Chapter 62

Chapter 62: Chapter 62

Chapter 62

Time was a bit somber in the palace. For a while now, the cold lingered in the Castle. Even amongst the workers, it was evident. Voices stayed low. Steps stayed careful. No one wanted to be the one who made a sound too loud.

Being lost inside one’s wolf was a disastrous event, one even I didn’t know much about until it happened to my Kai. He remained on the bed, healing slowly, and the doctors said we could only wait for his human form to regain its strength as his wolf had drained their shared existence of all the energy there was. The sheets barely moved with his breathing. That was the only proof he was still here.

The room was painfully dark, lit by a few candlelights, where on the edge of the bed, I sat. My legs were crossed and my fingers twisted through Kai’s hair as I hummed. The hum was for him more than for me. I did not know if he could hear it. I hummed anyway.

I had recovered fully myself and was back to being hale. But without Kai’s smile, and more importantly him being awake, everything felt odd and incomplete. My body had come back. The rest of the world had not caught up.

It was hours later when I decided to leave his side. The hallway loomed before me, and as I gaited past, I couldn’t miss the stares being launched at me.

From the guards. From the maids. Basically, from everyone I passed. Eyes found me and then did not know where else to go.

It was a bit unnerving, but the attention also lectured me on a new realization. I was no longer someone they could look through.

Eventually, I arrived at Marcellan’s chambers. Once I knocked, he let me in. The door opened on the smell of old wax and leftover wine.

"Am I overthinking this, or is everyone looking at me weirdly?"

I used to be more of an invisible individual in this Court, so it was a bit surprising now that I felt like I was on the front page. The feeling sat on my skin and would not shake off.

Marcellan waved me off as he headed towards his study. He settled tiredly into the seat, arms draped over the rests and eyes sore from many candles burned through midnight.

"And you look like a mess," I added, then my mind reeled back to my observation. "I’m serious, Marcellan. Everyone is looking at me like I stole their bread or killed their cats."

"Well, did you?"

Now, what sort of question was that? Had being tired made him less of the smart man I knew him to be? Or was he merely teasing me?

I wanted to groan aloud.

Instead, I chose to land on one of the nearby couches and pick a strawberry from the fruit bowl. The fruit was cold. The juice was too sweet for the mood of the room.

Biting into it, Marcellan’s words reached my ears.

"They’re merely intimidated by you."

"Me? What?" My surprise was obvious, and it made Marcellan scoff.

"I mean, you brought back Kai. You’re one mysterious Luna. I myself still wonder a lot of things."

Oh, truly, now I seemed to understand what Marcellan meant.

And by the way, I hadn’t told him about my powers, and the other time when we had the conversation, I wasn’t exactly loquacious concerning the matter. The silence I had kept then was still sitting between us.

"Tell me more."

"Surely, I can begin with how you woke up from the dead. Ten days." He adjusted his position, propping his weight on his arms. The goblet before him seemed to have suffered tirelessly through the night. "You were dead for ten days, and somehow you came back alive. And if I’m not wrong, the baby in you is also fine."

I remembered the shock on the doctor’s face when he came to check up on me. If being utterly stunned was a man’s poison, he would have been dead by now. He hadn’t believed his eyes until he finished all his tests, and it was as though I had never been involved in the accident. His hands had shaken on the papers. Mine had not.

For me, it was when I realized how much power resided inside me that I hadn’t tapped into. I had been holding back all this time, so it was time to let it all out and become pettier than they ever had.

"And what do you think?"

"I think you’re hiding something from me that you shouldn’t. Ceasing war between MoonBlade and SilverFang was impossible enough. That Pack would do anything to end SilverFang, but somehow you stopped that war from happening at all. And then these two events again. And I thought I was the mysterious one here."

Marcellan spoke, but inwardly, it sounded more like a complaint. The words had edges. He was tired of not knowing.

My thoughts were cut short when he rose and stretched, yawning as he moved towards the window and looked out at the morning sky. Light came in thin and grey.

"Goodness, I hate this palace, and as though fate hasn’t already shit on my plate enough, it left me with all these duties."

Marcellan groaned before dipping his hands into his pockets.

I stood up and came to stand beside him. The glass was cold when my shoulder almost touched it.

Then I began to speak.

"You and I may not be best friends, but I’ve come to see you’re someone I can trust. You upheld Kai’s place when hope seemed lost. When you hated the throne, you remained. You’re a true friend, and on Kai’s behalf, I want to trust you."

Marcellan turned to look at me.

Ouch...

Out of the blue, he pinched me.

"Right, I wanted to know if you’re real."

"Of course I am," I said, and he chuckled.

He brushed his damp hair back. The laugh did not last long, but it was real.

"Well, we wait for Kai to heal."

As the conversation seemed to lean towards its end, I decided to bring up another matter.

"I want to completely trust you, Marcellan, but first, I need you to take me to Clawface."

I said, and he squinted. His eyes fixated on mine, giving away the fact that he was trying to read me.

I’ve noticed such behavior from strong minded men. They believe they can read an Omega’s mind. However, with the One Tree brewing within me, it was impossible. Whatever he searched for stayed behind the bark of it.

Marcellan dropped his scrutiny and led the way. The corridors felt longer on this side of the castle. The air grew medical.

Not long later, we arrived where Clawface was.

The East Wing was filled with nurses and a doctor. Clawface was on complete life support. Machines kept a rhythm that did not belong to a living room.

Like when I was hospitalized, seeing Clawface felt like a slap in the face from fate.

Neither of us would have expected this, and even as I stood there in the room, my stomach twisted. The burns were worse in the light. The tubes made him look smaller.

"Out. Everyone."

Within seconds, the entire room was empty, leaving only Marcellan behind with me. Chairs scraped. Cloth rustled. Then it was quiet.

"What?" I asked when I caught the glint on his face.

He shrugged.

"You’re adjusting to the new authority you carry. Kai would be proud."

I proceeded to Clawface, placed a hand upon his forehead, and then closed my eyes. His skin was too warm and too still.

I’d been spending more time communing with the One Tree.

It was finally becoming less strenuous to call out to it from within me, and I’d been learning more spells as well. Languages that I had never seen before yet were now engraved in my head like lost messages etched into ancient stone. They arrived when I asked. They waited when I did not.

The words slipped from my lips in a murmur.

"Healeth thy flesh. Restore what fate hath broken."

A low twinkle of light, tiny and shaped like a star, floated through the air and seeped into Clawface’s skin.

Marcellan, on the other hand, was frozen, watching with undivided focus. He did not breathe loud enough to interrupt it.

Clawface’s skin began to repair itself.

The healing was swift and completed within seconds. Color came back. The burned line of his face closed as if it had never learned how to open.

When I blinked again, he was utterly healed. It was as though he had never been burned at all.

His eyes flew open.

One second, he stared blankly at the ceiling. The next, he yanked off the tubes, freeing himself and sitting upright. The machines complained and then went quiet.

I helped him by placing a hand on his back.

"What happened?"

"Alex saved you."

Marcellan spoke in a tone that wasn’t his own. He nearly squealed like a little girl before clearing his throat.

Clawface stared at me in disbelief. His hand went to his own face as if he needed to confirm it was still attached.

Then I stepped back, making both of them focus entirely on me.

"I have a mission for you both. It involves the three of us," I began. "Kai has always had to carry the entire burden of responsibility, and though he’s the Alpha King, if he’s to fulfill his duties, he needs forces behind him, and that’s what I wish to build."

I continued after a brief pause. The paper in my hand felt heavier than paper should.

"We’ll be starting with this letter. It’s a message to be sent to MoonBlade."

The paper in my hand was sealed with green wax bearing the royal sigil.

"You said you wanted to know everything about me, about the bond between Kai and me?"

A brief silence followed. Neither of them filled it.

"I’ll show you everything, but first, we have enemies we must take down. And I believe I have a lead."

I turned towards Marcellan.

"Marcellan, you’ll have this letter delivered to Alpha Frederick himself."

Then to Clawface.

"And you, Clawface, will train me in the ways of war."

I straightened.

"This is an order for you both. Tell me you accept so that I can show you my true self."

My eyes darted from Marcellan to Clawface.

The two were dazzled.