Chapter 98
*Nathaniel*
We were two days past the riverline when Bastain said we were being followed.
I had felt it too–a pressure on the back of my neck, a pattern in the silence. The birds stopped singing every time we crossed into a new clearing. The air grew heavier, like it had lungs of its own and was holding its breath. Wolves moved differently when they hunted in shadow. It wasn’t loud. It was intentional.
They weren’t rogues, not the frenzied kind. They moved with calculation. Precision. And they weren’t attacking.
They were waiting.
Bastain and I didn’t speak as we made camp that night. We didn’t need to. The silence between us had become familiar- necessary. There was no space for small talk when every step forward might be your last or lead you to hers.
Jiselle.
Her name had become a mantra in my head, less like a word and more like a heartbeat. I couldn’t feel her the way I once did. The mate bond was severed–clean or not, it no longer hummed between our souls. But there was something else, something darker and more persistent. A kind of ache that settled behind my ribs and throbbed every time I closed my eyes.
She was alive. I would have known if she wasn’t.
But that didn’t mean she was safe.
Or even still herself.
We lit no fire that night. The moon was full enough to cast silver across the tree trunks, and that was all the light we dared. Bastain sat sharpening one of his smaller knives–something he did more for rhythm than necessity–and I kept my back against a boulder, listening to the woods like it was speaking in a language only half remembered.
They came just after midnight.
Three of them.
The first was a woman with dark eyes and burn scars down her neck. She moved like a predator–slow, but not unsure. The second was tall and gaunt, his hair long enough to braid but tied back like a soldier’s. The third was hooded, his scent unfamiliar, not wolf but something altered. The kind of stench that made your magic recoil.
I rose to my feet and didn’t reach for my weapon.
They hadn’t drawn theirs.
“We don’t mean harm,” the woman said. Her voice was rough, as if unused. “We followed you because we know what you’re looking for.”
I didn’t blink. “Then say her name.”
She hesitated. “Jiselle.”
Bastain stood as well. “Who are you?”
“Former believers,” said the tall one. “Kael’s pack. Once.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Why ‘once‘?”
The hooded one answered this time, his voice low and clipped. “Because he stopped asking for loyalty and started demanding obedience.”
Bastain and I exchanged a look.
“We call ourselves the Wolves of the Split Moon,” the woman went on. “We were part of Kael’s original inner circle–those who helped him build the sanctuary. But we left when the experiments started.”
My blood ran cold. “Experiments?”
She nodded. “He never said it outright. But we knew. Wolves went in to be ‘awakened.‘ Most didn’t come back. The ones who did… weren’t whole.”
“And Jiselle?” I asked.
“She was brought in differently,” said the tall man even Kael didn’t pretend to understand. That’s
“For what?”
The woman hesitated.
To become something he couldn’t.”
Reverence. The flame in her was something
Successfully unlocked!
e way he trained us. He started preparing her.”
912
Chapter 98
My hands clenched.
The hooded man stepped forward, reaching into his coat. Bastain stiffened, blade now gripped tight, but the man didn’t flinch. He drew something wrapped in velvet, carefully untied the cloth, and revealed a blade no longer than a forearm- curved slightly, etched with runes I’d never seen before.
“This,” he said, “was made by one of the Council’s secret forgers. Before the collapse. It’s called the Mirror Fang.”
The blade shimmered strangely, catching not moonlight but something beneath it. Its edge was silver, but the core glowed faintly red. Old magic. Bound and buried.
“What does it do?” I asked.
“It severs bonds. Not just magical ones. Soul–ties. Mates. Power leashes. Even gifts, in rare cases.”
Bastain stepped forward. “That shouldn’t exist.”
The woman looked at me. “It does.”
. “And you’re just giving it to us?”
“No,” the tall man said. “We’re giving you a choice.”
I took the blade in my hands. It pulsed against my skin–cold and knowing. I had no doubt it could do what they said. “Why me?” I asked.
“Because Kael thinks he’s building a goddess,” the woman said. “And if he succeeds, she won’t come back to you. Not because she won’t want to. But because she won’t remember how.”
The words sank deep.
The weight of the blade became heavier with every breath.
Could I do it? Could I take this knife and sever what was left of the tether between us? Could I stop whatever she was becoming before it consumed her?
Or was I lying to myself?
Was I holding onto the idea of her because I couldn’t face the truth–that she may already be gone?
Bastain took the blade from me, just long enough to study it. “This is ancient work. It wasn’t made to heal.”
“No,” said the hooded one. “It was made to end what was never meant to exist.”
I didn’t sleep that night.
I stared at the stars until they blurred into streaks. I thought of Jiselle’s smile. The fire in her eyes when she fought for what she believed in. The way she’d said my name like it was the only truth left in the world.
Would she forgive me if I used it?
Would she want me to?
Or would I just be finishing the work the Council started–cutting her down before she could rise?
I don’t know when I realized I was crying. Only that I didn’t wipe the tears away.
Morning came in a haze of mist and regret. The defectors were gone by the time the sun rose, leaving only the Mirror Fang wrapped again in velvet, placed neatly beside my pack.
I picked it up.
And I didn’t put it down.
Not yet.
Because maybe I wasn’t ready to kill what she might become.
But I had to be ready…
…in case I was the only one who could.
