Storm Descends

Storm Descends
POV Sage Winters

The plane touched down at Winterhold Airport at eight PM, the landing lights cutting through the darkness as we taxied toward the terminal. We'd cut our trip to Greywood short—Uncle Caius had registered me for the Winterhold Medical Conference starting in three days, and I needed time to prepare.

I was already reaching for my phone when the seatbelt sign blinked off, my body still thrumming with the satisfaction of finally reclaiming what was mine from Ronan and Lydia.

Beside me, Thorne powered on his phone. The device immediately erupted with notifications—a continuous buzz that made my stomach clench with instinctive worry.

His expression darkened as he scrolled through the screen. "Jason's been trying to reach me. Multiple times."

I pulled up my own messages and felt my heart drop. Fifteen missed calls from Caius, scattered across the last six hours. Uncle never called unless it was urgent.

"Call him back," I said, my voice tight. "Put it on speaker."

Thorne dialed Jason before I could finish speaking. The phone barely rang once before Marcus's butler answered, his normally composed voice strained with stress.

"Alpha, thank the Goddess. Where are you?"

"Just landed at Winterhold," Thorne said, already moving toward the exit. "What happened?"

"There's been an incident at the hospital." Jason's words came fast, tumbling over each other. "Lyanna took a sudden turn this morning. Dr. Rivers performed emergency surgery, but she's still in critical condition. And then Elder Marcus—he arrived at the hospital this afternoon and got into an argument with Vivienne. His heart gave out—"

"What?" The word tore out of me. "How is that possible? Lyanna was improving when we left. Her vitals were strong, her recovery was ahead of schedule—"

"I don't know the medical details," Jason said. "Caius can explain better. But the situation at the hospital is extremely tense right now."

Thorne's hand found mine, squeezing tight. "Why were Marcus and Vivienne arguing?"

There was a pause on the other end of the line. When Jason spoke again, his voice was carefully neutral. "Marcus was furious that Vivienne changed Lyanna's care team. He specifically mentioned that you and Caius had arranged everything, Luna Sage, and that Vivienne violated your instructions by bringing in Elena."

My blood ran cold. "Elena? But Caius told me she was cleared to assist—"

"Vivienne is claiming that you and Caius are responsible for what happened to Lyanna," Jason interrupted gently. "She's been very vocal about it to anyone who will listen."

I stared at Thorne, my mind racing. "I never did anything to hurt Lyanna. I saved her life—"

"I know." Thorne's voice was steady, grounding. "We'll sort this out. Jason, we're heading straight to the hospital. Have a car ready."

"Already waiting outside arrivals, Alpha."

I hung up and immediately pulled up Caius's voicemails, my hands shaking. The first one was time-stamped from this morning.

"Sage." Caius's voice was tight with controlled urgency. "Lyanna presented with sudden increased intracranial pressure at six AM. I performed emergency decompression surgery. She's alive but critical. Based on my experience, this isn't a natural complication. She was showing marked improvement yesterday. I've taken blood samples for analysis—something about this doesn't add up."

The second message was from two hours ago, his voice harder. "The preliminary toxicology came back. There are trace amounts of ginkgo biloba in her system. That shouldn't be there, Sage. No one on her care team prescribed it, and it's contraindicated with her anticoagulants. Someone did this deliberately."

"Poison," I breathed. "Someone poisoned her."

Thorne's eyes flashed gold. "Who has access to her room?"

"Vivienne. Elena. And apparently Celeste, because she's always with them." I gripped my phone so hard my knuckles went white. "Thorne, if someone deliberately caused this crisis—if they're trying to frame me—"

"Then we deal with it," he said firmly. "Together. But first we need to get to the hospital and assess the situation."

We practically ran through the terminal. Jason had the car waiting right outside, engine running. Thorne took the wheel himself, and I didn't argue. The bond between us pulsed with shared determination and barely controlled rage.

"Vivienne has been spreading accusations about you?" Thorne asked as we merged onto the highway, driving well above the speed limit. "To who?"

"That's what worries me." I stared out the window at the passing lights. "I've barely interacted with Vivienne. We've had maybe three conversations, all of them cordial. Why would she suddenly turn on me?"

"Because someone got to her," Thorne said grimly. "Someone who wants to undermine your position in the family."

"Celeste." The name tasted bitter. "She's been glued to Vivienne and Seraphina ever since the gala. And if she convinced Vivienne that I'm a threat—"

"But how would Celeste get access to Lyanna's medication?" Thorne's hands tightened on the wheel. "She's not family. She shouldn't be anywhere near the VIP ward."

"Unless Vivienne granted her access." I closed my eyes, trying to think through the rage clouding my thoughts. "If Vivienne arranged for Celeste to help with Lyanna's care, to assist Elena—"

"Then she had opportunity," Thorne finished. "Fuck."

We made the thirty-minute drive in twenty, Thorne's driving aggressive enough that other vehicles scattered out of our way. When we screeched into the hospital parking garage, I was out of the car before he'd fully stopped.

The VIP ward on the fourth floor was eerily quiet when we arrived. Too quiet. The kind of silence that comes when people are holding their breath, waiting for disaster.

Thorne pushed open the door to the largest private suite. What I saw inside made my heart stop.

The room had been divided into two distinct areas, like a battlefield with an invisible line drawn down the middle. On the left side, Marcus lay in a hospital bed, his normally commanding presence diminished by the oxygen tubes in his nose and the pale gray cast to his skin. Jason stood beside him like a sentinel, his weathered face creased with worry.

On the right side, Lyanna remained unconscious, monitors beeping in steady rhythm. Vivienne sat at her bedside with her face buried in her hands, shoulders shaking with silent sobs. Standing beside her was another young woman I didn't recognize—mid twenties, with sleek black hair pulled into a professional bun.

She clutched a medical chart against her chest, her eyes red-rimmed and frightened. This must be Vivienne's friend that Caius had mentioned.

Between the two beds, the room felt charged with tension. Drake leaned against the far wall with his arms crossed, his expression coldly calculating as he watched the scene unfold. Edwin sat slumped in one of the visitor chairs, looking far older than his years, his face drawn with worry and exhaustion. And there, standing slightly behind Drake with an expression of carefully manufactured concern painted on her face, was Celeste.

Every eye in the room turned toward us as we entered.

"What the hell happened?" Thorne's voice cracked through the silence like a whip, Alpha authority bleeding through every syllable and making several people in the room flinch.

Jason's shoulders sagged with visible relief at seeing us. "Alpha. Luna. Thank the Goddess you're here."

Edwin rose from his chair, his movement slow and weary. When his eyes met mine, I saw genuine anguish there—the look of a man who'd been through hell. "Sage. Thorne. I'm so glad you came back. The situation has been..." His voice cracked slightly. "It's been a nightmare."

My gaze swept across both beds, my medical training automatically assessing what I could see from the doorway. Lyanna's monitors showed stable vital signs despite her unconscious state—heartbeat steady, oxygen saturation good, intracranial pressure within acceptable parameters post-surgery.

But Marcus was another story entirely. Even from here I could see the erratic pattern on his heart monitor, could hear the slight wheeze in his breathing, could note the bluish tint to his lips that spoke of poor oxygenation.

Marcus was in more immediate danger than Lyanna right now.

I moved toward his bed on instinct, my healer's training overriding everything else. "Let me examine him. I need to check his vitals, assess—"

"Don't you dare!" Vivienne's scream cut through the air like a knife. She surged to her feet and threw herself in front of Marcus's bed, arms spread wide to block my path. "Don't you dare touch him, you bitch!"