Lucien Blackfang sat behind his desk, his fingers gripping the leather arms of his chair so hard the material began to crack. A sharp, rhythmic throbbing vibrated in his chest—right where a jagged scar sat over his heart.
Since the moment Gwen Harlow walked out of the Grand Hall and knelt to another man, the wound had begun to change. It started as a dull ache, then a burning heat, and now, it was a living thing. The skin around the scar was turning an obsidian black, the veins radiating outward like a spiderweb of poison.
"Damn it," Lucien growled. When he pulled his hand away from his mouth, it was stained with dark, sluggish blood.
"Lucien! Oh, Moon Goddess, you look terrible!"
Sienna rushed into the room, her face pale with a panic that wasn't entirely fueled by concern. In her hands, she carried a tray of expensive human antibiotics, high-end painkillers, and rare herbal poultices she had bought from the black market.
"Apply the ointment, Sienna," Lucien rasped, his golden eyes flickering with a desperate light. "The way you did after the fire. The light… use the light."
Sienna's hands trembled as she uncapped a jar of pungent green paste. She began to smear it over the blackened skin of his chest. "I—I'm trying, Lucien. It's just… the air is different today. My energy is low. The moon isn't in alignment."
Lucien grabbed her wrist. "It's been a week, Sienna! Every day I get weaker. My wolves can smell it. They're starting to growl in the hallways. Where is the miracle? Where is the 'blessing' you used to save me?"
Sienna let out a choked sob, her eyes darting around the room. She had no magic. She had never had any.
"It's Gwen," Sienna hissed. "She did this to you, Lucien! She must have cursed you before she left. She's a Witch-Wolf, remember? She's using her dark arts to drain your strength from across the mountains so she can hand your head to that butcher, Kaelen!"
Lucien let go of her wrist, falling back into his chair. His mind was a fog of pain, but a small, persistent thought began to claw its way through the haze. If Gwen cursed me, why did the pain only start the moment she was gone?
He looked at Sienna—fragile, beautiful, and utterly helpless. The sight of her didn't fill him with protective instinct. It filled him with a cold, hollow doubt.
***
Gwen stood in the center of an ancient stone circle hidden deep within the Crimson Fang woods. Kaelen stood ten paces away, his arms crossed.
"Don't think about the spell, Gwen," Kaelen commanded. "Don't think about the debt or the revenge. Think about the spark in your blood. It's been caged for ten years. Let the cage break."
Gwen closed her eyes. She reached deep into her core, past the memories of the silver blade, past the years of being Lucien's shadow. She found it—a sun-bright ember of pure, raw power.
She exhaled and the forest responded. A shockwave of golden light erupted from her body, rippling through the clearing. The ancient stones began to hum, their runes glowing in sympathy. Gwen felt a rush of euphoria she hadn't known since she was a child. She raised her hands, and the dead leaves on the forest floor swirled upward, igniting into tiny, harmless sparks of gold.
"Incredible," Kaelen whispered.
Gwen opened her eyes and laughed—a genuine, soaring sound that echoed through the pines. She looked at Kaelen, her eyes glowing like twin stars. "I forgot… how it felt to be whole."
Kaelen walked toward her. He didn't stop until he was standing in the center of her fading aura. The air between them was thick with a new kind of magic—not the kind forged in spells, but a bond of souls.
"You are becoming the storm the Goddess promised," Kaelen said. "And I am proud to stand beside you."
The peace was shattered by a sharp whistle from the trees. A scout dropped from a high branch. "Alpha! A wolf has reached the Neutral Zone. He's demanding a parley. He says he won't leave until he speaks with his 'wife'."
Gwen felt a cold drop of lead sink into her stomach. Lucien.
"He's desperate," Gwen said. "He's rotting, and he finally realizes why."
The Neutral Zone was a desolate stretch of grey rock and stunted trees. Lucien stood by his black SUV, leaning heavily against the hood. Even from a distance, he looked like a shadow of his former self.
Gwen stepped out of Kaelen's armored truck, Kaelen trailing behind her like a silent, lethal shadow.
Lucien's eyes locked onto her. For a moment, a flash of the old Lucien returned—the possessiveness, the arrogance.
"Gwen," he wheezed, taking a step forward. "Stop these games. You've made your point. You've made me suffer. Now, come home and heal this… this curse you've put on me."
Gwen stopped ten feet away. She looked at the man she had loved for a decade, the man who had murdered her in another life, and felt… nothing.
"It isn't a curse, Lucien," Gwen said. "It's just reality. You didn't realize that. You took my magic, you took my blood, and you gave the credit to a liar."
Lucien shook his head, a frantic motion. "Sienna… she's just tired. She's overwhelmed. But you… were born for this, Gwen. You're a Blackfang. You belong to me."
"Sienna saved nothing," Gwen stepping closer. Her hand suddenly erupting in a soft, blinding golden light—a light Lucien recognized from his hazy memories of the forest fire. "She stood by and watched me bleed for you, then she hid me in the bushes while you woke up. She hasn't healed a single scratch on you, Lucien. I did. I kept you alive."
Lucien's heart hammered against his ribs as he stared at her glowing palm. The warmth radiating from it was the same warmth he had felt every time he was injured, a warmth he had attributed to Sienna's 'unseen prayers.'
"Sienna... she said..." Lucien gasped.
"She said whatever it took to keep the crown," Gwen interrupted. "And you believed her because it was easier than loving a Witch-Wolf. Now, look at you. You're rotting from the inside out because the 'liar' you chose doesn't have a drop of magic to save you."
"Gwen, please..." Lucien reached out. "I'll exile her. I'll take you back. Just stop the pain."
"I am not a medicine, Lucien. I am a Luna," Gwen's voice dropping to a dangerous whisper. "And I belong to the Moon."
Gwen turned her back on him, walking toward Kaelen who stood like an immovable mountain.
"Wait! Gwen!" Lucien screamed.
Gwen didn't look back. "Let's go, Kaelen. The stench of decay is starting to irritate me."