Chapter 61 Her fear, his silence
Lila was already moving toward the door. Maya caught her arm with surprising strength for someone so small.
"No, my lady. If you go out, you will be severely punished."
"But Adrian is in danger." Lila pulled against Maya's grip. Her chest tightened until she could barely breathe. Her eyes darted frantically, seeing nothing, her mind spiraling into thoughts of Adrian bleeding, dying, transforming into one of those mindless beasts. "I must go to him. He needs…"
"The king has made a decree." Maya's words came fast, desperate. "Everyone in the kingdom and outside must be under confinement until the diviner is brought. Everyone, my lady. No exceptions. Not even for you."
Lila turned in shock. The cloak she'd placed on her shoulders earlier slipped down, pooling at her feet in a whisper of fabric. Her hands fell to her sides as realization crashed over her like cold water.
There was no possible way she would be able to reach Adrian. No way to know how he was, if the wound was serious, if infection had already taken hold. The confinement meant exactly that: confinement. Guards would stop her. Would drag her back to these chambers if she tried to leave. Would report her defiance to the council, giving them more ammunition to claim the bond had made her selfish, reckless, unfit to be queen.
She tried to reach him through the mate bond, that invisible thread that had been her lifeline for years. That connection that let her feel his emotions even when they couldn't speak. That bond that had tormented and sustained her in equal measure.
Nothing.
He had blocked her out completely. The bond that had been open between them since they'd finally acknowledged it, that had hummed with constant connection, was suddenly silent. Empty. As if Adrian had ceased to exist on the other end.
Lila's breath came shallow. Her hands began to shake. She pressed them together, trying to stop the trembling, but it only got worse.
"He's shut me out." Her voice came out small, broken. "He's blocking the bond. I can't feel him at all."
Maya's expression softened with sympathy. "He's protecting you, my lady. If he's in pain, if he's afraid, he doesn't want you to feel it. It's what mates do. They shield each other."
"Or he's dying." The words escaped before Lila could stop them. "Or transforming. Or already gone, and that's why the bond feels dead."
"Don't." Maya moved closer, took Lila's shaking hands in her own. "Don't torture yourself with possibilities. The king is strong. The strongest Alpha in five kingdoms. Whatever injury he sustained, he'll survive it."
But would he? Lila had heard the rumors about the plague. Heard whispers from servants who'd seen the bodies being burned. Heard about the transformation, the madness, the violence. One bite and you turned. One hour and your dead. Even the strongest Alpha couldn't fight corruption that moved that fast.
She moved back to the window, unable to stand still. Below, she could see the effects of Adrian's decree. The streets were emptying. Families rushed toward their homes. Merchants abandoned their goods. Guards moved through the crowds, herding people inside with drawn weapons.
The kingdom was dying. Adrian was wounded. And she was trapped in this beautiful prison, unable to help, unable to comfort, unable to do anything except stand at this window and watch everything burn.
"What if Thorne is right?" The words scraped her throat. "What if this plague is punishment? Divine wrath because Adrian choose me?"
"The mate bond is sacred, my lady. The Moon Goddess doesn't punish people for accepting her gifts."
"But the timing." Lila pressed both palms against the glass, as if she could somehow reach through it to where Adrian stood in his study three floors below. "The plague started the same night the decision about the mate bond was discussed. The same night Adrian publicly defied the law by refusing to let the throne go. What if the Goddess is angry? What if innocent people are dying because of me?"
"Or what if someone wants you to think that?" Maya's voice was quiet but firm. "My lady, I've served in this palace my entire life. I've seen real curses. They feel different. Heavy. Oppressive. This feels more like... like disease. Like something natural twisted into something unnatural."
Lila wanted to believe that. Desperately. But looking down at the smoke and chaos, at the guards moving toward the hospital with weapons drawn, she couldn't shake the fear that Maya was wrong.
What if this was punishment? What if every person who died screaming and rapid was blood on her hands? What if the only way to stop it was to do what she should have done years ago: leave, disappear, free Adrian from the cursed bond?
Through the closed bond, she felt nothing. Just that terrible, empty silence where Adrian's presence should be. It felt like death. Like the bond itself had died, taking part of her soul with it.
Lila closed her eyes. Sent a prayer to the Moon Goddess. Not for herself. Not even for Adrian. But for the twelve souls already lost. For the families watching loved ones transform into monsters. For a kingdom that had done nothing to deserve this plague except accept a bond their Goddess had supposedly created.
And if this was punishment, if divine forces demanded a price, Lila silently offered herself. Take me instead. Leave Adrian his throne and his kingdom and his son. Just stop killing innocent people.
The Moon Goddess didn't answer. She never did, not directly. But as Lila opened her eyes, she caught her reflection in the window glass. Copper-red hair. Green eyes like her sister's. The same coloring, but her own face.
For a moment, she didn't recognize herself. Didn't know if she was Lila or Celeste's ghost or some cursed combination of both.
Outside, the sun climbed higher. The smoke from the burning bodies drifted across the palace grounds. And in chambers three floors apart, two mates suffered in silence while a kingdom held its breath and waited for either salvation or the end.