THALIA’S POV
My whole body felt numb as I stared at Bram. His words kept echoing over and over again in my head.
Kane has less than an hour…
My hands flew to my mouth as if that could stop the scream building in my chest.
I shook my head, refusing to believe it, refusing to accept the idea of a world where Kane wasn’t alive in it.
“Bram… please,” I whispered, but my voice cracked into a sob. “Tell me you can save him.”
Bram moved closer and placed a shaky hand on my shoulder. His eyes that were usually so calm, were filled with something I had never seen before. Fear.
“Thalia,” he said softly, “listen to me. The Alpha was poisoned.”
“Poisoned?” The word came out strangled. My legs felt weak, and I had to press my back against the wall just to stay standing.
Tears blurred my vision as my throat tightened. “H–How? How did that even happen?”
Bram exhaled slowly, rubbing the bridge of his nose. “We analyzed his symptoms. He inhaled oak ash.”
I gasped so sharply it hurt. My hands dropped from my mouth as I slumped fully against the wall, sliding down until I half sat, half leaned. “Oak ash…?” I whispered as my voice trembled. “Bram, only the Woodluck Pack uses oak ash. They’re the only ones who have access. Everyone knows that!”
He nodded grimly, confirming my worst fears. “I know. Which means Morgana wasn’t lying. It’s possible Kane crossed their borders by mistake. And when the Woodluck warriors found him, they used the fastest killing agent they had.”
My heart twisted painfully. Morgana being right about anything made my stomach knot, but this wasn’t about her. This was about Kane, my Kane. The boy I had fallen in love with so long ago. The man who had healed every broken part of me simply by loving me back.
“Bram…” I choked, grabbing onto his sleeve. “Please save him. Please. He can’t die. He’s my whole life. I—I can’t survive without him.”
His hand tightened gently around my arm. “There is a way to save him… but only one.”
I stared at him through my tears. “Tell me. I’ll do anything.”
“It’s magic,” he said. “Only pure, unrefined magic can reverse oak ash poisoning.” Then he looked directly into my eyes and said quietly, “Magic like yours, Thalia.”
The world stopped around me. It was as if every sound faded away. My breath got stuck painfully in my chest, and for a moment I wasn’t even sure if I was still breathing at all.
My fingers began to tremble so badly that I had to curl them into fists just to keep them from shaking.
I stared at Bram, hoping I had misunderstood him, praying that maybe I heard wrong. But deep down, I knew I hadn’t misunderstood anything. I understood perfectly what he was asking of me.
Bram wasn’t simply asking for help. He was asking me to use the very thing my late parents had begged me to never touch. The one thing that came with a cost too heavy to even imagine.
Suddenly, my mind wasn’t in the clinic anymore.
It travelled back to when I was 18, sitting cross-legged on the warm fur rug by the fireplace. My mother’s soft hands were wrapped around mine, squeezing them like she was afraid I would slip away.
Her tear-filled eyes stared into mine as she whispered, “Thalia, listen to me very carefully… the day you use your magic is the day you lose your wolf.”
The memory opened wider, and I heard my father’s deep voice join hers, as he warned sternly. “Your wolf is your identity. She is your strength. She is you. Promise us, Thalia. Promise you will never, ever use that magic.”
The promise I made kept ringing back into my ears.
“Thalia.” Bram’s cold hand pressed against my shoulder, snapping me brutally back into the present.
His eyes were filled with urgency. “There’s no time,” he said firmly. “You know what you must do.”
But did I?
Because in that moment, I felt like I didn’t know anything anymore.
My heart slammed inside my chest so loudly it drowned out all other sounds.
Panic slithered through my body, cold and sharp, wrapping itself around every thought I tried to form.
And then, I heard her.
Iris, my wolf.
“Don’t do it,” she whispered in my mind, her voice trembling in fear. “Thalia, please. Don’t do this.”
I shut my eyes tightly as tears burned behind them.
“Iris… Kane is dying.”
“I know,” she whispered back sadly, her voice breaking. “But if you use that magic, you will lose me forever. You will lose your wolf. Please don’t choose this.”
My throat constricted painfully. How was I supposed to choose? Kane was the love of my life. But Iris… Iris was the essence inside me. Losing her meant losing a piece of my own soul and anything that made me a wolf.
Bram tightened his grip on my arm. “Thalia, every second matters,” he insisted. “He doesn’t have long.”
I pressed my hand over my heart, feeling it tear in two. Inside my mind, I whispered to Iris, “If I lose Kane… then I’m nothing anyway. I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry. But if losing you is the price to save him… then I’ll pay it.”
Iris growled softly, not in anger, but in fear and heartbreak. “Then answer me this one thing,” she said gently. “Why was Morgana there? Why did she know where he was? Thalia… what if you’re making a mistake? What if this isn’t worth the cost?”
Her words struck something deep inside me, a tiny seed of doubt that made me freeze for a moment. But Bram’s voice cut through my thoughts again.
“Thalia! We are running out of time!”
There was no more time to think. No more time to question anything. Kane needed me. Nothing else mattered.
I wiped the tears streaking down my cheeks and inhaled a shaky breath. “Tell me,” I whispered. “Tell me what I need to do to save Kane.”
What readers are saying 0
Share your thoughts with everyone reading this chapter.
