“Belzev treated me with Essence Healing.”
Cassiel frowned, but he didn’t argue on the matter of her family’s use of magic. Something significant had to have saved her from such grave wounds. “And the Pack turned a blind eye to it?”
“The Alpha was forced to allow them to live in Lykos Peak because Belzev had saved the Pack from an epidemic. They were indebted.”
Cassiel shook his head. “But how did your uncle live in werewolf territory? The full moon forces all werewolves to relinquish control to their wolves. Their first instinct would be to hunt.”
A sad smile tugged on a corner of Dyna’s lips. “Belzev built their home on the outskirts of Lykos Peak near a cluster of ash trees. They hate the scent. He planted wolfsbane around the house for good measure, which is toxic to them. The Pack never hunted him, but I suspect fear of the Other kept them at bay.”
“The chains are enough to hold him?”
“Silver is the bane of werewolves. Belzev used the chains to contain the Other during the full moon, and he created a diluted elixir out of wolfsbane to help subdue it. The elixir made Zev ill, but his father said he would no longer need it once he learned to control the Other. With training, he did eventually learn to delay the change from coming nearly all night. He always reverted to the Other, but it solidified Belzev’s belief that his son could control it.” Dyna paused and pointed her face up at the sky twinkling with a sheet of stars.
Cassiel inhaled a shallow breath at the depth of sorrow that washed through him. “But he didn’t.”
Tears rolled down Dyna’s cheeks, gathering at the end of her chin. Her voice wobbled as she spoke, “One autumn night, on Zev’s eighteenth day of his birth Belzev decided he was ready to be unchained. Zev woke the next morning to find his home covered in blood, and his father torn apart. Can you imagine how he must have felt to realize he had killed him with his own hands?”
Cassiel couldn’t answer.
He envisioned the carnage with Zev kneeling in the middle of it, lost and broken at seeing what he had done. All of that horror and pain placed a weight on Cassiel’s chest.
“His mother wanted him dead,” Dyna said. “The Alpha banished him instead. But Zev didn’t want to live anymore. He wandered into the forest to die. I found him days later in the meadow, delirious from starvation and deranged from the Madness. I promised Zev that I would chain him myself. I had to, so he would live. Three years have passed, and I have chained him ever since.” At the end of her story, she laid her head in her arms. Her shoulders shook as she soundlessly wept.
Anguish and grief stirred inside of Cassiel. He wasn’t sure how much of it was his or if it was all hers coming through the bond. The grief was heavy, distressing, and it engulfed him in a way that left him disoriented. He wanted to take that feeling away from her if only to stop it from affecting him.
Now he understood why Zev was on the verge of falling into the Madness.
Guilt had broken him, but he smiled and laughed for Dyna’s sake. He played that role for her. His deep-rooted instinct to protect family was the only thing keeping him alive.
Not once had Cassiel stopped to consider the people he traveled with. Zev’s childhood in Lykos wasn’t much different from his in Hilos. They both received scorn and repugnance for being half-breeds. He realized with horror that he had treated Zev the same way. He wasn’t any better than Malakel. Self-disgust twisted his stomach.
But this method of restraining the Other form was too dangerous. She had to stop.
“The best thing is to let him go,” Cassiel said. “You cannot be responsible for his chains any longer.”
Dyna wiped her face with one end of the blanket. “I must. I made a promise. I’m the only one he can count on or he’ll become feral.”
Tension pulsed in Cassiel’s temples. “Chaining him will eventually get you killed. You nearly died today.Again. Why must you constantly risk your life?”
“For my family.”
He stared at her in disbelief. “What?”
“Some people value wealth, land, and prosperity. I value my family. They are all I have, and one thing I’ve learned is that family is something we must hold on to.”
That made little sense to him for he had nothing of the sort with his own. The entire concept was foreign. All he had from them was disillusionment.
Cassiel scowled at the fire. “Family hurts you far worse than anyone else ever would. Relying on others, expecting anything of them, only leads to disappointment.”
“Even so. There is nothing on earth or in the Heavens that would keep me from helping those that I love.”
She was incomprehensible.
Cassiel’s fists clenched on his lap so tight his nails cut into his skin. “I do not understand you. When you and I touch, I see your soul, I see your heart. If anyone has truly suffered, it has been you. Yet hatred and selfishness have not corrupted you.”
Dyna gasped. “What? You can see my—”
“I don’t understand it!” he snapped. “Why are you not consumed by wrath for what happened to you, and those you care for? You have reason to hate your fate and curse the world. Why have you not run away and hidden from all that burdens you?”
