Chapter 67 Sixty seven

Chapter 67 Sixty seven
LILA’S POV

I pressed my back firmly against the heavy oak door of my room, my chest was heaving as if I had run a great distance, though I had only walked from Walter’s study to here. 
My fingers trembled as I reached up, tracing the, glistening letters that still seemed to shimmer against the wood, even though the cold breeze that had carried the message had long since died down.

Four days left, Star Born. And I am already inside.

The words burned themselves into my mind, as I tried desperately to scrub at them with the sleeve of my dress to wipe the menace away, but they didn’t smear, or fade. It was as if they had been etched directly into the grain of the wood.

“He isn’t here,” Mirabel said softly, stepping up beside me and placing a hand over mine to still my frantic movements. 
Even though her voice was steady, her dark eyes were scanning the corridor, left and right, up to the high shadows of the ceiling beams and down to the floorboards, searching for any sign of movement. 
“It’s just magic in form of shadow trick, Lila. Draven feeds on fear and he wants you to be terrified even before he  arrives and if you let him, he will conquer you from miles away.”

I turned to her, my breathing still ragged, with my heart hammering painfully against my ribs. “He said he is already inside, Mirabel. What if he means it? And there are more spies?"
"What if Nora and Adrian were just the beginning? Walter said the gates were secured and the walls are supposed to be impenetrable.”

“Walls keep out enemies from the outside,” a voice whispered deep inside my head, it's the familiar presence of my wolf, waking gently from her quiet rest.
“They do not keep out poison planted within, or lies spoken in whispers, remember, little star, you are the fortress now, in your mind, and your heart that is where the battle truly begins.”

I closed my eyes for a second, letting the voice settle my frantic thoughts. She was right. I had felt it the moment the vision had ended. Draven wasn’t just fighting with swords or warriors. He fought with deception, with doubt, and with the shadows that lived in the corners of our own minds.

“Come inside,” Mirabel urged, pulling me gently through the doorway, shutting the heavy door behind us, and sliding the bolt  with a heavy, reassuring clack. 
She moved quickly to the fireplace, throw another log onto the dying embers, and then to the window, checking the latches and drawing the velvet curtains tight, sealing us in. 
“We are safe in here, Walter ordered it, every guard you see now has been hand-picked by him, they are men whose families have served the Fairmoon for generations so there is no one left Draven can turn.”

I walked slowly further into the room, with my bare feet sinking into the thick, plush rug that covered the floor. It was warm in here, lit only by the glow of the fire and the candles that are flickering on the mantlepiece, but even the warmth couldn’t chase away the chill that had settled deep in my bones.

Everything had changed in the span of a few hours.

Since I came into this estate I had walked through it feeling like an intruder and a burden. I had been hated, scorned, and blamed for a crime I never committed, for an accident I had suffered too. 
Walter had looked at me with eyes full of loathing and pain, and I had accepted it, believing I deserved it, because I had done something terrible to hurt the man that everyone revered.

And now… the truth.

I sank down onto the edge of the large bed, burying my face into my hands, and my fingers tangling in my golden hair. 
I saved him.

The memory replayed endlessly, and unstoppable. The rain, the roar of the storm, and the terrifying speed of the truck, and the way Walter strong, powerful, and magnificent Walter had thrown his body in front of mine, taking the impact, breaking his body to save mine. 
And then… me. The golden light pouring out of me, warm and  flowing into him and keeping him alive when the dark magic tried to finish what the accident had started... What Draven had started.

I was the reason he survived and I was the reason he suffered, but not because I hurt him, but because I was the prize that Draven wanted, and because the people we trusted had poisoned him against me.

“He hates himself now, you know,” Mirabel said, sitting beside me on the mattress, she leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees, while watching the fire.
“Walter. He isn’t angry with you anymore, Lila, he is angry with himself, he hates that he believed the lies, hates that he spent two years punishing the only person who he had truly cared for  and most of all... He hates that he is broken, while you are whole, even after everything you endured.”

I lifted my head, looking at her. 
“He isn’t broken, not really because I saw him move today… faster than anything I’ve ever seen, I saw the strength in him when he commanded the guards, when he faced Nora."
His leg... it hurts him, yes, but his spirit... Mirabel, his spirit is stronger than anyone I have ever met.”

“Silver is a cruel thing,” she murmured, her eyes darkening. 
“It seeps into the bone, and the marrow. It attacks the wolf inside, chaining and burning it, that is why he cannot shift and why the pain never stops."
"Nora fed it to him every single day. In his tea,  his wine, and his medicine, she made sure that every time he tried to heal, the poison pulled him back down.”

I bit my lip, tasting the salt of tears that I refused to shed. “And now? Now that we know… can he heal? Can he shift again?”

Mirabel looked at me, her expression softening, and filled with a kind of reverence that made me uneasy. 
She reached out, taking my hand in hers, and turning my palm upward as if expecting to see that golden glow again.

“That depends on you, Lila. You are the Star Born... The only one that's blessed by the Goddess with the light that burns away darkness and purifies corruption.
The legends say your light is the only thing that can undo any silver poisoning. But, you don’t know how to use it yet."
"You don’t even know how to find it within yourself unless you are fighting for your life, or fighting for him.”

I looked down at my hands, turning them over, searching for something, anything, out of the ordinary. They were just hands. Soft, human-looking, ordinary. “I don’t feel powerful, Mirabel. I only feel the surge of power when I or Walter are in danger and I barely understand what I am, apart from that I am just… me. Lila Varyn. The girl nobody wanted.”

“That is exactly what they wanted you to think,” my wolf whispered, her voice louder now, and ringing clearly in my mind. 
“Small. Weak. And Ordinary. 
If you believe you are nothing, then you cannot fight or protect what is yours. But look at what you did without even trying. You saved him once. You revealed the traitor and saw the truth when everyone else was blind. That is not nothing, Lila, that is justthe beginning of everything.”

Suddenly, a sharp, stinging pain shot through my wrist, making me gasp and pull my hand away from Mirabel quickly, I pushed up the sleeve of my dress, whilt staring at the skin there. 
Right where the blue veins were visible beneath the pale skin, a faint, shimmering lines of gold had appeared, and glowing faintly like reflection of sunlight and just beneath the surface, it's winding up my arm and disappearing under the fabric of my dress toward my shoulder.

“What is this?” I whispered in fear. 
“Mirabel… look.”

Mirabel’s eyes widened, and she leaned closer, and her breath catching in her throat. 
She reached out, her finger hovering just above the glowing marks, and not daring to touch.

“It’s spreading,” she breathed out, her voice trembling slightly. 
“The light… it’s waking up and it’s reacting to the truth, It’s probably reacting to him.”

Before she could say another word, a low, mournful howl rose up from somewhere deep within the estate grounds, followed quickly by another, and then another, until the night air was filled with the chilling sound of the pack raising their voices to the moon. 
But these weren’t anywhere near howls of joy, they were howls of warning and of fear.

My heart skipped a beat, and I scrambled off the bed, moving quickly toward the window ignoring Mirabel’s call for me to stay back. 
I pulled the heavy velvet curtain aside just enough for me to peer out into the dark night.

The grounds were bathed in beautiful silver moonlight, and standing right at the edge of the treeline, just beyond the reach of the perimeter lights,  standing tall, was a dark figure.

He was motionless, like a statue and the moonlight reflects his long blond hair  and his silhouette was unmistakable, even from this distance, separated by the stone walls, iron gates, and the hundreds of yards of land, I could feel his eyes locked onto mine, and it's burning with a cold, cruel triumph.

He raised one hand, and in his palm, he was holding something small and bright, and he was swinging it back and forth like a pendulum.

It was Walter’s silver cane, the one he had dropped just outside his study door only hours ago.

And then, Draven Harlan smiled, and his voice slithered directly into my mind, it sounded cold and victorious, and drowning out every other thought, and sound.

“Four days are now three, my beautiful Star Born and look... I have already taken what belongs to your Alpha, so tell me… how long until I take you?”

I stumbled back from the window, the curtain falling shut with a heavy rustle, and my hand flying to my mouth to stifle my scream.

Outside, the howling rose to a fever pitch, and somewhere in the distance, a wolf cried out in pain and then the sound was abruptly cut short.