“Sam, I’m too tired?—”
The larder door swings open and four pairs of canine eyes fall on us. Flour coats Hati’s dark fur making her look more like a ghost than a puppy. Instantly, Elora drops to her knees. She hasn’t spoken, but the pups run to her, licking her face and fighting for a place in her lap.
“This,” I say, kneeling beside Elora, “is Hati.” The black, flour-coated wolf pup perks up at her name. “And this”—the brown pup growls as he’s pushed to the back of the line, farthest from Elora—“is Skoll.” Elora’s face beams as the identical gray pups kiss her face. “And these two are Rook and Grey, the troublemakers.”
“Hati, Skoll, Rook, and Grey,” Elora whispers. “Alaric and Ruse did tell me last night, but they are so much more magnificent than I could have imagined.” Elora glances at me, but for the first time since I’ve seen her today, there’s light in her eyes. “Ruse and Alaric are mates apparently.” She chuckles, running a finger down Rook’s nose. “They’re allowed to have secrets of their own, I suppose.”
Skoll has made his way back to Elora’s lap, licking up her neck and chin and when she laughs I do too.
She takes a deep inhale. “There is so much hurt,” she says. “So much pain and darkness and some days I wonder if any of this is all worth it.”
Three of the four pups have made themselves at home on her lap, Hati sticking close to my side. “But they bring me hope.” She scoops the three pups up and nuzzles into them.
Sighing, I plop myself on the floor next to her.
She bumps my shoulder with her own. “Youbring me hope.”
“I can stay here all night,” I say. “Tell me everything or tell me nothing. I’m just happy to be by your side.”
Elwyn
“Doyou think he’ll like it?” Rosy pink creeps over Elora’s cheeks and freckled nose. She’s chosen my beaded navy gown to attend her first ball. A lump forms in my throat.
She hands me her mask made of navy satin and tiny beads, and I take my time tying it gently around her. “He would be a fool not to.”
Her grin widens as she spins around, one she so rarely gives, and I wish to bottle it up.
“Go on.” I gesture to the door where Cade is waiting on the other side. I take an extra moment to fluff her curls and pinch her cheeks. “No need to sneak around tonight.” I wink, and she rolls her eyes, but it’s all of these tiny moments that make up who we are together. She kisses my cheek and lets out a long breath before opening the door.
I catch a glimpse of Cade as Elora walks out. His eyes are wide and his face now matches the color of her lip paint. She grabs his arm as he leads her down the hallway, to her first Autumn Moon. There’s no promise Cade will become Elora’s arranger, but the two of them have been inseparable all their lives. It only seemed right to have him escort her tonight.
I lean against the doorway, clutching a hand to my heart. My daughter, nearly eighteen, is growing into a woman before my eyes.
Not much time left.
“I know,” I whisper to myself. “I know.”
Before Elora and Cade disappear completely, she turns one last time and smiles. That wide smile again, and this time, I commit it to memory, not letting myself forget it for a second.
An hour later, I sit with Cade’s mother, Alice, around her small table drinking wine and eating leftover biscuits when shouting erupts from the castle.
“What was that?” Alice stands and pulls the small curtain from the window near her door. “Did you hear it?”
“I did,” I say. I squeeze beside her and glance out as well.
More shouting erupts and Alice jumps back a ways.
“Must be a rambunctious party,” Alice says, but I’m frozen against the window. My eyesight blurs, my hands shake, and everything is lost to a fog of white before my vision comes.
Three men around a fire.
King Silas. Prince Roman and… I can’t identify the third man.
“Long live the king,” the stranger sneers.
Silas downs his drink and then he’s clutching his heart. His skin breaks out into a sweat but neither man moves to help him. Not his son. Not the stranger. The two of them sit side by side as Silas crumples forward. He gasps and claws for Roman’s boot, but the stranger steps in front of the prince, shielding him from his father. He whispers something, something I can’t hear and then?—
“Elwyn!”
