ATASHA’S POV


    “I swear… it was Matron Yara who told me toe here,” Reina rasped, her voice shaking between sobs and ragged breaths. Blood still streaked down her face where Cassian had cut her<b>, </b>though the wound was already clotting.


    Since he didn’t asked me to heal her, I didn’t move and just listen to Reina’s words. “She told me the consort is working with witches. She said, the ck Family is loyal to the west and doesn’t serve the werewolf king. She said nothing about the consort being a witch!” Her swollen eyes red past me, fixed on Cassian with hatred. “Now kill me!”


    Cassian didn’t move. His sword hung loosely at his side, his face unreadable. He looked at her as if her words meant nothing, as if she was already less than a person to him.


    Reina sucked in a shaky breath and pushed on, her chains rattling. “Yara said the witches were behind all of this… that they had infiltrated the North. She told me the consort was one of them. That if I came here, I would see it myself. She promised it was the only way to protect the North.”


    Her voice broke, and for the first time, I saw something other than hatred in her eyes. Grief.


    “My sister,” she whispered. “The witches killed my little sister. She wasn’t even twelve… they took her from our home, used her in their curses, left what was left of her body in the river. Tell me how anyone is supposed to forgive that? Tell me why they shouldn’t burn for it?” She coughed, her breath uneven. “Matron Yara said witches should be punished. Everyst one. That if I followed her guidance, the North would finally be free of them.”


    Her head sagged against the wall, chains digging deeper into her raw wrists.


    Cassian exhaled as though none of this surprised him. Then he finally spoke. “You’ve been used.”


    Reina’s head snapped up, her face twisted with confusion and fury. “What do you mean used? I followed the Matron’s orders! She showed me who the real danger was!”


    Before Cassian could answer, the words tore out of me. “The stone,” I said, my voice hoarse. My gaze locked on hers. “The one you saw… the one that brought the beasts here. That wasn’t mine. Lord Cassian asked me to find it and destroy it. That’s what I was doing.”


    Her body jolted, a harshugh bursting from her throat. “That’s impossible! It was you–I saw it! You were using it!”


    I shook my head. “No. Matron Yara wanted you toe because she knew your father would follow you. She used you, Reina. She knew Halden Morrow would never let his daughter walk into danger alone. She wanted both of you here. And when the beasts overran this ce, she would have wiped her hands clean and called it fate. She wanted you dead. Both of you.”


    Her eyes went wide, disbelief splintering her face. “No… that can’t be true. Matron Yara cares about the North. She cares more than anyone!”


    I said nothing this time. Maybe because I could <b>see </b>in Reina’s face what I didn’t want to admit out loud, that


    10:04 Thu<b>, </b>Sep 25 …


    she was clinging to the only thing left that made her feel justified.


    Cassian said nothing either.


    “Impossible,” Reina’s eyes went wild. “How dare you lie to me! Why don’t you just kill me, instead?” she rasped, voice raw. “I’ve said everything. Just end this. I don’t want to feel anymore. I would rather die than hear your lies!”


    Her plea staggered the small room. The chains clinked as she huddled inward, body shaking. She bared her teeth in a broken, animal half–smile and spat, “I don’t want to wake up to this. I don’t want another day of this. Do it. End it. Take your satisfaction and be done.”


    I watched Cassian for a long second, expecting him to answer the mercy she begged for. He didn’t. He didn’t move toward her with a de ready to finish it. Instead he looked at me, his face unreadable in the torchlight. “Heal her,” he said simply.


    Panic mmed into Reina like a physical force. Her head whipped to me, eyes huge with terror. “No–no, please! Don’t touch me! If you heal me, you’re prolonging it. Kill me! Do you hear me? Kill me now! I’d rather die than feel whates next. Please, please-” She began to beg in a rush, words stumbling over one another, voice breaking into a sob. Her hands wed uselessly at the chains as if she could tear them free.


    I stood frozen a second, my hands slick with blood, the memory of stitching her wounds fresh and hot under my palms. Part of me wanted to throw up, part of me wanted to run. Another part, the darker and more helpless part, knew what Cassian expected. He wanted me to keep her alive. To make the punishmentst. To have control.


    My voice was small when it came. “You don’t have to-” I started, then stopped as I looked at Cassian. I didn’t know the exact reason why he was doing this but I knew that part of it was because Reina tried to harm me.


    Cassian’s jaw tightened. He didn’t give me time to decide. “Heal her,” he repeated, but this time there was steel. under the calm. It wasn’t a request. It was an order.


    I swallowed, every instinct screaming against it, and stepped forward. Reina’s pleading redoubled. She pleaded for release, for oblivion, for death, with a steadiness only someone who had already walked past the brink could find. Her face was streaked with blood and tears, and there was no dignity left in her voice, only the animal need to stop the pain.


    I pressed my hand to the fresh cut Cassian had just made. The world narrowed. I let the warmth go, forcing the pull outward even while my hands shook. The wound sealed beneath my palm, skin knitting, blood ceasing. Reina’s body stilled, her sobs turning into hups. She sagged as the blood stopped, haggard and furious and deeply, deeply haunted.


    When I finally stepped back, Cassian watched me with the same steady expression as before. Reina gasped, hatred and gratitude and fear tangled together. “You’ll pay for this,” she choked out toward me and Cassian both. “You’ll be cursed for what you do.”


    Cassian said nothing. He wiped the de and set it aside. Reina’s pleading had ended; only the residual ragged breaths and the drip of dark water somewhere in the dungeon filled the space.


    I remained where I was and for the first time in a long while I understood exactly what Cassian had warned me about: what it meant to be visible, useful, and hated all at once.


    10:04 Thu, Sep <b>25 </b>M<b>… </b>


    The air in the dungeon cell still clung to me, but Cassian was already moving. Without a word, he pushed <b>the </b>door open and stepped out. I hesitated, casting onest look at Reina slumped in her chains, then followed.


    Rio was waiting just outside, his hand already on the hilt of his sword. Cassian didn’t slow. “Keep her alive<b>,” </b>he said.


    “Yes, my Lord.”


    And just like that, the matter was closed.


    I stayed close to Cassian as we left the narrow hall, our steps carrying us back up the slick stone stairs. The stench of the dungeon slowly faded, reced by the cold bite of air seeping in from above. My chest tightened with relief when the door finally opened, but the brightness made me squint. After so long underground, the daylight felt blinding.


    I raised a hand against the re, blinking until my eyes adjusted. And then I froze.


    The yard outside wasn’t empty. Rows of soldiers stood waiting, their armor dulled by exhaustion but their postures straight, their gazes locked on us. Their silence was heavier than the dungeon walls. I instinctively moved closer to Cassian, the weight of so many eyes pressing down on me, until I was almost behind him.


    Then, from the front line, one voice rose clear and steady. “Honor to the Lord of the North and his Consort. May your strength guard our walls, and may your light never fade.”


    The words rippled outward like amand, and the rest followed, bowing their heads in unison. “Honor to the Lord and Lady of the North. May your strength guard our walls, and may your light never fade.”


    END OF BOOK 2


    AD