Even Mother Shade would find me fearsome, I thought with grim satisfaction.
Then, Ollan’s knock came at the door, and Elisa rushed me to the lift. As the lift descended, I thought of the shard of silver from Kassian’s ruined piece of armor, hidden under my mattress, and I wished I’d had time to smuggle it with me.
We reached the downstairs, and Ollan and Elisa ushered to a coach waiting outside.
I sat tangled in the sound of my labored breathing, my heartbeat slamming against my rib cage while the city slid past the coach window.
I hated how beautiful the capital was. I wanted the capital city to be ugly, with skeletal steel remains of tall buildings scraping at a gray sky and withered Thorn Trees twisted around them like dead spiders. Instead, sunlight streamed through vivid green tunnels of verdant trees and vines.
A line of women in white caught my eye as the coach turned a corner, and I pressed my hands and face to the glass, my breath fogging the window as I strained to see if it was Mother Shade’s girls.
I couldn’t tell. They were walking the opposite direction, wearing their masks, and the woman leading them had her face turned away. As the couch passed, she looked my way, and I sat back against the cushions hastily. The thought of laying eyes on Mother Shade again made my stomach clench.
Soon, the coach stopped.
I’d arrived.
The Alpha’s tower was the tallest building in the city, and unlike the rest, it was stripped bare of vines and green growth. It glittered like a naked thorn before me as I disembarked from the carriage, feeling suddenly alone and small.
I filled my lungs with air and straightened my spine.
I could do this.
Hitching up my long skirts, I stepped toward the front door. The false tattoo burned like a secret beneath the veil. I caught a glimpse of a curling black tendril that wound around my upper arm, and nausea climbed in my throat. I stopped beside the door, dragging my emotions into something resembling strength, and then, I walked into the gleaming tower with my head held high.
Guards led me down a long, dark corridor lined with flickering flames. Our footsteps echoed. I trembled, and I was angry at myself for trembling. There was time enough to be frightened later, after this was finished. But I couldn’t seem to stop myself.
I paused at the threshold of the room.
The Alpha’s inner chamber was made of reflective surfaces. I could see inside, and everywhere I looked, I saw the glitter of false smiles and the flicker of flames. Torchlight and glamour. Sworn dressed in finery, with black-clad wives on their arms. There were no white-draped ghost girls here, no Chosen ones to flit at the edges of the room and stare pale-faced at the proceedings. No, this party was for those of the inner circle alone.
I was relieved beyond words that I would not encounter Mother Shade, but I wished I could have the support of my sisters as I had during the fight with Kryf.
Here, I was alone.
Like a dove among wolves.
No, I told myself. Not a dove. An eagle, perhaps, with talons sharper than they can comprehend.
The thought bolstered me enough to step to the threshold.
At the end of the room, sitting on a throne of metal, was the Alpha. Her short brown hair gleamed in the firelight. Her dress was a dark, deep red, the color of clotted blood.
She locked eyes with me, and my heart dropped like a stone. I faltered at the entrance.
Where was Kassian?
A sudden, frantic whisper in my head told me that this was some elaborate trap, that they’d dressed me up and brought me here only to reveal me to be a liar and a traitor, a spy for the Order of the Crimson. That the Alpha would call for my death, and the Sworn and their wives would fall upon me and tear my skin from my body with their teeth.
The Alpha beckoned to me with one hand.
My veil fluttered around my shoulders as I crossed the threshold into the glittering room and the murmur of voices dropped to silence.
The Alpha rose from her chair and approached me. The crowd parted for her, making space around us both in the center of the room.
“Lady Rae,” she said when she reached me. “We meet again. You look stunning tonight.”
I dropped to one knee in a deep bow as I’d seen Kassian do the last time I was here. “Alpha,” I said. I kept my eyes on the floor near her feet. I wasn’t sure if this was right.
“Look at me,” she said.
I looked up, my gaze falling first on the X-shaped scar that marred her otherwise beautiful, almost childlike features and stretched from her hairline to her jaw on both sides.
“You were not so eager to look away the last time you were here,” she said, and I realized that she remembered me. I, the Chosen girl who had gawked at the sight of her until I remembered Mother Shade’s threats.
“You liked my willfulness then,” I said. “Would you like it now?”
“Ah,” the Alpha said. “So, you remember that day too. I sometimes wonder if the Chosen girls retain the memories of such things… they look so blank when they meet me…”
Anger gathered in the space beneath my lungs. Perhaps if they were not treated cruelly, they would not look so blank, I wanted to say. I bit my tongue.
The Alpha continued, “I was curious about you, Chosen girl. I noticed you and your staring. You had a curious air of defiance that I found rather intriguing. I wondered whose mate you would become. If he would appreciate your spirit.” Her eyes smiled even though her mouth remained impassive. “I believe my Silver Wolf will.”
I felt the stares of the rest of the room upon us as she held out a hand and bade me to rise.
As I obeyed, I caught sight of a silver mask reflected in one of the planes of the wall, and again on the shining tiles of the floor.
Kassian had arrived.
CHAPTER TWELVE
I WENT STILL on impulse at the sight of the silver mask, like a mouse conditioned to freeze before a snake. My heart thumped. And then, there he was, stepping from the crowd to bow before the Alpha on one knee. He was power restrained by grace, his thick shoulders bent before her, his dark hair lowered, his powerful body bent in submission.
The sight of him, bowing to her, made me sick with anger. I forced my lips into a smile instead. I would make them all trust me. Outwardly, I would be the perfect Sworn wife.
“Alpha,” he greeted her, his voice reverent.
“Vixor Rae,” she said, reaching her other hand to his as he stood. “I’ve missed you. Enthralled with your mate to the point where you lose track of the days, are you?”
“I spend so much of my time roaming the wilderness,” Kassian observed with a mild smile as he neatly dodged her question regarding his enthrallment with me. “Surely you are accustomed to my absence. And it has been only a few days, Alpha.”
She gave a snort. “Well, it is worse when I know you to be in the city. Perhaps I should command you to remain here, in service to me personally.”
Kassian’s voice was perfectly composed. “Whatever my Alpha wills, I will do.”
“Behold,” the Alpha said, steering the conversation back to the present, “your new mate. Isn’t she lovely tonight?”
Kassian’s eyes were pools of midnight behind his silver mask as he looked at me for the first time. When he spoke, his voice was like a frozen caress across my heated skin.
“She is.”