Chapter 28 Sad Narrative
~Lyra's POV~
Staring at the crescent on my palm stirred a tide of memories that clawed their way up from the saddest parts of my past. Most of those memories were unpleasant, but I had learned to carry them the same way a wounded animal carries an old scar. They lived with me whether I wanted them or not.
Yet nothing unsettled me more than the single question I still could not answer, the question that prowled around my mind every time the crescent glowed and pulsed faintly whenever Kael came close. It happened unfailingly. Every moment he had been within reach of my senses, I had felt the mark respond to him, and I had hidden it as carefully as I could. I didn't want him to misunderstand or assume I was performing magic on him.
Now, as I looked at it, the crescent appeared lifeless. The faint silver curve resembled nothing more than a tattoo someone had drawn on my skin with metallic ink. I released a slow sigh.
I had not seen Kael for days, and that absence clung to me in a way I could not explain. Taren had been visiting for a few minutes each day to keep me company, but the strange longing inside me dismissed that fact.
I wanted Kael. I wanted to see his face, to look into those warm honey colored eyes that always held more than he said aloud, to hear the sound of his voice, and most dangerously of all, to feel the warmth of his hands against my skin again. Those sparks we shared had happened only a few times, but I had the unsettling suspicion that I was already addicted to them. I knew I should not be, but desire does not always listen to reason.
Who was I to even crave the presence of an Alpha? I was nothing more than a prisoner. Worse still, I was a witch in a place where witches were despised.
I wished Aunt Mia were still alive so I could sit with her one more time and confess that the man in my dreams was Kael. Maybe she would understand what it meant. Maybe she would offer clarity or an interpretation that would ease this growing confusion inside me.
I lowered my hand and pushed myself up from the bed. I walked to the open window that served as my only glimpse of the world outside this room.
From where I stood, the pack grounds looked alive and beautiful. The top floor gave me a wide view of everything. Children played on the grass below, their laughter floating upward in faint bursts, and adults moved about their tasks with a peaceful rhythm that made the pack house feel like a self-sustaining world. Beyond that, the landscape stretched out in a breathtaking spread of green and gold that reminded me of how enchanting nature could be.
I drew in a deep breath and released it slowly. Even if I did not see Kael again, at least I had Taren. For days he had been sneaking in torn pages from a larger spell book for me to practice with. He could not bring the entire book because he would never be allowed past the boundary of the Alpha’s quarters with something like that. Every time he brought food, the guards searched him thoroughly to ensure he carried nothing else. Still, he had managed to smuggle in several pages, and those pages had helped more than he realized.
There had been no dramatic transformations yet, at least none I could visibly detect, but I had never felt more alive than when I practiced those spells. I had begun to understand things about myself, things I once believed were impossible for someone as insignificant as me.
There was a prophecy tied to my existence.
First, I would either mend or destroy the fragile unity everyone currently enjoyed.
Second, I would either revive or completely end the legacy of the void wolf.
Third, I was an important asset to the Ironfang Pack, valuable enough that they would do anything to keep me safe from the Shadow Pack, who wanted to capture me for their own benefit.
Fourth, but not the least, every answer I needed to understand my life was sealed away in a vault only I could open, but I could not open it unless I awakened my wolf, and my wolf would not awaken unless my magic grew stronger. My magic and my wolf were bound to each other, each one depending on the other to breathe.
All of the information had been overwhelming at first, suffocating even, but I was learning to accept it piece by piece. I practiced spells until they became steady in my hands. They did not create obvious changes in my environment, but they stirred something powerful inside me. If I continued, I believed I would eventually see results that mattered.
The hairs on the back of my neck rose suddenly. I felt someone watching me. Instinct pulled my eyes downward toward the ground floor.
In my wandering thoughts, I had not noticed that the children had stopped playing. All of them stood still, their tiny faces turned upward toward me. I sharpened my sense of hearing, directing it toward them. Their voices were faint, but I was able to catch fragments.
“Who is she? I have never seen her before,” one of the boys asked. He could not have been older than seven. His tone was filled with raw curiosity.
“I have seen her,” another boy answered, sounding proud that he had information the other did not. “My dad says she is a witch and she is locked in the Alpha’s prison.”
“A witch? There are no witches in Ironfang,” the first boy argued, but before the second boy could defend himself, the little girl standing beside them spoke first. She could not have been older than four.
“She is beautiful. I like her.”
Both boys turned to her in disbelief. The second boy grabbed her with a scolding tone.
“No. You cannot like her. She is evil.”
I frowned, though I felt no surprise. He was merely repeating what someone had told him. That did not make it any less painful to hear.
“She not evil. She pretty,” the little girl insisted with a stubborn courage I did not expect from someone so small. I could not help myself. I smiled at her, and she smiled back with the most heartwarming innocence, waving at me with her tiny hand.
Her gesture earned her a rough tug from the older boy who snatched her out of view despite her protests and her tears.
I stepped back slightly, ready to retreat from the window, when both boys reappeared. The second boy now wore a deep frown as he stared at me with open hostility.
“I think she is trying to bewitch us the way she bewitched Alpha,” he muttered. Even I widened my eyes at those words, mirroring the shock on the other boy’s face.
They thought I had bewitched their Alpha? Why would they believe that?
“That is not true,” the first boy said with mild uncertainty. “She cannot bewitch Alpha. My daddy said Alpha is very strong and witches cannot harm him. They can only harm people like us. I think we should leave her alone.”
The boys left after that, and I withdrew from the window with a new heaviness forming inside my chest. Was Kael alright? If he was, why would anyone think I had bewitched him?
That question was still spinning through my mind when the door suddenly opened behind me. I turned toward it, heart thudding, as the light from the hallway spilled into my room.