EZRA He cannot see. The Plague has taken his sight. And I see the panic come over him like a storm, the moment I go completely still. My own eyes are fixed on his, wide open. The shade of warm amber has been slashed into the dullest gray. His irises have turned to the same shade as his pupils. Two pools of ash. Noel’s hands instantly fly to his eyes, fingers pressing urgently into the grooves of bone. His breaths are stuck in his throat. I can hear the choked way that they rattle through his chest, as he presses and squeezes. His voice comes out tortured. “I-I can’t see.” His hands flail, catching against the heavy folds of the blankets wrapping his body. I finally snap out from my own daze when he nearly falls off the edge of the bed, both blankets and sheets already in a torn, ruined pile on the floor. My hand latches on his upper arm. He gasps. And I hear him whimper out a weak hello. His colorless eyes meet mine for a brief second, before unfocusing and flickering els
BLAISE Oh. My. Gosh. I leap out of the couch, which now has a permanent imprint of my bottom from how long I’d been sitting in for these past couple days. I get up so fast that I nearly knock over the mug on top of the small coffee table. But I couldn’t care less about that. I barrel out of the library, my legs a flurry under me as I break into the fastest run towards the opposite end of the Packhouse. The windows reflect the depth of night. Only the Blue Moon glows a pale sapphire in the dark skies. There had been a Plague like this, exactly three centuries ago. It had happened to the second generation of the Shadow Pack. Had nearly wiped out every single member, and would have if the Pack Healer hadn’t discovered the cure for it. Athelas. It was a snow-colored flower, which only grew near the pools of the Edge. Its crushed petals, mixed with the snow that it grew around it. That was the cure. It had been in the book all along. I had to tell Christian. It nearly
I jerk awake to the sound of a door crashing open so hard on its hinges that it nearly snaps into three pieces. “Blaise!” My drowsy eyes instantly stutter awake, my right still glued half-shut and the other slightly swollen from all the mugs of tea that I had drunk last night. The sheets are tightly wrapped around my legs, and my hair is a bird’s nest on top of my head. It’s the Alpha. It’s seven in the damn morning. And I am half-naked, in only my underwear. It had gotten so hot last night that I had thrown off my nightdress without a thought. Now it’s lying in an abandoned pile, much too far away for me to reach it. “Get out!” I screech, my cheeks instantly heating in a fiery blush as I rush to untangle the sheets and pull it over myself. His eyes widen, and I realize that they are now the ambient, striking gold compared to the ice-cold blue that I had seen yesterday night. He quickly stumbles back, his massive figure too large to handle the narrow door frame. I hear the
CHRISTIAN My Beta has become dust. “Ezra.” The room is dark. It reeks with the sickening smell of medicine and wilting herbs. A candle burns lowly in the corner of the nightstand, teetering just barely off the edge. In the center, a dying Omega lies still atop a bed of white. A silhouette looms close, a protective shield. Yet useless. His violet eyes turn slowly in my direction. They are ringed heavily with shadows, dark with insanity. A streak of blue runs through his right eye. The effects of the Blue Moon had still yet to fade away completely. And a day has already passed. He watches my every move. The scar that slashes a path across his face seems to burn as he murmurs. “What.” “Blaise has found a cure to the Plague,” I say, the corner of my lips tugging at the sharp remark. I would discipline him, if it weren’t for the fact that he was already treading a line very close to his limit. “You know of Athelas.” “...Athelas?” He suddenly straightens. And without a word, h
BLAISE“Noel.”“I’m f-fine,” He murmurs, as he catches himself heavily against the rotting bark of a thick oak. He keeps shifting between the line of his wolf and human, without his own will. His eyes gleam the same shade as the snow that covers the unforgiving terrain. His hand swipes weakly over his face. “I can see a little,” He whispers, as I latch onto his arm and swing it over my own shoulders. His eyes crinkle, before twisting loose again. He stifles a bittersweet sigh, hidden behind breathless laughter. “Shapes…and colors. A little.” “We’re almost there.” I say, tightening the collar of his cloak around his throat. “The Edge is just nearby, Noel. Do you think you can shift?” He nods forcefully. The Moon is now high above us. It’s the only thing that lights up the darkness and creates shadows in the dark of the Forest. But I can see the clearing ahead. It’s like a silver ocean, with all the unbroken snow laden thick. Silence everywhere. I’d been keeping an eye out for any
CHRISTIAN Turn. Turn. The hand on my sleeve shifts up to clasp my wrist. The fingertips feel weak, but they must be the strongest things to have ever touched me. I cannot shake them away. If I turn. My chest feels as if it may just split open with the pain. I see the silhouette of my mother in the back of my mind, her thin arms folded around her delicate body. Her fingertips lay on the sill of the window. Behind her, the fire burns relentlessly until it swallows her up within. The night blazes a golden hue. It reflects the shade of my eyes as hands pull me backwards. My father’s splitting roar. He had gone insane after he had returned, after finding out about her death. He was never the same again, until he closely followed her just a month or two later. He had left me to lead and survive as Alpha when I had been fifteen years of age. Will you abandon me again, Christian? There’s a soft rush of breath. And the moment I feel her fingertips fall away, my eyes widen. My
BLAISE Something shatters. My head is dull. The breaths constrict within my chest the moment I breathe them. It is the definition of winter, this pool. It is full of water, but it turns to ice the moment it touches skin. I’ve lost Noel. I’ve lost everyone. All this, for nothing. Then there’s a flare of warmth. An arm folds around my waist and clasps tight. Both my eyes flash open. And in the midst of the darkness, I see the barest tint of a silhouette. There’s a pulse of pure, unfettered strength. In a second, my body is pulled up like a soaked, limp ragdoll. I feel myself break surface, and only the tight sensation of an arm wrapped around my waist. I hear labored, uneven breathing. My eyes are glued shut— I can’t open them. Had the ice frozen my lashes together?“Blaise.”There’s not an inch of warmth left within me. The ground against my back is wet with cold mist, seeping through the back of my shirt like the fingertips of wraiths. My lips feel blue. My skin, pale an
NOEL There’s light coming through the windows. My body feels light. It feels light enough to move, and I slowly shift my hand across the cool bedsheets. All that pain that had stayed with me for such a long time is simply not there anymore. I touch my brow. I can see. But there’s a patch of darkness in the left corner of my vision. I blink, to see if it would clear. It doesn’t. My heart beats a little faster as I carefully drag my hand downwards, to cover my right eye. And it beats even faster when the world descends to complete darkness, like the thickest cloud that has drawn over the moon. With a stuttered sigh, I drop my hand. The world clears again, with that patch of darkness still floating in the peripheral of my vision. One eye. But losing half my sight was a small price to pay for life itself. My bare feet touch carpet. I want to go find Blaise, and Ezra. I have so much to say. All the words that had been clamped up and caged with the Plague is now bubbling in my