Tharion retorted, “I could ask the same of you.” Her face tightened, but she returned to her book.
With each step toward his friends, he could have sworn a long, invisible chain stretched. Like an endless leash, tethering him—no matter where he went, no matter how far—back to this place.
Never to return to the life he’d traded away.
Ithan sat on a park bench in Moonwood, a few blocks from the Den, still reeling from the world-shattering revelation the Prime had dropped on him.
The wolf mystic was a Fendyr. An Alpha Fendyr.
Ithan hadn’t been able to get any more than that out of the Prime before the male’s gaze had gone murky, and he’d needed to sit down again. Hypaxia had worked some healing magic to ease whatever pains ailed him, and he’d been asleep at his desk a moment later.
Ithan breathed in the fall day. “I think I’ve put her in grave danger.”
Hypaxia straightened. “In what way?”
“I think Sabine knows. Or has already guessed.” Another Alpha in the heritage bloodline could destroy the wolves. But how the fuck had she wound up in that tank? And in Nena? “Sabine will kill her. Even if Sabine thinks she might be a Fendyr Alpha, if there have been rumors about it before now … Sabine will destroy any threat to her power.”
“So the mystic isn’t some sister or long-lost daughter?”
“I don’t think so. Sabine had an elder brother, but she defeated him in open combat decades before I was born. Took his title as Prime Apparent and became Alpha. I thought he died, but … maybe he was exiled. I have no idea.”
Hypaxia’s face turned grave. “So what can be done?”
He swallowed. “I don’t like going back on my promises.”
“But you wish to leave my side to look into this.”
“Yes. And”—he shook his head—“I can’t go to Pangera with the others. If there’s a Fendyr heir who isn’t Sabine …” It might mean that the future Danika had hoped for could come to pass. If he could find some way to keep the mystic alive. And get her free of the Astronomer’s tank.
“I need to stay here,” he said finally. “To guard her.” He didn’t care if he had to camp on the street outside of the Astronomer’s place. Wolves didn’t abandon each other. Granted, friends didn’t abandon each other, either, but he knew Bryce and the others would get it.
“I need to find the truth,” Ithan said. Not just for his people. But for his own future.
“I’ll tell the others,” Hypaxia offered. “Though I’ll miss you as my guard.”
“I’m sure Flynn and his backup singers will be happy to protect you.” Hypaxia laughed softly. But Ithan said, “Don’t tell them—don’t tell Bryce, I mean. About the other Fendyr heir. She’d be distracted by it, at a time when she needs to focus elsewhere.”
And this task … this task was his.
He hadn’t been there to help Danika that night she’d died. But he was here now. Urd had left him alive—perhaps for this. He’d fulfill what Danika had left unfinished. He’d protect this Fendyr heir—no matter what.
“Just tell the others that I need to stay here for wolf stuff.”
“Why not tell them yourself?”
He got to his feet. He might already be too late. “There’s no time to waste,” he said to the queen, and bowed to her. “Thanks for everything.”
Hypaxia’s mouth curled upward in a sad smile. “Be careful, Ithan.”
“You too.”
He broke into a jog, pulling out his phone as he did. He sent the message to Bryce before he could second-guess it. I’ve got something important to do. Hypaxia will fill you in. But I wanted to say thanks. For not hating my guts. And having my back. You always had my back.
She replied immediately. Always will. She added a few hearts that had his own cracking.
Pocketing his phone, breathing in that old ache, Ithan shifted.
For the first time in weeks, he shifted, and it didn’t hurt one bit. Didn’t leave him feeling the ache of exile, of being packless. No, his wolf form … it had focus. A purpose.
Ithan darted through the streets, running as fast as he could toward the Astronomer’s place to begin his long watch.
Ruhn hadn’t seen Day since the night of the ball. Since he’d kissed her. Since that other male had dragged her away, and pain had filled her voice.
But now she sat on the couch before him. Quiet and wary.