The Pines never forgot.
Even after death, even after rebirth, they remembered the scent of my blood. The trees stood like sentinels, their branches whispering secrets only the cursed could hear. I walked deeper into the forest alone, guided by instinct and old pain. This was where the truth lived. Where the witch who tore me from the veil waited.
No one knew I was here.
Not Dax. Not Kael. No one.
Because if they knew, they would try to stop me.
And if they tried to stop me, I wouldn't hesitate to burn the Keep down again.
The trail wound between roots gnarled like broken bones. The deeper I went, the heavier the air grew. Old magic pulsed from the ground, curling through the moss, humming under my skin like a second heartbeat.
I hadn't stepped foot in this part of the forest since I died. Aira had never come here.
But I had.
Selene.
The Pines whispered that name to me with every step. A reminder. A summons
The cottage appeared like it had in another life—woven from vines and earth, half-sunken into a hill, roof swallowed by ivy and crow feathers. Smoke twisted from the crooked chimney. A dead fox hung from the doorframe, throat slit clean, fur matted with salt.
Thalia.
She was waiting.
The door creaked open before I could knock.
"You made it," she said.
She stood in the doorway, draped in a cloak the color of dried blood. Her white hair shimmered against her dark skin, her eyes reflecting the forest like mirrors.
"You called," I said.
"I didn't. But you came anyway."
We stared at each other for a long time.
Then I stepped inside.
---
The inside was a memory come to life.
Herbs hung from the ceiling, strung together by sinew and bone. Jars filled with liquids I couldn't name lined crooked shelves. A hearth crackled, smoke curling up into a hole in the thatch.
It smelled of ash and moonwater. Of death and resurrection.
She poured two cups of tea and gestured to the table.
I didn't sit.
"You didn't tell me there were ten."
Thalia sipped her cup. "You weren't ready."
"I am now."
She reached beneath the table and pulled out a scroll sealed in wax the color of dried blood. The mark pressed into it chilled my spine.
A crescent moon.
Crossed through.
The Severed Moon.
I broke the seal with a knife.
And unrolled the list.
Ten names.
I read them slowly.
1. Commander Varek — the man who trained Kael's elite guard, and the first face I had marked.
2. Lucille Farrow — Senior Councilor. Always present. Always quiet. Too careful.
3. Doran Voss — Kael's Beta before he vanished.
4. Maris Thorn — High Ritual Advisor. Thought dead. Not confirmed.
5. Elias Korr — Keeper of the Archives. Knows everything. Says nothing.
6. Rhea Drayke — Head Healer. Oversaw my body after death.
7. Jace Ironfell — Commander of the Outer Guard. Chosen by Kael.
8. Orlan Vey — Council Strategist. Retired after my death.
9. Selene Nightshade — Marked: Deceased.
10. Dax Stormveil — Sentinel. My Sentinel.
I read the tenth name twice.
Then again.
Dax.
No. No. No.
I gripped the edge of the table. My heartbeat deafened me. My vision blurred.
"You lied," I whispered.
Thalia's voice was calm. "I gave you the truth. You just didn't want to see it."
"He wasn't part of it. He couldn't have been. He—"
"Was there."
I shook my head.
"He's not like them."
"Then ask him," Thalia said. "But be ready when the answer isn't the one you want."
---
I sat. Finally. Because my legs wouldn't hold me anymore.
Thalia pushed a second scroll across the table. I opened it with shaking hands.
This one was different.
Drawings. Ritual diagrams. Placement charts. The ritual.
The one they used to kill me.
It wasn't just murder. It was sacrifice.
A circle drawn in ash. Silver blades. Bloodletting. A binding meant to sever the bond between Alpha and Luna so completely it couldn't reform.
Kael hadn't just let me die.
He had tried to erase me.
I looked up.
"I want to kill them."
Thalia smiled. "Then you're almost ready."
She gave me a coin. Silver. Carved with an eye on one side and a crescent on the other.
"What does it do?"
"Place it under their bed. If the crescent turns black, they remember. If the eye turns red, they were active in the ritual."
"And if both change?"
"They planned it."
I slipped the coin into my pocket.
"I'll need more than one."
"You only need to start with one."
---
I left before dawn.
The forest didn't fight me this time.
It watched.
It waited.
Like it wanted to see what I'd become.
---
Silvercrest loomed ahead, half-asleep in the morning mist. I slipped into the northern tower before the guard rotations changed. Dax wasn't there.
Good.
I unwrapped the scroll again in my chamber. Read the names until they burned into my skull.
Then I rolled it up and tucked it beneath the floorboards.
The coin stayed in my palm.
Heavy. Waiting.
My first test would be Lucille.
---
She lived near the council chambers, her suite protected by guards during the day—but lightly watched at night. I crept through the servant halls, silent in Aira's skin, unseen in Selene's soul.
The lock was old. I knew how it turned.
I slipped inside. The room was cold. Organized. No sign of clutter. She slept like a corpse.
I slid the coin beneath the bed.
And waited.
When I retrieved it two hours later, the crescent was black.
The eye was pale.
She remembered.
She wasn't a planner.
But she was guilty.
One name confirmed.
Nine left.
---
By the time I returned to my room, Dax was waiting.
He didn't speak at first. Just stared.
"You've changed," he said finally.
"I'm remembering," I said.
"Remembering what?"
"Who I was before you found me."
He stepped closer. "Who are you, really?"
I didn't answer.
Because the truth was too close to the surface.
And the name on that list still bled in my mind.
Dax Stormveil