Chapter 202: Tea 2

EDELINA

The latch clicked, and I leaned back against the door, eyes squeezed shut. My hands had started shaking again. I pressed the heels of my palms against my eyelids until sparks burst behind them, but the pressure did little to ease the tightness in my skin or the dull, gathering weight behind my left eye.

A migraine. Of course. A short, vicious one, the kind that came when I pushed myself too long without sleep.

How long had it been? One night, barely six hours. Not even a full night’s rest, and I was already falling apart.

But then, the meadow had offered no rest. Whatever Lycaon had done to me in that dream had followed me into the waking world, burrowing beneath my skin like a splinter I couldn’t reach, much less pull free.

It is nothing, I told myself. You are tired. You are just seeing what you fear.

I crossed to the vanity, keeping my eyes on the phone in my hand, and called him.

It rang six times. I was reaching to end the call when the line clicked open.

"What the hell do you want?" Sterling’s voice crackled through the speaker, rough with exhaustion and already bristling with irritation.

"Is that any way to speak to your benefactor?" I lowered myself into the chair and closed my eyes against the light.

"I stood in that hall, Edelina." His voice had gone flat, the anger beneath it worn thin by fatigue. "I stood there and defied the newly established Regent during a well-needed and intentional speech in front of the entire court and neighboring Alphas and Lunas. Do you have any idea what the backlash has been like? The Elder Circle is circling, and my own Beta can barely look me in the eye. You weren’t there to see what it cost me."

"I saw how it looked, and I do apologize that it did not go according to plan. We have that fucking healer to blame."

"Then you know what I’m telling you." He fell silent for a moment, and I heard him draw a tired breath. "I’m sorry, Edelina. I am. But you’re becoming dangerous, and I cannot keep involving myself in this."

"Don’t say that."

"I mean it."

"You know we’re bound to each other." I lowered my voice, keeping it soft and level. "Until the day we die. We’ve held guns to each other’s heads for years, Sterling. Your secrets and your silence keep me alive, and mine keep you out of the dirt and just as alive too. Neither of us can afford to lose the other, so don’t make me do something I’ll regret simply because I’m angry with you."

The silence that followed was longer this time.

"Is that a threat?"

"It is a reminder." I opened my eyes and studied my reflection, the hollows beneath my cheekbones, the gray the powder had failed to conceal. "I do not have much left to lose, Sterling. You would do well to remember what that makes me."

"Enough with the threats." He sounded older than I had ever heard him. "I am getting old, and so are you. It is your Johann who will suffer for all of this. Does he even know? All of it? You should prepare him before you get us both killed."

Something hot and furious crawled up my spine.

"Keep your opinion to yourself, werewolf."

The word landed between us like a plate dropped on stone.

Sterling went quiet.

"I do not need a lecture on motherhood," I continued, my voice tightening. "What I need is a small favor. Propaganda."

"Propaganda?"

"Yes. My son recently took a DNA test. Blood was drawn by a healer." I curled my fingers around the edge of the vanity. "I am certain those results will not see the light of day anytime soon, and do you know why? Because they threaten the story my own husband constructed to destroy me. Nobody at this court will want to touch that story, not when doing so means questioning the people who have spent months pushing it and, therefore, defending it. Especially Bradley, his biggest sycophant."

I drew a slow breath, fighting the dull throb gathering behind my eye.

"So you start talking. I do not care where or how. Let it slip over dinner, mention it at an event attended by the Elder Circle, or find some other convenient occasion to put the matter in people’s heads.There is one holding in two days, is it not? I want them curious. I want them asking questions, and I want those questions traveling beyond the high tables and gilded halls."

"Edelina..."

"The lowborns, especially. Get the Omegas and the healers who witnessed the blood draw and the lab testing talking. Let the story travel through the kitchens, the barracks, the market. Give it enough mouths, and soon nobody will be able to smother it without drawing attention to the fact that they are trying."

I loosened my grip on the vanity, one finger at a time.

"I will not be doing that."

"Sterling."

"I will not." His voice had acquired a firmness I rarely heard from him. "Every time you make a plan, something insane happens. Every single time. And now I hear the Regent is leaving for his home pack this morning with a skeleton team, and you want me spreading rumors that paint Johann as the wronged party." He paused, letting the implications settle between us. "If I didn’t know better, Edelina, I’d think you were planning another assassination."

I said nothing.

"Edelina."

"Well," I said, "yes."

The silence that followed was long enough to make me wonder if the call had dropped.

"Are you insane, Lycan?"

"Of course not." A laugh almost escaped me, though there was nothing particularly amusing about the conversation. "I’ve never been clearer about anything in my life."

"He has a healer," Sterling hissed. "Did you not see her? That girl healed him in an instant. She had a hole in her throat, Edelina, and closed it with her bare hands. And word has spread through the entire estate about what she did to your son. She is not someone you want to underestimate."

"Like I give a fuck about a breeder."

"The word around the estate is that she’s Lysander’s mate."

The fury hit so hard that my vision bleached white at the edges.

"Fucking hell." I shoved myself out of the chair and stalked toward the window, my fingers curling into fists at my sides. "This estate used to know how to keep a secret. We could kill a man in the east wing, and nobody would hear about it until we wanted it out. Now every Omega with a mop thinks she’s entitled to an opinion. Everyone is talking, everyone is speculating, and nobody seems capable of keeping their damn mouths shut."

I stopped at the window and stared out at the grounds, my jaw aching from how tightly I had clenched it.

"I am sick of it."

"Who cares?" Sterling said impatiently. "What matters is that the breeder stain will eventually wash off. A mate bond is the highest standing in the kingdom. She will be marked Queen soon enough, and then—"

"Never."

"Edelina..."

"I will not have this conversation with you, Alpha Sterling." I let each word fall with deliberate precision. "You are my subordinate. Nothing more, nothing less. You will do as I have asked, or we will have a problem."

"I am no Lycan’s slave boy."

"You will be," I replied softly, letting the venom speak for itself, "until the day you die."

Then I cut the line.

The silence that followed was enormous. A high-pitched ringing filled my ear. I stood by the window with the phone pressed against my palm, staring at the reflection in the glass: a thin, pale woman in a dark blue gown, her hair no longer as immaculate as it had been an hour ago. One of the pins had worked loose, leaving a strand out of place.

I reached up and shoved it back into position.

There. Something was still under my control.

I dropped the phone onto the vanity, lowered myself into the chair, and buried my face in my hands.

Breathe.

A soft knock came at the door.

"Come in," I called without lifting my head.

The door opened, bringing with it the cool, sweet scent of herbs. I looked up to find a young Omega standing on the threshold with a tray in her hands. She had brown hair, a bright smile, and the sort of pleasant expression that made me suspicious on principle. In the centre of the tray stood a tall glass beaded with condensation, its contents a pale gold beneath a scattering of green leaves.

"Your tea, Luna," she said, setting it down beside me.

"I did not ask for tea."

"No, Luna."

"You lot do not always take initiative." I picked up the glass anyway. It was cold against my fingers, and the sight of the ice made me suddenly aware of how dry my mouth had become. "It is a hot morning. Some iced herbal tea is precisely what I need. At least one of you has a functioning head."

The girl’s smile widened.

"Of course, Luna. I heard you were tired and thought you might like something to help you relax. Perhaps even sleep, if you need it."

The rim of the glass pressed cool against my lips before the meaning of that final word even sank in.

Still, I drank. One swallow, then another, then a third, the cold liquid gliding down my throat. The ache behind my left eye softened just a little, and the knot in my chest began to unravel.

That was the moment the word finally caught up to me.

Sleep...

I stopped with the glass still touching my lips.

The glass hovered an inch from my mouth. A moment ago, the tea had tasted sweet and refreshing. Now, the flavor seemed to thicken on the back of my tongue, leaving behind a faint bitterness I could no longer ignore.

Valerian, perhaps. Or something far less innocent.

"Sleep?" I repeated.

The girl nodded, her smile never faltering. "Yes, Luna."

My stomach twisted. I lowered the glass to the vanity with deliberate care, unwilling to trust my unsteady fingers with anything so fragile. Then I looked at her properly.

The pleasant face. The hands clasped neatly before her. The smile that lingered a little too long.

And her eyes.

It struck me then that she hadn’t lowered them once. Not when she entered, not when I reprimanded her, not even when she stood before me, offering me something I had never asked for. Every other Omega in this estate knew better than to hold my gaze for so long.

This girl either had no sense of self-preservation or had no reason to fear me.

Neither possibility pleased me.

"What," I asked, my voice so unfamiliar that I barely recognized it myself, "did you put in this tea?"