“Thank you for healing my legs,” Beckett said, startling me. As terrible as it was, I’d forgotten that he was there. “I know I said that before, but I, uh, I just wanted to say it again. You have no idea what you did for me.”
It took me a moment before I trusted myself to speak. The poor kid was already uncomfortable around me. He didn’t need me to start sobbing all over him. “You didn’t need to thank me before, and you don’t need to do it now.” I touched the warm stone of a column. “I’m glad I could help.”
Off in the distance, I could make out the Isles of Bele. They appeared large, as if they could house two or three towns the size of Spessa’s End. There was something at the highest peak of the center island. A Temple? I started to ask Beckett what it was when I realized that he hadn’t responded to me.
Pulling my gaze from the sparkling waters, I turned, and every muscle in my body immediately locked up. Beckett was gone.
But I wasn’t alone.
Several people stood by the statue of Nyktos. Mostly men, but a few women. There were at least a dozen, a mix of Atlantian and mortal. Not a single wolven among them. But they were all dressed the same, wearing loose white pants and tighter, sleeveless shirts. Their arms were adorned with golden bands similar to those I’d seen on the Guardians in Spessa’s End. Their attire, the way they stared at me, reminded me of the Priests and Priestesses in Solis.
Except the Priests and Priestesses didn’t carry weapons. All of them wore a golden, narrow, long dagger strapped across their chests.
Goosebumps pimpled my skin. I recognized none of them, but I knew what they were feeling. Anger surged from them, thickening the air, and it mixed with my stinging disbelief as what was happening began to sink in. Instinct flared to life.
“You shouldn’t be here,” an Atlantian said, taking a step forward. “You should’ve never crossed the Skotos Mountains. Your mere presence is a taint, Maiden.”
These people knew exactly who I was.
I quickly glanced at the exit—the only exit. They blocked it, and their anger—their hatred—it kept stretching out toward me, coating my skin like a too-coarse blanket, filling the back of my throat with hot acid. I severed the connection, picturing each cord being snipped away until there was nothing inside me but my pounding heart. Once I locked them out, I scanned the Temple again, this time looking for any sign of the young wolven. There was none, and everything inside me knew what had been done, even if I didn’t understand why. He’d been so happy when I first met him. I’d healed him. No other wolven had been unkind toward me.
But he…he had led me here. He’d offered to bring me here, and then he’d left me.
Left me to those who I’d never seen or met before but who hated me nonetheless.
But they did not choose you.
My skin flushed hot and then cold. It had been a trap. One of opportunity or something planned, I had no idea. And I didn’t know how this had been orchestrated—if these people had been waiting or for how long. But it didn’t change what this was. The betrayal, the disappointment, and the bone-deep hurt sank its razor-sharp claws into me. I stared at the nameless faces, feeling as if my chest had cracked open.
It had been so silly of me to want these people to accept me. And so incredibly naive for me to take that flicker of hope and hold onto it. I wanted to scream. I wanted to…gods, I wanted to cry. And I wanted to rage.
But I couldn’t.
I needed to stay calm. This was a trap, but they knew who I was, and that meant they also had to know that I was Casteel’s wife. They couldn’t seriously think to harm me. I needed to deescalate the situation somehow. The mortals wouldn’t be a problem. The Atlantians standing before them could become one, however.
Still, I lowered my right hand to where my sweater hid the wolven dagger. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know this area was forbidden, and I don’t know what you’ve heard about me, but I am not an Ascended, and I never chose to be the Maiden. I fought against them at—”
“You’re something worse,” a woman interrupted, and I realized she held something in her closed fist. “We know what you really are. We know how you managed to gain the Prince’s trust, empath. Soul Eater.”
A prickly wave of dread skated over my skin. None of these people had been in Spessa’s End or at New Haven. Had Alastir told someone? I doubted that Kieran would have during his brief return. At the moment, none of that mattered. What did was that what Alastir had said was right. So was Casteel, even though he hadn’t wanted to say it. And I already suspected as much. Because of who I was and who I wasn’t, they wouldn’t accept me, and they feared me.