cursed. Every breath you take poisons him further. And when he finally breaks, when your bond destroys him completely, it will be your hands soaked in his blood.”

Her smile widened, splitting too far across her face, until her pale lips cracked. “And I will be laughing.”

I screamed myself awake.

\---

My skin was drenched in sweat, my hands trembling as I clawed the sheets. The moonlight poured across my arms, and for the first time, I saw it faint scars, glowing under the silver light. Thin lines tracing my skin like chains.

I pressed my fingers to them, shaking.

Had they always been there? Or were they new?

The whispers returned, echoing in my skull. Her blood is on your hands. You cursed him. You killed her.

I curled in on myself, trying to breathe. The chamber felt smaller, darker, as though Seraphine’s laughter lingered in every corner.

And for the first time since being dragged back into this palace, I wondered if I was more dangerous than Madden.

If my presence alone was enough to destroy everyone I touched.

The air inside the Luna’s chambers had grown poisonous. No matter how wide I threw open the windows, it still pressed down on me suffocating, heavy with Seraphine’s ghost. My skin burned where the faint scars glowed under the moonlight.

I couldn’t lie there anymore.

Barefoot, I slipped from the bed and padded down the corridor. The guards stiffened as I passed, their eyes following me, but none dared to stop me. Maybe Madden had ordered them to let me walk when the madness took me. Or maybe they enjoyed watching me unravel.

The garden doors gave way with a groan, and the night air rushed at me like cool water. I sucked in a breath so deep it hurt. The scent of damp roses and pine soothed the ache in my chest. For the first time in hours, I thought I might be able to breathe again.

I wandered further into the garden, past hedges and marble fountains slick with moonlight. My wolf stirred restlessly, her ears pricked, her hackles half-raised.

That was when I felt it eyes.

I froze. The hairs on my neck rose, and slowly, I turned my head.

A figure stood at the far end of the garden path, still as stone. Cloaked in shadow, too far for me to make out details, but close enough that the weight of their stare pierced me.

I blinked. My heart pounded.

“Who’s there?” My voice cracked, brittle in the silence.

The figure didn’t move.

Something in me stubborn, reckless urged me forward. I stepped off the path, the grass damp and cold beneath my feet, and took another step. And another.

But as soon as I drew close enough that the moonlight should have touched their face

They vanished.

Not turned away. Not fled. Vanished.

The air rippled faintly where they had been, as though even the night itself swallowed them whole.

I stumbled to the spot, my breath ragged, my wolf snarling uneasily in my mind. There was nothing. No footprints, no scent, nothing but the quiet rustle of the leaves.

“Impossible…” I whispered, my hand trembling against the bark of a nearby tree.

A cold chill crept over my skin. For a heartbeat, I thought I heard laughter soft, mocking, carried by the breeze.

Seraphine? Or something worse?

I backed away, eyes darting over the shadows. The palace loomed behind me, its windows like watching eyes. For the first time since stepping outside, I wished for the suffocating walls of my prison. At least there, I knew which ghosts belonged to me.

I turned and hurried back, refusing to look over
my shoulder. But even as the doors closed behind me, I couldn’t shake the feeling

Someone had been waiting.
And they weren’t gone.