Chapter 4 Shadows in the Snow

I thought the cold had teeth before. But nothing bites like guilt.

The wind howls around the mountain outpost like it remembers every soul who's bled here. Snow clings to my lashes and melts down the collar of my coat, soaking the wool, but I barely notice anymore. My feet keep moving. I don't know where I'm going, only that I have to move. If I stop, I might crumble.

The image of Elder Malric's lifeless body those blank eyes, the blood that soaked the Temple stones is burned into my brain. I can still hear the wet sound of his throat being cut. And I can't help wondering if it was Lira's hand that did it. Or someone sent by her. I don't know which is worse.

Kade walks beside me, silent as ever, but there's a tension in his movements now. Not anger. Not anymore. Just something tight, unreadable. As if he's holding the sky up by the sheer strength of his spine. I haven't spoken since we left the crash site. Since we saw the wall of blood.

Only one twin shall live.

I want to scream. I want to break something. But instead, I wrap my arms tighter around myself and keep trudging through the snow.

The outpost isn't much. Just three connected stone buildings nestled into the cliff face, the color of smoke and soot. Guards open the gate at Kade's signal, and we enter without a word. Inside, the heat nearly knocks me over, thick and sudden. Fire roars in a stone hearth. A warrior woman with flame-colored hair leans against the far wall, arms crossed.

"This her?" she asks, amber eyes sliding to me.

"Ayla," Kade says. Just that. Just my name, like it should explain everything.

She snorts. "Doesn't look like much."

I flinch.

Kade's jaw tightens. "She's marked. The Moon chose."

"The Moon's got a twisted sense of humor, then," the woman mutters, pushing off the wall. "I'm Elara. Try not to faint if I raise my voice."

I open my mouth to say something anything but my throat locks up. My voice feels too small, too fragile. I lower my eyes.

Kade lets out a low breath, like he's holding back fire. "You'll treat her with respect."

"She's the reason we're up here babysitting instead of hunting the Blood Pack."

"She's your Luna. Or have you forgotten how bonds work?"

Elara stiffens. A moment of silence stretches, tense and electric. Then she laughs a harsh, humorless sound.

"Fine. Luna. Come on, girl. Let's find something that isn't soaked in blood and regret."

That night, I didn't sleep. My room is small and warm, but the silence presses too heavily. Visions crawl behind my eyelids when I try to rest Malric's dead eyes, the blazing Moon Flame, Lira's twisted smile.

Around midnight, I get up.

I wander the corridors. No one stops me. No one even sees me. I feel like a ghost.

I find Kade on the training field, shirtless despite the snow, hammering his fists into a wooden post wrapped in straw. Over and over. His hands are already bleeding.

"You're going to break something," I whisper.

He stops. Don't turn.

"Not if I break first."

I step closer. The moon paints his scars silver. I hadn't noticed how many there were. Across his shoulders. His back. One down his spine like a lightning bolt. I wonder what stories they tell.

"You don't have to protect me out of duty, you know," I say, voice low.

"It's not duty."

I blink. "What, then?"

He turns. His expression is unreadable. And then, like the moonlight itself fractured, he says:

"It's the bond. I feel you. Even when I don't want to. Especially when I don't want to."

The silence stretches. His breath puffs white in the air. Mine hitches.

"Then why do you look at me like I'm a burden?"

Kade doesn't answer. He just walks past me into the snow.

Elara trains me the next morning. She's brutal. Doesn't go easy just because I'm soft, or scared, or slower than her. In fact, I think that makes her hit harder.

"Again," she barks, tossing a wooden blade at my feet.

I scramble to pick it up. My palms are raw. My shoulders scream.

"I'm not a fighter," I mutter.

"You're Luna," she snaps. "Which means you learn. Or you die."

I swing. Miss. She catches my wrist and flips me onto my back in the snow.

Pain explodes up my spine.

"Get up."

I lie there for a breath. Two.

Then I do.

Days blur. Training. Nightmares. Silence.

Kade watches me sometimes. From a distance. Never speak unless necessary. But I feel him. In my bones. In my blood. The bond thrums like a second heartbeat.

One night, I woke up gasping. My dream was full of whispers. A white wolf. A cave of bones. A name I don't know how to spell.

I go to the library. Find ancient scrolls. Moon myths. Prophecies. One line keeps appearing:

The twin with light shall unbind the flame.

Elara catches me reading.

"Don't chase shadows, girl," she says.

But I think the shadows are chasing me.

Everything changes the day Kade is poisoned.

We're ambushed during a patrol. Arrows from the trees. One grazes his neck. He keeps fighting. Until he doesn't.

He collapses.

I scream. The sound tears my throat.

"Help him!" I cry, dropping beside him.

His skin is grey. His breathing, shallow.

No one moves.

"He's marked! He's the Alpha! Help him!"

But they all look at me. Me. As if I'm supposed to fix this.

So I do the only thing I can. I press my hands to his chest.

I call the Flame.

It answers.

Light bursts from my palms. Silver and hot. Kade jerks. Gasps. The poison burns away in steam.

I collapsed.

But not before I hear him whisper my name like a prayer.

When I wake, he's sitting by my bed.

"You saved me," he says.

My throat is dry. "It wasn't me. It was the Flame."

He shakes his head. "It was you."

Our eyes meet. And for the first time, I don't look away.

The bond between us shifts. Deepens.

He trains with me. Eat beside me. Touches my shoulder when I falter.

One night, he tells me about his past. How he was trained in the Temple of Steel. How they burned weakness out of him. How he used to dream of peace, until they taught him dreams were dangerous.

"But you," he says, voice low, "you make me want to believe again."

I touch his hand. Just once.

The bond sings.

Then the secret comes.

Elara finds a scroll in the ruins. Kade was trained for a mission long ago.

To kill the twin born under the Flame.

Me.

I read the scroll. My knees give out.

Kade enters. Sees the page in my hand.

"It was before I knew you," he says, voice strangled.

"But you still came."

"I didn't know who you were. I didn't know who I was."

My heart cracks.

"Get out," I whisper.

He does.

I slide to the floor.

And outside, the snow begins to fall again.

But this time, it falls like ash.