Chapter Ninety-Six – Buried Beneath the Bones
Avella’s hand froze mid-gesture.
Rowan’s spine stiffened. “The Bonecaster? That bastard who tried to sever my bond?”
Elia nodded slowly, her voice faltering but clear. “He didn’t just use it to break bonds. He was experimenting with how they *could be altered*—how a bond could be twisted to serve a different Alpha. He kept saying that the soul didn’t matter, only the magic it carried.”
Rowan’s blood turned to ice.
Avella let out a sharp breath through her nose, her eyes flicking between Elia and Giselle.
“Now it makes sense,” she muttered. “The spell was *anchored* to Elia. That arrow was marked for her. But when Giselle took the hit, it read her bond signature instead—recognized her tie to you—and tried to sever it anyway.”
Rowan felt the room sway. “So it’s… killing her by mistake?”
Avella’s gaze turned grim. “No. It’s doing exactly what it was designed to do. It just *found a stronger bond* to try to unravel.”
Rowan’s knees nearly buckled.
His gaze snapped to Giselle. She was barely breathing now, her chest rising in shallow gasps. The black along her thigh had crept up into her hip.
“We have to stop it,” he choked out. “You have to stop it—now.”
“I’m trying,” Avella growled. “But I need more blood. I need something that *came from* the origin of the curse—Elia.”
Elia flinched. “I didn’t create the curse—”
“You carried it,” Avella snapped. “Whether you knew it or not. Your body was marked by it. I need your blood to strip the spell’s focus.”
Rowan didn’t hesitate. “Then take it. Now.”
Elia nodded, looking pale but resolute. “Do it.”
Avella moved with ruthless speed, drawing a thin blade from her belt. She reached Elia in two strides, slicing cleanly across her palm. Elia hissed, but didn’t pull away. The witch collected the blood into a copper bowl and spun back toward the glowing sigils, her voice rising again in a flurry of ancient syllables.
The air vibrated like a plucked string.
“Varai’them. Kira’nos! Da’she’el na’toriel.”
The symbols burst into white-hot light—then vanished.
Giselle gasped. Her back arched off the couch, and for a heartbeat, Rowan thought she was screaming—but no sound came.
Then her body collapsed back into the cushions. Still. Quiet. Colorless.
Everyone froze.
Avella rushed to her side, pressing two fingers to her throat.
Rowan couldn’t move.
“Is she—?” he started.
Avella’s eyes met his.
“She’s alive,” she said hoarsely. “But barely. The spell’s been stripped… but the damage has been done. She needs rest. And you need answers.”
Rowan looked down at Giselle. At the woman who had taken an arrow meant for another. Who had almost died for a bond no magic should’ve touched.
His voice cracked as he said, “Then tell me everything. Because whoever sent that curse just declared war.”
The room was still reeling with tension, but Rowan’s fury cut through it like a blade.
He turned on Elia, his voice low and dangerous. “What bond were they trying to erase?”
Elia stiffened where she sat, still pale from blood loss and the fight, but her eyes held a glint of something deeper—shame, maybe. Regret. But not fear.
“I have a mate,” she said quietly.
The words punched the breath from the room.
Rowan blinked. “You what?”
“I found him last year,” she said, voice steady now. “He’s a rogue. We met near the southern edge of the forest while I was out training alone. I didn’t mean for it to happen, but it did. I knew the Elders would never approve. Not for one of the Luna candidates that they were amassing behind your back.”
Rowan’s jaw locked, muscles twitching with rage. “You lied. You stood up beside Sylah and Rhea and pretended—”
“I never planned to win your hand!” Elia shouted suddenly, her voice breaking. “I never wanted to be Luna! I just… I couldn’t say no. I couldn’t reveal him. If I had, he would’ve been hunted down and killed like the rest of them. You know that.”
Rowan narrowed his eyes. “And that’s what Rhea used against you.”
Elia’s shoulders sank. “She knew. I don’t know how, but she knew. Said if I didn’t help her and the Bonecaster, she’d expose him to the Elders. He’d be marked, slaughtered.”
“So instead, you helped them destroy us?” Rowan growled, stepping toward her.
Elia didn’t flinch. “No. I tried to minimize the damage where I could. I didn’t know the Bonecaster would use dark magic this deep. I didn’t know they’d aim to break soulbonds.”
Rowan exhaled through gritted teeth. “Then tell me the rest. What’s so damned important about our pack that they’d go this far?”
Elia hesitated—but Avella answered instead.
“Because there’s power beneath your feet,” she said softly, stepping forward, her eyes glowing faintly gold. “Old magic. Deep and forgotten. You don’t feel it because it’s sealed. Protected by layers of bloodlines and blessings that have kept it dormant.”
Rowan’s brows furrowed as he looked between the two women. “What kind of power?”
“The kind people go to war for,” Elia murmured.
Avella nodded, her gaze drifting toward the floor beneath them. “It’s why I settled near your borders. I could feel it the moment I crossed into this territory. It’s rare—ancient, laced with spirit and earth and pack essence. Whoever controls this land controls that source. And Rhea? She wants it for herself.”
“And the Bonecaster?” Rowan asked tightly.
“He wants what all monsters do,” Avella said, her voice barely more than a whisper. “Control. And destruction.”
Rowan turned away, every bone in his body vibrating with a storm he could barely contain. His mate had almost died for a war they didn’t even know had started. His pack was sitting on a ticking time bomb of forgotten magic.
And his enemies knew far more than they should.
He looked back to Elia. “Where is your mate now?”
“I don’t know,” she admitted, pain in her voice. “We were supposed to meet last week. But he never came.”
Rowan stared at her for a long moment. Then he turned to Kalen, who stood near the door, tense and silent.
“Lock her in the east wing,” Rowan ordered. “Post two guards. She doesn’t leave until I decide what to do with her.”
Elia opened her mouth, but the look Rowan gave her turned her silent.
He didn’t have time for more excuses.
Not when there were enemies closing in—and a secret buried deep under his territory that could end them all.
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