Chapter 3

Isolde spotted me first and waved, pulling Valerius over with her.

"What a coincidence," she said warmly. "Valerius and I just finished going over the strategy. I'm treating him to lunch as thanks for his guidance. Don't misunderstand, Luna."

Her words were perfectly polite. Her eyes were not.

Valerius gave me a brief nod, sat down, and opened the report he had brought. He didn't ask about my wound. He didn't ask about anything.

I looked at him for a moment, then looked away.

"I'm not misunderstanding anything," I said. "Order what you like."

Isolde blinked. That clearly wasn't the reaction she expected. She glanced at Valerius. He still hadn't looked up.

Just then, a server came through carrying a large pot of boiling broth. The floor near our table was slick from the morning wash. His foot slipped, and the pot tilted, straight toward Isolde.

Valerius moved instantly. He grabbed me and yanked me forward.

The scalding liquid hit my back. The pain tore through me, burning through fabric, searing into skin.

But Valerius was already reaching for Isolde, grabbing her hands and turning them over to check every finger.

"Did it burn you?" His voice was urgent in a way I had never heard directed at me. "Your hands draw every map the Council uses. You cannot afford even a small injury."

Isolde's eyes went glassy. "Just a few drops," she whispered. "I'm fine..."

"I'll get burn salve," Valerius said, already standing, already walking toward the door without a backward glance.

I stayed bent over the table, my back on fire, but I made no sound.

The server was pale with panic. I asked him quietly if there was herb in the back. There was. I took it and made my way to the storage room behind the kitchen.

I sat on a wooden crate and worked the herb across the burns myself, one slow touch at a time, breathing through the pain.

The door opened and Isolde walked in. She looked at the raw, blistered skin on my back and laughed.

"Does it hurt?" she asked. "He pushed you without thinking twice. You burned so I wouldn't have to, and he left without checking your wound."

I said nothing.

"I've never understood you, Sera." She stepped closer. "Valerius has no feelings for you. Why are you still holding on to his Luna?"

I pulled my shirt back into place and turned to face her.

"And you?" I said. "You know perfectly well he has no feelings for you either. You're a Gamma, Isolde. You have real rank and real ability."

"But instead of using that mind for this pack, you spend it scheming over him. I feel sorry for the Council that they have someone like you in their ranks."

Her face went cold.

Before I could move past her, she reached into her jacket and pulled out a rolled piece of parchment — one of the reports Valerius had been reviewing.

She struck a flint. The edge caught fire immediately.

"Help! Someone help!" she screamed, stumbling backward. "The Luna is burning the defense maps!"

She shoved the burning parchment into my hands and threw herself against the far wall, crying out.

The flame bit into my palms. I dropped it and moved to stamp it out, but Isolde lunged forward and shoved me hard into the stone wall behind me.

The back of my head cracked against stone. Everything went black.

When I woke, I was in the pack clinic again.

I opened my eyes and saw Valerius standing at the foot of the bed. His face was like carved ice.

"Sera," he said, and his voice was colder than I had ever heard it.

"I pulled you in front of that pot because Isolde is a ranked Council officer. She is essential to this pack. I thought you, as Luna, would understand that some things are bigger than personal feelings."

"Even if you resented it, you should have come to me. But you dared to burn a border report? Do you have any idea how many lives depend on those maps? That was Council intelligence!"

"Do you know what you've done?"