The dead weren't supposed to laugh.
Yet Liora's corpse sat upright on the stone slab, her blue-glowing eyes locked on Selene, her lips peeled back in a grin that showed too many teeth. The sound that spilled from her throat was wet and guttural, like a drowning woman finding humor in her last breath.
Selene's shadows recoiled, hissing against her skin.
"What in the moon's name" Roran drew his sword, but Kael threw out an arm to stop him.
Alpha Orric didn't flinch. "Ghost wolves," he muttered, as if the words were poison on his tongue. "I thought they'd all been slaughtered."
Selene's pulse thundered. Ghost wolves were myths, wolves who could walk unseen, their souls untethered from their bodies. But the legends also said they couldn't return once dead.
Yet here Liora was.
The corpse's head tilted, her neck creaking like old wood. "Ask her, Alpha," she whispered, her voice no longer her own, something older spoke through her. "Ask your shadow wolf what she sees."
Every eye in the room snapped to Selene.
She swallowed hard. "I..I don't.."
Liar.
Her magic prickled, the shadows writhing in her veins. She could see it, a faint silver thread stretching from Liora's chest toward the door, pulsing like a heartbeat. A soul-tether. But admitting that would mean confessing just how deep her cursed power ran.
Kael stepped between her and his father. "Enough games. Selene needs blood for the ritual. If you want the killer found, let us work."
Orric's lip curled. "You'd let her cut you, boy? After she defiled our sacred grounds?"
"I'd let her carve out my heart if it meant protecting this pack." Kael's voice was steel.
Selene's breath hitched.
A muscle jumped in Orric's jaw. Then he spat at Selene's feet. "You have until dawn. If she fails, Roran executes them both." He stormed out, his enforcers trailing like shadows.
Silence fell, thick and suffocating.
Then Liora's corpse collapsed back onto the slab, the glow fading from her eyes.
Roran exhaled sharply. "Fucking hells."
Kael turned to Nala. "Leave us."
The healer fled.
Cyrus, still leaning against the wall, pressed a hand to his bleeding side. "I'll stay."
"No." Kael's tone brooked no argument. "Roran, take him to the cells."
"What?" Selene's shadows lashed out. "You said you'd protect him!"
"And I will." Kael met her glare. "But I don't trust him near this ritual."
Roran grinned as he hauled Cyrus up. "Don't worry, shadow bitch. I'll keep him safe."
The door slammed behind them, leaving Selene alone with Kael and the corpse.
Her hands shook.
Kael unclasped his cloak, then rolled up his sleeve, baring his forearm. The muscles there were corded with tension, the veins stark against his skin. "Do it."
Selene's mouth went dry. "You don't know what you're asking."
"I'm asking you to prove your innocence." His gaze burned into hers. "Unless you'd rather hang?"
She snatched the ritual knife from the slab.
The blade was cold in her grip. Kael didn't flinch as she pressed it to his wrist, but his breath quickened, just slightly. She could feel the heat of him, smell the pine-and-snow scent of his skin. It made her stomach twist.
"Don't," he'd said that night in the grove.
"Monster," the pack had hissed.
Her hand slipped.
The knife sliced deep.
Kael hissed as blood welled, dark and thick. Selene's shadows lunged, drawn to the power in an Alpha's blood like moths to flame. She barely restrained them as she pressed her palm to the wound, their mingled blood slick between them.
"Speak to the dead," she whispered.
The room warped.
The shadows exploded from her, swallowing the torchlight, the walls, the world. For a heartbeat, there was only darkness and the deafening rush of her own pulse. Then,
The morgue reappeared. But it was wrong.
The stones wept blood. The air reeked of burnt fur. And Liora,
Liora stood beside the slab, whole and unmarked, her golden hair gleaming.
"Hello, shadow wolf," she said, smiling.
Selene recoiled. "You're…"
"Dead? Yes." Liora's gaze drifted to Kael, who stood frozen, his eyes wide. "Oh, don't look so shocked, Alpha. You knew what she was."
Kael's throat worked. "Who killed you?"
Liora laughed. "Ask the right questions." She circled them, her feet leaving no prints in the blood. "Why was my body moved? Why does the cut mirror her mother's? And why.." she leaned in, her lips brushing Selene's ear, "...does Roran smell like me?"
Selene jerked back. "What?"
But Lora was already fading, her form dissolving into mist. "Dawn comes, little shadow. Find the knife. Follow the blood."
The world snapped back.
Selene gasped, collapsing against the slab. The shadows retreated, leaving her drained and shaking. Kael caught her arm, his grip firm.
"Well?" His voice was rough.
She met his eyes. "Roran's involved."
Kael's expression darkened. "Impossible."
"Liora said…"
"Liora's dead." He released her like she'd burned him. "Ghost wolves lie. Everyone knows that."
Selene's nails bit into her palms. "Then why did you even bring me here?"
"Because I…" He cut himself off, jaw clenching. Then he turned for the door. "Rest. We hunt at dawn."
She didn't miss the way his steps faltered. The way his blood still dripped from her fingers.
Or the way Liora's corpse, now truly lifeless, had turned its head to watch him leave.