Chapter 3 Elara's POV

We didn't speak as we ran.

Kael moved ahead of me, cutting through corridors with perfect memory, even though the compound was a maze of tunnels and forgotten rooms. My lungs burned, but I kept pace.

Back then, I didn't run.

I was pushed.

We burst through a narrow passage and up a tight stairwell. Kael slammed the door shut behind us and shoved the heavy bolt into place. It clicked, loud and final. I leaned back against the cold wall, chest heaving.

"What the hell was that?" I asked, holding the scroll like it was wired to explode.

Kael didn't answer right away. He turned away and pressed his ear to the door.

Outside, nothing.

No footsteps

No yelling

Just silence.

"Their scent was Eastern," he said finally. "They didn't belong here. They came for that scroll."

I held it up. "What is it?"

"A treaty," he said. "One we were never supposed to sign."

I stared at him. "You're going to have to be more specific."

Kael ran a hand through his hair. "Years ago, before the split, my father negotiated with the Eastern packs. A secret alliance. It was signed in blood, sealed with a mark that even the Council couldn't trace."

"You're saying this piece of paper binds you to the East?"

"No. I'm saying it binds Blackthorn to war."

I looked down at the scroll.

Gold thread. Old leather. No symbol I recognized.

"I don't understand," I said.

Kael's voice lowered. "If the East gets their hands on this, they can make it look like we're in league with them. That we've broken our vow to remain neutral. The Council will strike first."

"And the Alliance will back them."

He nodded. "Thousands will die."

I gripped the scroll tighter.

Everything was spiraling faster than I could hold onto it.

We weren't just talking about spies or politics anymore. We were talking about war.

A war I'd die in.

And so would every innocent wolf on either side of the border.

"I'm burning it," I said.

Kael looked at me like I'd slapped him.

"You can't-"

"I don't care what it says. It's paper. It doesn't get to decide who bleeds."

He stepped closer. "This paper is the only leverage we have. If we destroy it, we lose any way of proving we didn't make the deal."

I stepped back. "You want to keep it? Let it sit in some dusty drawer until someone else steals it and lights a match under both sides?"

He didn't answer.

Because he knew I was right.

I moved toward the small hearth tucked into the wall and knelt. The flames had died down to embers, but they were hot enough. I looked at him one last time.

"Tell me you still don't feel it."

He didn't move.

"Tell me all that time meant nothing," I said. "Tell me it was just a strategy. That none of it was real. Say it out loud, and I'll hand it over."

Kael's jaw clenched. His hands curled into fists at his sides.

But he didn't say it.

So I dropped the scroll into the fire.

It curled and blackened.

Gone.

Kael stared into the flames for a long time.

"You shouldn't have done that," he said.

"But I did."

His eyes met mine. "That's going to cost us."

I nodded. "Then add it to the bill."

He turned away first.

Not out of weakness. Out of calculation.

Kael always knew when a fight wasn't worth finishing.

By midday, word had spread.

The intruders had been found dead, of course-but the chamber was torched. The Council sent out scouts to check the borders, and Lena requested an emergency meeting with Kael.

I wasn't invited.

Not that I cared.

I walked to the outer edge of the training yard, ignoring the stares. Some warriors whispered when I passed. Others didn't bother pretending. I caught words like traitor and curse more than once.

Old wounds never really healed here.

And I didn't pretend to be welcome.

I found myself by the stables. It was quiet here. No guards, No noise. Just the sound of a stallion pawing the ground and a breeze pushing through the cracked window.

"Nice place for someone who's supposed to be hiding."

I turned.

Kael stood by the stall, arms crossed.

"Why are you always following me?" I asked.

"Because you're a magnet for disaster."

"I was just about to say the same thing."

He stepped closer, not threatening. Just present.

He was always like that-silent, steady, and impossible to ignore.

"You burned it," he said again, like he was still trying to make sense of it.

"I did."

His eyes stayed on mine. "You didn't even hesitate."

"Because hesitation gets people killed."

He didn't answer.

I leaned back against the wooden frame. "Why'd you bring me here, Kael?"

"You know why."

"I want to hear you say it."

His silence stretched too long.

Then-

"You're the only one I trust."

I blinked.

He hadn't said that the last time.

He hadn't said much at all when he threw me out.

"You have a funny way of showing trust," I muttered.

"I had no choice back then."

"There's always a choice," I said, voice quiet. "You just didn't pick me."

He looked away. "If I had, you would've died. They were going to execute you, Elara. The only way to keep you breathing was to exile you."

"You didn't even warn me."

"Because if I had, they'd have killed me too."

I swallowed hard.

This wasn't the Kael I remembered.

This wasn't the boy who used to sneak bread into the orphanage just to see me smile.

This was a man carved out of the mess we left behind.

He stepped close enough that I could smell the smoke on his jacket.

"You still bleed, don't you?" he asked.

I stiffened.

"What kind of question is that?"

"Because I do," he said. "I bled the day you were dragged out. I bled when I stood before the Council and told them I didn't love you. And I'm bleeding now just standing this close to you."

He didn't touch me.

He didn't need to.

The air between us was already burning.

"I don't know what you want from me," I said, voice low.

"I want you to stay," he said. "I want you to fight with me, not against me. Just this once."

I looked up at him.

And for a second-just one-I let myself remember what it used to feel like to love him.

Then the door slammed open.

Lena.

She looked between us, lips pressed tight.

"The Council wants both of you," she said. "Now."

Kael straightened. "What's going on?"

"They know about the scroll."

That wasn't a surprise.

"They also know who set the fire," she added.

That was.

And it wasn't us.

My blood went cold. "What?"

"It wasn't just the chamber," Lena said. "Someone set fire to the Western Gate to. The patrol's dead. Six warriors. Burned alive."

Kael cursed.

I looked at Lena.

Her face was pale. Her hands clenched.

"There's more," she said.

Kael moved toward her. "Tell me."

"They found this."

She pulled something from her pocket.

A pendant.

It was old, cracked and covered in ash.

But I knew it.

It used to hang from Orin's neck.

My brother's pendant.

Kael looked at me.

"Did you bury him?" he asked.

I couldn't speak.

Because the answer was no.

I never found the body.

And now...

Now it looked like maybe someone else had.

Or worse-

Maybe someone had never stopped wearing his face.