46 #2
Cora’s gray eyes deepen as she speaks, further and further, until they begin to bleed black.
“She switched you. My true son is Sinclair Severi. You are Sybil’s true son.
You have both been lied to for your entire lives, all because my sister couldn’t bear for her reign to end due to a Beta’s innate weakness.
” Cora waves a hand to Calix as if congratulating him.
“She was wrong, of course. She’s never believed that eyes can change.
I’ve seen it for myself, however. When a queen ascends to power, her eyes blacken.
And when a queen is forsaken”—her voice sharpens—“they become darkest gray. There isn’t a queen in history who has ever given birth to anything but an Alpha. ”
Calix blinks his molten red eyes, and Sybil recoils, dropping her gaze as if unable to look at him. As if she— fears him. Her son.
Calix is her son . I let her words wash over me, hardly able to believe them, but… they’re true. Every word is true. If not for Sin’s hand in mine, I’d stagger backward. Because that means—
Calix is the Crown Prince of the Wolf Queen’s Court.
He doesn’t seem to be breathing.
Sin’s pulse spikes, however, and he clenches his jaw as if he wants to speak.
And suddenly I understand—Sybil betrayed him too.
The woman he thought was his mother. His life, his crown, his title—they’ve all been a lie.
I gape between him and Calix before turning toward the two sisters who have held the fate of this continent in their very hands for decades.
Calix is not the traitor’s son. Sin is… and he…
“Why would you do this?” Sybil speaks tightly—her face white with fury—staring at Sin as if she’d never seen him before. I empathize. “I raised you as if you were my own. I gave you everything —”
“And you could have taken it all away,” he explodes, unable to stand silent any longer.
The anger rippling off him is like nothing I’ve ever felt.
This is no longer the haughty and indifferent facade he’s worn so often in court.
It’s not the boy who told jokes and made me laugh with his cousin, or the boy who held me tight and kept me safe behind closed doors.
“At any time, if I ever failed you, you could’ve cast me aside—just like you did your own sister.
Just like you did your own son .” He gestures wildly to Cora and Calix in turn.
“You ruined Calix’s life. Just look at him.
” His eyes blaze. “I mean it. Fucking look at him, Sybil.”
Her entire body trembles as if she might charge him. She still doesn’t look at Calix, however. “You cannot compel a queen ,” she seethes.
He sneers at her. “You can’t do it, can you? All this time, he’s grown up right here, under your nose, and you’ve treated him like shit because of your own guilty conscience. It wasn’t enough to make you do better, though. You let him believe he killed his own father.”
He shakes his head in disgust. In disdain. “You’ve never loved anyone. Not even me—don’t try to deny it. Everyone is disposable. Everything you’ve done has been for you. For your power. For this corrupt fucking kingdom. I am sick of your lies and torment.”
“And you’re not queen anymore,” Cora adds sweetly.
“The time has come, dear sister, to answer for your crimes.” She jerks her chin, and the wolves press closer.
Saliva drips from their fangs. Then she stops.
Turns. “Wait—I’m being rude. Sin, darling?
” She crosses the circle to seize his hands, forcing him to drop mine. “Would you like to do the honors?”
He frowns in confusion. “But we discussed this. We’re—we’re casting her out, not killing her. She deserves the fate she gave you.”
“And allow her to escape it too? I don’t think so.” This close, I can scent the rot in her heart. She smells like death. “Trust me, Sin,” she croons, and widens her arms to encompass Calix too. “This is the only path forward for our family.”
“You’re full of shit,” Calix says.
“Oh? Does this mean you don’t want the honors either?”
When Calix bares his fangs, I glance at Sybil, who glares back.
Unrepentant. “What about you, Vanessa?” Cora murmurs.
She stands directly in front of me now, and my chest constricts as she touches my hair.
“The Severi boys aren’t the only victims of my sister’s treachery. Shall you kill her, or shall I?”
I jerk my head away. “The queen didn’t kill all these people.”
Behind us, Evie lifts her face. Portia and Lyra have joined her.
They wrap their arms around her shoulders.
Cora’s smile hardens. “When a wolf is cornered, it has no choice but to bite.” Then, softer still, “I’ve tasted your rage, Vanessa.
It would be easy for you to kill her. You might even enjoy it. ”
And those eyes —I’ve seen those eyes before. They feel familiar in a way I can’t explain, as if they’ve peered into my very soul. I repress a shiver. Dread curls up my spine. “Like you?”
She stares at me for another long moment before turning away.
“Fair enough.”
When she approaches her sister, neither one of them cowers.
Sybil even lifts her chin. “This court functions as one part of a whole, and you have wrecked it. Just what do you believe you’ll lead?
The ruins?” She gestures to Queen Jae, to King Zhiyu and Prince Eric.
“The other six courts won’t let you get away with murdering regents .
There are rules, Cora, that you continue to break.
You won’t escape their payment forever.”
Cora snarls directly in her face. “They couldn’t escape mine .
They betrayed me. They stole my crown, they stole my sister , and they turned you against me—all so you could sit on my throne.
” She thrusts her arms outward, gesturing to her Bitten wolves, who hang on her every word.
“Let them come. Let the courts try to steal it again. I assure you, I will be ready. The strongest always survives.”
They stare at each other for a long moment. Once sisters, now enemies.
No one in the forest seems to breathe; there is only one ending. As if sensing the same, Sybil extends her neck.
“Do it, then.” No fear touches her scent. Just anger—at Sin’s betrayal, at her crown on Cora’s head, at the slaughtered court around us. She has nothing left. Maybe Sin was right; maybe she never loved anything at all, or maybe she’s too proud to show us now.
Like Calix, she’ll never show a sign of weakness.
“No, no,” Cora says. “That’s too good for you. You’ll die just like everyone else.”
Sin takes a step forward. “Mother—”
Without another word, her wolves attack, and Sybil Severi hits the ground with a mundane thud. Her body broken. Her blood red.
Just like everyone else.
A sob lodges in my throat—not for the queen, but for all the dead around us. For Calix. For Sin. For Evie and Portia and Lyra. It’s futile. We have nothing left either. We are outnumbered, surrounded, without a hope.
“Don’t look so glum, darling.” Supremely satisfied, Cora crouches to pet one of her wolves. “If you knew the torture we’ve all been subjected to, living in this certifiable asylum our entire lives, perhaps you’d come to understand our purpose.”
“I’ve lived here too.” At her casual tone, rage seeps further through the hollows of my grief. “But I would never partake in a massacre—”
Cora laughs again, and the sound daggers into my chest. “Vanessa, honey, don’t you see?
You did partake. Without you, I wouldn’t have gleaned half the information I required to lay my siege.
” And then she flattens me. Twists the dagger and bleeds me out in front of the remaining court.
“Haven’t you ever wondered why you had so many nightmares?
I’ll admit. It was impressive to watch you fight them.
You would notice the little inconsistencies, but you never quite had the capability to overcome them. My son is very strong.”
I blink at her. “Wh-what?” Then I whirl to face Sin before she can answer, my heart pounding. “What is she talking about?”
Haven’t you ever wondered why you had so many nightmares?
“It was the only way.” He moves to grab my wrist, to pull me closer, but I leap away from him, crashing into Calix, who catches me with a hand on my back.
“You… Vanessa, you had to know. About this court. About the queen. You needed to be aware of the dangers, but I couldn’t talk to you publicly.
I could hardly be seen with you.” Then, lower, softer, “I’m sorry. ”
His words, his tone , they slice to the bone.
“What are you talking about , Sin?” My chest heaves, and my voice rises. He’s looking at me as if I should empathize—as if I should forgive him—but I… I can’t.
It was impressive to watch you fight them.
I understand. Before they can explain it to me, before they can say the word, the realization has started to form. Dreamweaver.
My power is the same as my mother’s.
That puzzle—the one I’ve been trying to put together for months now—finally clicks into place. All along the piece I was missing… was Sinclair.
“Y-you planted dreams in my brain ?” I ask in horror.
“I needed you to hate them as much as I hated them. I couldn’t tell you everything—not about my mother’s survival or about my birth—but those dreams I showed you weren’t wholly lies, Vanessa.
This court has been capable of so much worse.
Just look at what has already happened.” He gestures to the sunburst scar on my hand.
“I never hurt you like they did. The blood, the explosion… it was all a dream. You were never in any danger from me. I was just trying to protect you, and I still am.”