Chapter 52: Echoes of Truth

Chapter 52: Echoes of Truth
Sasha POV
The night was over, but it didn’t feel like victory. Valen was gone, melted back into the forest with his pack, but his words stayed. They clung to me like burrs, sharp and impossible to shake free.

Your twin isn’t dead. She is alive. And when I’m finished, she will be mine.

I told myself he was lying. I told myself it was another one of his games. But the way my mark burned when he said it, the way my truth sense whispered against my tongue, it hadn’t been a lie. My sister might be alive. The thought pulled at me, fragile and wild. I wanted to chase Valen into the dark, to tear the answer out of his throat. But I couldn’t. Not while Kade bled on the table and Ronan swayed against the wall like he was seconds away from collapsing. My sister could wait. They couldn’t. The healer leaned over Kade, as her hands pressed linen hard against his side. Blood seeped through, bright against white. Delia knelt at his head, her lips moving soundlessly, a prayer or a promise only he could hear.

“Is he going to make it?” I asked. The healer didn’t look up.

“If the bleeding slows. He is strong. That’s all I can say,” I gripped the edge of the table, and my knuckles went pale.

“Do whatever it takes. Just keep him breathing,” I said. Delia lifted her head then, her eyes raw and red, but sharp.

“Don’t you dare say goodbye to him yet,”

“I wasn’t,” I said softly. “I won’t,” a low growl rumbled from the far corner. I turned. Ronan leaned against the wall, still in human form, though barely holding it. Blood streaked his chest, and his shadows still curled faintly around him, restless. His eyes burned with the remnants of the curse, and every wolf in the room gave him a wide berth. They had seen what he had become. And they were afraid. He met my gaze and straightened, though the motion made him wince.

“He will live,”

“You don’t know that,” I whispered.

“Yes,” he said, his voice gravel and iron. “I do,” I crossed the room before I could stop myself. I pressed a hand against his arm, and I felt the tremor under his skin.

“And you? How bad is it?” I questioned. He huffed a laugh that wasn’t a laugh.

“Trust me, I have had worse,” he said, and the shadows coiled tighter, as if they disagreed. Still, I swallowed loudly.

“You scared them tonight,” I pointed out softly.

“I know,”

“You scared me,” I added honestly. His eyes softened at that, just a fraction.

“I would rather you hate me than see you dead,”

“I don’t hate you,” I said. “But I saw what it did to you. That curse…it wants to use you. It wants to make you into something you aren’t,” Ronan leaned closer, lowering his voice so only I could hear.

“It already has. The only choice I get is whether I let it decide what happens to you,” I wanted to argue. I wanted to tell him he was more than the curse. But Kade groaned on the table, breaking through everything else. Delia pressed her hands harder to the wound.

“He moved. That has to be a good sign,” she said, and the healer nodded, sweat streaking her face.

“His heart is steadying,” she said, and relief washed over me so sharp I almost buckled. Kade was alive. Alive, even after I had thought I lost him on that ridge. I turned back to Ronan.

“You need to sit. You are bleeding too,” I reminded him, but he shook his head.

“Not until I know he is safe,”

“Kade isn’t your enemy,” I said.

“I never wanted him to be,” something in his voice broke me a little. I reached for his hand without thinking. His fingers closed around mine, rough and hot with blood. For one breath, it steadied me. Valen’s words returned anyway.

Your twin isn’t dead. She is alive.

I pulled my hand free and pressed it to my chest.

“If he’s telling the truth…if she is out there—”

“We will find her,” Ronan said instantly. “We will tear the forest apart if we have to,”

“And if Valen already has her?” I couldn’t help but ask. Ronan’s jaw clenched.

“Then we take her back,” his words should have comforted me. Instead, they twisted tighter in my stomach. Because if she was alive, then she had lived all this time without me. And if Valen spoke the truth, then she wasn’t just alive. She was in danger. I went to Kade’s side. His skin was pale, but his breathing was steadier now. I touched his hand.

“You are going to live,” I told him. “You have to,” his fingers twitched weakly in mine, the smallest answer, but it was enough. Delia’s gaze flicked to me.

“He will need you when he wakes. Both of you,” she said, and her voice was strange, almost soft. I nodded as I looked at Ronan again. He was still standing, still bleeding, still holding himself together by sheer will. He looked at me like I was the only thing keeping him upright. I wanted to tell him I believed in him. I wanted to tell him I wasn’t afraid of him, not of the curse, not of the shadows. But the words stuck in my throat, because I couldn’t shake Valen’s voice.

She is alive.

I had to know. But first, I had to keep the men I loved breathing. The healer finally stepped back, her hands stained red.

“He is finally stable,” she said, exhausted but firm. “Rest is what he needs now,” Delia brushed Kade’s hair from his forehead, her shoulders sagging with relief. I let out a shaky breath.

“Thank you,” I said. The room went quiet for a moment. Almost, too quiet. Then the wind pushed through the cracks in the shutters. It circled me, cool and sharp, raising the hairs on my arms.

Blood calls to blood.

The whisper cut straight through me, and my skin went cold. Ronan’s head snapped up. He had heard it too. My hand tightened on Kade’s, and my heart pounded. If Valen hadn’t been lying, then somewhere out there, my sister was walking. And the wind was telling me she was closer than I dared to believe.