Her eyes glowed red under the moonlight while her skin looked smooth, like frost on a window. She wore black fur over silver armor that shone as she moved, and beside her quiet as a shadow stood another hooded, faceless, too still to be human.
I stepped back slowly. "How did you find me?"
Amalric smiled. "I wasn't looking, the moon brought me here." She tilted her head. "Or maybe it brought you to me."
"I should've killed you when I had the chance."
Her eyes narrowed but her voice stayed calm. "Funny, i thought the same thing."
My fingers crept to my dagger, Amalric watched me with a smile on her face."Still so predictable, always holding knives when your heart's already broken."
"What do you want?"
"I wanted to see you," she said softly. "One last time before the prophecy chooses."
"The prophecy doesn't decide who I am."
"Oh, it already has," she whispered. "You're the who fails Delphine,You were born to suffer, to burn quietly in the background but Me? I was made to stand out."
I chewed hard. "You were made to obey, all your life you followed Mother's orders like a puppet that you never made your own choices."
Her lips twitched. "And yet here I am. The Alpha's chosen, the Crimson Mate, the one packs will bow to when this is all over."
"You were just human…"
"And now I'm more than you ever were."
The wind howled around us like the forest itself was listening, the shadows twisted.
Amalric stepped closer."You thought you could change fate?" She asked.
"You thought rising from the dead would make you powerful but look at you, still alone clinging to that oath-breaking traitor."
My eyes burned. "Don't talk about Veran."
Her smile grew sharp. "Why not? He's the one who brought me to Alpha Ravik."
My heart sank. "What?"
She leaned closer. "Didn't he tell you? Veran made a deal with Alpha Ravik… your life in exchange for mine."
I staggered, this can't be true.
"He wanted to protect you," she mocked. "He just didn't realize I was the one who would carry the blood the moon wanted."
"You're lying."
"Am I?" she whispered. "Wasn't it strange how he just happened to find you when you died? How he knew about the prophecy even before you did?"
I shook my head trying to silence her voice but it was too late, her voice stuck and she saw it.
"You want to believe he chose you," she said. "But you were never more than a mission."
I raised my dagger, "You should go," I growled
But Amalric didn't move, she stepped closer and said in a low wicked tone, "You're not the hero Amalric, you're the sacrifice."
Then she vanished just like she was never there.
Veran found me by the trees shaking and breathless.
"Amalric!"
I turned away from him. "She was here." I said and his face went still.
"Han Lian?"
"She found me."
His jaw jammed, "What did she say?"
I didn't answer right away as I looked at him, I mean… really looked at him.
The shadows under his eyes, the scar on his ribs and the way he avoided my eyes.
"Tell me the truth," I said.
"About what?"
"Everything!"
Veran's silence told me what I feared,
"She said you gave her to Ravik."
"I didn't…"
"But you worked with him once!"
He nodded slowly."Yes." The word hurt like a knife in my chest.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because you wouldn't trust me."
"You were right."
Veran took a step forward."I didn't know she'd awaken like this Ravik needed someone with your bloodline, he didn't tell me it would be her."
"So you gave her instead of me?"
"I was trying to save you!"
"By handing her over?"
"I didn't have a choice."
"You always had a choice," I said coldly. "You just didn't choose me."
He looked hurt like I'd punched him but I turned away.
"I can't do this," I whispered.
"Amal…"
"No."
My voice shook but I didn't care.
"You were the first person I trusted, the first who saw me when no one else did I'd die for you, but you… you were just waiting to trade me."
He stepped closer again but I took a step back.
"I need time," I said and I left him standing there alone.
.....
The days after turned into bitter cold and silence, I traveled north alone through icy woods and silent valleys. I hunted, trained and bled. But I didn't forget her face nor his betrayal and the prophecy kept hanging over me like a noose, but I need answers.
So I went to the oldest place I knew the Moon Pit, it was hidden deep in the Hollow Mountains. A holy place where wolves said the moon first touched the earth, only seers went there but I didn't care for i was not afraid anymore.
It took me two days to reach the outer circle and on the third night under a full silver moon, I stepped into the pit. The air changed fast, thick and cold.
My skin crawled as I moved through the stones, whispers brushed against my ears.
"Daughter of fire…"
"Blood of ash…"
"Which side will you choose?"
I fell to my knees as pain ripped through my chest, my body burned and my visions blurred, then I saw it.
Two wolves, one white and the other red, they were fighting under a dying moon.
Tearing each other apart before my eyes and when I woke up… a woman stood over me.
Her face was hidden in silver veils, her voice soo old.
"The time has come," she said. "To choose your path."
I opened my mouth to speak but behind her Amalric stepped into the light wearing my mother's face.
My breath caught in my throat, she stood before me wrapped in silver cloth her voice low and ancient. But behind her, the face I hadn't seen in years!
My mother.