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A smile bloomed across her face. "Blaidd?"

She turned—

Cold steel kissed her throat. Her breath froze in her throat. He stood behind her without a sound. His shoulders were broad enough to eclipse the light spilling through the doorway, his height forcing her to tilt her chin.

"Maxen?"

His expression was like a frozen lake, his grey eyes betrayed no expression.

Fae's heart seized.

"Maxen..." she whispered. "What are you doing? What is going on?"

He studied her face as though debating whether to answer.

"Fae," he said softly. "So beautiful." His eyes flicked briefly to the blade at her neck. "If only you had stayed away…"

Her pulse thundered in her ears.

"I am sorry to have to do this," he continued, still in the same placid voice. "But some things were not meant to be."

"I don't understand," she breathed. "Why are you doing this? You are my brother."

He tilted his head slightly. "I suppose you deserve the truth. One last gift, for your sister's sake."

"I was sixteen when Blaidd went to the Moon Warden trials. He was the prodigal son of the pack. Everyone loved him. Everyone knew Blaidd was meant to be great—they all said it. Second only to the Moon Warden, they all said."

His jaw tightened. "And I was always meant to stand behind him. His cousin, born to the second son, born too late. What did it matter that I was alpha-born?"

"Why him?" A faint bitterness crept into his tone. "We were cousins. Only because he was born a few years earlier. I was stronger than him; I had more skill."

The blade pressed closer against her throat. "There was a tale in the pack, of a witch who lived in the forest. The ravens were her familiars, they said."

Fae's stomach seemed to drop to her feet.

"I found her after months of wandering the woods. She asked me to come back in a week. When I did, she wanted something from me. Blood from the healer's den. You had donated it for an injured warrior's potion. It was so very easy. I just didn't know it was yours." He smiled.

"She said she would suggest Blaidd to the changelings," Maxen said. "That set everything in motion."

The air felt suddenly thin.

"But in exchange," he added lightly, "I was required to end your bloodline. I didn't know back then that Lisna was my lifemate, but I agreed."

Fae's mind reeled at this.

"It was all proceeding as planned. It was all so perfect. All I needed to do was wait," he said, as if remembering. "Blaidd, that fool, thought Isolde was his mate." He laughed softly, but there was no humour in it.

"It was so easy."

The room seemed to tilt.

"Then Isolde died," he went on. "And everything was within my grasp. Blaidd was all but dead. He only needed the right push."

His eyes hardened like steel. "Then I met Lisna, and I realized things were not so simple. I couldn't kill my own lifemate. The challenge was supposed to end Blaidd. You would never have known he existed."

"But no… You had to come. You had to save him." He exhaled through gritted teeth. "So I had to wait."

The blade never wavered.