<b>Chapter </b>118
ATASHA’S POV
I couldn’t shake the feeling that from this point on, peace was no longer mine to have.
Half a day had passed since the soldiers at the Northern Outpost had bowed to me, their voices raised in greeting, their thanks spilling out as though I had saved them all. But somehow, it already felt like forever ago. The weight of their stares lingered, heavier than the dungeon air I had left behind. My heart wasn’t at peace.
“Aren’t you going outside?” Grace asked as she handed me a ss of water.
I took the cup, drank, and handed it back before leaning into the headboard. “I’m fine.” Cassian had told me to stay inside the cabin until he returned, and for once, I didn’t argue.
He had warned me that once they saw what I could do, nothing would ever be the same. And he was right. No one called me a witch. No one spat at me. Instead, they bowed, they thanked me, some even looked at me with tears in their eyes. But their eyes unsettled me more than their hatred ever did. They no longer looked at me as a woman. They looked at me as something else.
This should have felt like safety. It didn’t. Their eyes had changed. Some looked at me like I was a blessing. Others like I was a tool. A few stared too long, measuring me the way men measure weapons. I hated that part
most.
“What did Lord Halden decide?” I asked, pulling myself out of it.
Grace set the empty cup on the small table. “Reina is still his heir, for now,” she said. “But that doesn’t make her his only child.”
I met her eyes. She was reminding me of the obvious without stabbing at it. I nodded. I knew that Reina still had siblings. In the north, death is a normal thing. It would not surprise me if Halden Morrow would decide to kill his own daughter.
Cassian had left the choice to Halden. He didn’t give him any orders. Just a look that said, decide and live with it. In the end, Halden chose to keep Reina imprisoned in the outpost until she learned her lesson. Too soft for what she’d done, maybe. But I understood why Cassian didn’t push for worse. The North was held together with fraying rope. One more cut in the wrong ce would make it snap.
“Agape and Prince Kaelith are downstairs,” Grace added. “They asked to see you.”
My stomach dipped. Cassian was gone again. He left without leaving a note. A small, stupid part of me wanted him here, if only to take the weight off for a breath. But this was mine. If I was going to wear the title they’d handed me, I couldn’t hide every time the room felt heavy.
“I’lle,<b>” </b>I said.
Grace led me down the short hall and the stairs to the main floor. The cabin smelled like smoke and metal. Voices carried low from the sitting room. We turned the corner.
Agape rose at once. His hair was braided back, her sleeves rolled up. Prince Kaelith stood beside him, cleaner than most men in the outpost but with a new cut along his jaw and old blood along the hem of his coat. He
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ATASHA’S POV
I couldn’t shake the feeling that from this point on, peace was no longer mine to have.
Half a day had passed since the soldiers at the Northern Outpost had bowed to me, their voices raised in greeting, their thanks spilling out as though I had saved them all. But somehow, it already felt like forever ago. The weight of their stares lingered, heavier than the dungeon air I had left behind. My heart wasn’t at peace.
“Aren’t you going outside?” Grace asked as she handed me a ss of water.
I took the cup, drank, and handed it back before leaning into the headboard. “I’m fine<i>.” </i>Cassian had told me to stay inside the cabin until he returned, and for once, I didn’t argue.
He had warned me that once they saw what I could do, nothing would ever be the same. And he was right. No one called me a witch. No one spat at me. Instead, they bowed, they thanked me, some even looked at me with tears in their eyes. But their eyes unsettled me more than their hatred ever did. They no longer looked at me as a woman. They looked at me as something else.
This should have felt like safety. It didn’t. Their eyes had changed. Some looked at me like I was a blessing. Others like I was a tool. A few stared too long, measuring me the way men measure weapons. I hated that part
most.
“What did Lord Halden decide?” I asked, pulling myself out of it.
Grace set the empty cup on the small table. “Reina is still his heir, for now,” she said. “But that doesn’t make her his only child.”
I met her eyes. She was reminding me of the obvious without stabbing at it. I nodded. I knew that Reina still had siblings. In the north, death is a normal thing. It would not surprise me if Halden Morrow would decide to kill his own daughter.
Cassian had left the choice to Halden. He didn’t give him any orders. Just a look that said, decide and live with it. In the end, Halden chose to keep Reina imprisoned in the outpost until she learned her lesson. Too soft for what she’d done, maybe. But I understood why Cassian didn’t push for worse. The North was held together with fraying rope. One more cut in the wrong ce would make it snap.
“Agape and Prince Kaelith are downstairs,” Grace added. “They asked to see you.”
My stomach dipped. Cassian was gone again. He left without leaving a note. A small, stupid part of me wanted him here, if only to take the weight off for a breath. But this was mine. If I was going to wear the title they’d handed me, I couldn’t hide every time the room felt heavy.
<b>“</b>I’lle,” I said.
Grace led me down the short hall and the stairs to the main floor. The cabin smelled like smoke and metal. Voices carried low from the sitting room. We turned the corner.
Agape rose at once. His hair was braided back, her sleeves rolled up. Prince Kaelith stood beside him<b>, </b>cleaner than most men in the outpost but with a new cut along his jaw and old blood along the hem of his coat. He
inclined his head to me, formal but not stiff.
“My Lady,” Agape said, relief softening her features. “You’re steady on your feet?”
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“For now.” I took the chair opposite them while Grace stayed by the door. “Thank you foring here on such short notice,” I said.
Agape’s eyes swept over me, lingering just long enough to make me uneasy before he spoke. “I can see that you’ve revealed your ability. A good one, at that. Healing is rare.”
I gave him a thin smile, cold enough to hide the twist in my stomach. I couldn’t tell if he was being sarcastic or genuinely supportive, and I didn’t have the energy to unravel it. Instead, I chose the safer route. “Thank you foring to my aid.”
Kaelith leaned forward. “Just to be clear, we didn’te to help you. It was the stone. We thought you couldn’t handle it. If the Lord of the North hadn’t arrived when he did, it would have consumed you. You would have-”
“Kaelith,” Agape cut in, his voice low. “Take a breather. You can wait outside if you wish.”
The prince ignored him, his jaw tight, eyes still on me.
Agape sighed, then turned back to me with a weary expression. “Please don’t mind him. The prince can be blunt.”
I shook my head. “I needed it. The truth.”
That made Agape pause, then nod slowly. “As he said, we came because we feared the stone would corrupt you. We underestimated what it would do once you touched it.”
My fingers curled against my knees. “Corrupt me? What do you mean?”
Agape studied me as though weighing how much to reveal. “Our kind… people like myself, and others, we are vulnerable to corrupted stones. If we touch them, the rot seeps in. It twists us. That stone you held, it was worse than most. It was made to poison. I honestly thought it would not affect you at all.”
His words tightened something inside me. “You’re telling me there was a chance I would be corrupted <i>by </i>it. And yet, when you told me about the stone, you left that part out?”
Agape shook his head and offered a small, almost apologetic smile. “Not left out. Dyed. I did not expect you to have that reaction after touching the stone. It was already rare for werewolves to react that way. And wolfless werewolf such as yourself… should not be able to have that reaction at all.” His gaze flicked briefly toward Grace, then back to me. “If you don’t mind, Lady Grace, could we speak alone?”
I nced at Grace. She met my eyes, searching for a sign. I gave her a nod.
She hesitated, then stepped out, the door closing softly behind her.
Almost immediately, the room grew heavier. Agape leaned forward. “Our kind will always suffer if we touch corrupted fae stones. Always. The corruption spreads, tearing at body and mind until nothing remains but madness. That’s why Kaelith and I came. We thought you would break the moment your hand closed around
<b>8:38 </b><b>Fri</b><b>, </b><b>Sep </b><b>26 </b>
it.”
I frowned. “Are you saying that-”
<b>A </b>
“Yes.” Agape’s gaze was steady, almost gentle. “I believe you are one of us. Someone born from a line touched by fae blood. That is the only reason you survived it. The only reason you could wield it without falling <b>apart</b>.
My breath caught. “No… that’s wrong. It was Cassian’s grandmother who…” The words stumbled out before I could stop them. My thoughts tangled as I blinked, trying to piece them together. “I can’t be.” My voice cracked as I forced the denial out. “How could I have fae blood? That’s… that’s impossible.”
“Believe me,” Agape inclined his head. “There are many things in this world that are difficult to ept, My Lady. But I assure you, only those with fae blood would react the way you did. Still… there is a more urgent matter we must speak of.”
My stomach sank. “More urgent than finding out I might have fae blood in my veins?”
He nodded at that. “Lord Cassian. Has he… behaved as he usually does around you?”
I froze. “What?” As he usually does around me? The word echoed in my head, pulling me back to the memory of his mouth on mine, the heat of it still burning through me. “What exactly do you mean by that?”
However, before Agape could answer me, a sudden knock echoed. Grace then walked in. “My Lady… Matron Yara has been spotted outside of the gates.”
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