Ethan turned before I could look away.
His eyes found mine across the chaos of marked wolves, and for one frozen moment the entire amphitheater disappeared. It was just him and me and the weight of everything that had shattered between us.
He looked different. Death had stripped away the polished confidence he'd worn like armor in the mortal world. His face was gaunt, shadows pooling beneath his eyes. The crescent mark on his wrist glowed angry red against his skin, brighter than anyone else's.
But his expression when he saw me was exactly the same as it had been in his bedroom. In the pack square. In every moment he'd chosen to destroy me.
Relief.
"Haven." He said my name like it was a curse. "Of course you're here."
I couldn't speak. My throat had closed, my lungs forgetting how to pull air. The mark on my wrist burned cold, responding to his proximity or maybe to the rage flooding through me.
He started toward me, the crowd parting for him automatically. Even here, even dead and damned, wolves still recognized an Alpha's son and moved aside.
"Stay away from me." The words came out strangled.
"We need to talk." He kept coming, close enough now that I could see the silver veins spreading from his mark up his forearm. "This is insane. I shouldn't be here. I didn't do anything wrong."
"You rejected me." My voice was rising. Other wolves were turning to watch. "You humiliated me in front of the entire pack. You called me broken."
"Because you are broken." He stopped just out of arm's reach, his golden eyes hard. "A scentless omega with no wolf worth keeping. What was I supposed to do, pretend that was acceptable?"
The amphitheater around us went quiet. Not the enforced silence from before, but the hush of wolves sensing violence about to break.
"You were supposed to honor the bond." My hands clenched into fists. "Luna herself chose us as mates. You ignored her will."
"Luna's will?" Ethan laughed, sharp and bitter. "Look where her will got us. Dead. Damned. Dragged to this nightmare realm to be tortured for her entertainment."
"You did this." I took a step toward him, my weightless body suddenly feeling heavy with fury. "You're the reason I died. The reason I'm here."
"And you're the reason I'm here." He leaned in close, his voice dropping to a vicious whisper. "Do you think I ended up in the Veil by accident? Luna dragged me here because of you. Because I rejected her precious chosen mate."
The words hit like physical blows. "That's not true."
"Isn't it?" His smile was cruel. "The goddess doesn't forgive rejection, Haven. When you break a fated bond, both wolves pay the price. You paid with your life. I paid with mine."
"You're lying." But even as I said it, doubt crept in. The timing of his death. The fact that he was here, marked, just like me.
Light exploded across the platform.
Every wolf in the amphitheater jerked back, hands raised to shield their eyes. The Moon Priestess had returned, her form blazing brighter than before, her white eyes boring into the assembled crowd.
"You begin to understand." Her voice, Luna's voice, rolled through the space like thunder. "The Reckoning judges all who break sacred bonds. The rejected and the rejector. The victim and the abuser. The abandoned and the abandoner."
She raised her hands and the amphitheater itself responded, stone rippling like water. Images formed in the air above us, translucent and shimmering. Wolves locked in embraces that turned to violence. Mates snarling at each other. Bonds snapping in cascades of silver light.
"Every rejection creates a wound in the fabric of fate," the Priestess continued. "Luna feels each one as if her own heart were being torn apart. So she brings both halves of the broken bond here to face judgment together."
Murmurs spread through the crowd. Wolves looking around, recognizing faces they knew. Former mates. Ex-lovers. Those who'd hurt them and those they'd hurt in turn.
"No." A woman's voice rang out from somewhere behind me. "That can't be right. He's the one who left me. Why am I being punished for his choice?"
"Because you let him." The Priestess's gaze found the speaker. "You accepted the rejection instead of fighting for your bond. You chose dissolution over devotion. That is sin enough."
"This is insane," someone else shouted. Others joined in, a rising tide of protest.
The Priestess's form pulsed with light, silencing them. "Luna's law is absolute. You are here because you failed to honor what was given. All of you. Whether you broke the bond or allowed it to be broken, the result is the same."
She turned her white gaze directly on me and Ethan. "You two bear special marks. Brighter than the rest. Do you know why?"
Neither of us answered.
"Because your rejection was witnessed by the entire pack under the Blood Moon itself." The Priestess smiled, cold and beautiful. "Luna felt that wound most keenly. Your bond was meant to be legendary, and you shattered it publicly. For that, you will face harsher trials than most."
Ethan's face had gone pale. "What does that mean?"
"It means you're paired." The Priestess gestured and silver light shot from both our marks, connecting in the air between us. The thread pulsed once, twice, then solidified into something I could almost touch. "Your trials will be intertwined. Your fates connected. Succeed together or fail together. There is no individual victory here."
"No." I backed away from the silver thread but it stretched with me, unbreakable. "I won't do trials with him. I can't."
"You will." The Priestess's voice held no mercy. "Or you will both dissolve. Those are your only options."
"This is your fault," Ethan snarled at me. "If you'd just accepted that we weren't compatible, none of this would have happened."
"My fault?" The rage that had been simmering since I saw him exploded. "You're the one who cheated. You're the one who dragged me to the square. You're the one who rejected me in front of everyone!"
"Because you couldn't take a hint!" His voice rose to match mine. "I tried to let you down easy. Tried to distance myself. But you kept clinging, kept believing in some fantasy bond that was never going to work."
The silver thread between us pulsed with our anger, growing brighter.
"I believed in what Luna chose," I shot back. "I believed in you."
"Then you were an idiot." He stepped closer, the thread shortening between us. "And now we're both paying for it."
The Priestess watched our confrontation with something that might have been satisfaction. "Good. Let the anger flow. Let the resentment build. You'll need that fire for what comes next."
She began to fade again, her light dimming.
"The Blood Pact is sealed," her voice echoed even as her form dissolved. "Ethan Vale and Haven Willow, bound by broken bonds, will face the trials as one. When moonset comes, you will enter the Drowning Table together. May Luna have mercy on your souls."
Then she was gone, truly this time, leaving only the silver thread connecting me to the man I hated most in any world.
The amphitheater erupted in chaos. Wolves finding their own paired bonds, protesting, weeping, some trying to attack the partners they'd been linked to. The guards materialized from the shadows, ghost wolves with burning eyes, keeping order through force.
Ethan and I stood frozen, staring at the thread between us.
"I'm going to survive this," he said finally, his voice low and hard. "No matter what it takes. Even if I have to drag you through every trial screaming."
"I don't need you to drag me anywhere." I met his eyes, letting him see every ounce of my hatred. "I'm going to survive despite you."
"We'll see." He turned away, the thread stretching but not breaking. "Try to keep up, Haven. I'd hate for Luna to be disappointed when you fail in the first hour."
He walked off into the crowd, leaving me standing alone with our bond glowing between us like an open wound.
Other wolves gave me a wide berth now, seeing the thread, recognizing what it meant. Paired bonds were marked for special attention. Harder trials. Higher stakes. Most pairs didn't survive the first test.
I looked around for Astro, desperate for his guidance, but he was nowhere to be seen. Just hundreds of marked wolves waiting for moonset and the trial that would kill most of them.
The crimson moon continued its slow descent toward the horizon. Time was running out.
I pressed my thumb against my crescent mark, seeking the grounding Astro had promised. The cold fire answered, barely enough to cut through my panic.
The silver thread connecting me to Ethan pulsed with his heartbeat, or maybe mine, or maybe the sick rhythm of our dying bond forcing us together.
He was somewhere in the crowd now, but I could feel him through the connection. His anger. His fear. His absolute certainty that I would be the one to fail.
I closed my eyes and made a silent vow to whatever part of me was still Haven Willow and not just another damned soul in Luna's game.
I would survive. I would succeed. And when this was over, when I'd proven myself worthy, I would make sure Ethan Vale understood exactly what he'd thrown away.
When I opened my eyes, I found him watching me from across the amphitheater. Our gazes locked across the sea of marked wolves, across the silver thread binding us together, across everything that had burned between us.
His lips curved into a smile that held no warmth.
"Guess even the Goddess wants to watch you fail."