Chapter 57 DANE

I placed the pearl on top of the wound.

Bright light flashed again, and there was the scent of smoke and burning. I blinked, and when I could see again, the corruption was no longer livid and dark, but gray and faded.

“Aurora?”

She still didn’t wake.

I lifted her. “We have to get her to Blue Ridge. Now.”

I didn’t let Aurora go until I had to lay her in a cot in the infirmary and step back so the healers could look at her. I sent Archer off to find Evelyn.

I didn’t bother to try and send Trajan away. I knew he wouldn’t go, and now wasn’t the time for a power struggle.

“It’s not as bad as the other two,” Celia said. She was one of the wolves I’d sent with Piper to guard Aurora at her former home. She wore a long gray sweater that matched the soft color of her shoulder-length, wavy gray hair.

“She’s wearing some kind of amulet. It stopped the spread,” I said.

These shadows were picking off my family one by one. They’d tried to get to me. If not for Aurora, I would be in this bed.

She’d saved me. Esther Reed had lied. Aurora had been telling me the truth; she’d always been loyal to me.

Now she was here, just as unconscious as Piper and my grandfather.

The unfairness of it, plus my own disgust at myself, was enough to make me want to hit my knees and roar at the universe.

“Do you think she’ll wake up?” I asked Celia.

The grandmotherly woman pressed her lips together and breathed out in a worried sigh. “I don’t know, Alpha.”

“The amulet might help the others,” I said. “But I don’t know if taking it off of Aurora will end the magic that’s keeping hers from spreading.”

“Then don’t take it off,” Trajan growled.

“Watch yourself, soldier,” I snarled back. “This is my territory, and my sister and grandfather are the people we’re talking about.”

“If it starts coming back, even for an instant, the amulet goes back on Aurora,” he insisted.

I gave one, sharp nod. Then I leaned down, slid my hands around behind her neck, and unclasped the chain.

The necklace slid off easily enough. We waited, watching to see if the darkness would return and start stretching out from her wound again.

Thankfully, it didn’t. The veins stretching out from the wound remained gray and unmoving.

I walked the amulet over to Piper, in the next bed over, and laid it on her chest where her wound was–the one Evelyn had cauterized with her magical light.

It didn’t do anything. Frowning, I lifted it and set it on her chest again. Nothing.

It was the same for my grandfather. Unhappy, I took the necklace back and fastened it around Aurora’s neck while Trajan propped her up.

“What does this mean?” he asked. “Why does it work on her and not them?”

“If I knew, I’d do something about it,” I growled.

“Dane! I’m here!”

I turned to see Evelyn come through the door. Archer slipped in behind her and closed it quietly.

She ran over to me and threw her arms around me. I froze, then patted her awkwardly on the back before stepping out of her arms.

“What’s wrong?” she asked. She looked at me with big eyes and rubbed the crescent birthmark on her arm–the one that always reminded me how she’d saved my life back when we were kids. “Did I do something?”

“No,” I said.

There were things to talk about. Things to figure out. But not until we figured out how to get these three out of danger. “Aurora was attacked by a monster made of shadows beneath the old Reed pack house.”

Evelyn’s eyebrows rose. She didn’t look happy to hear the news, but she didn’t look very worried, either. “Oh? Then I suppose she needs me to save her life.”

Before I could explain, she walked over to the bed and looked down. The perfect skin between her brows pinched into a frown. “What’s this?”

“The amulet she’s wearing,” I said. “It already stopped the spread of the curse.”

Evelyn crossed her arms over her chest. “Then what am I even doing here? Why did you call for me?”

“I still want you to do your magic. It could wake her.”

“Why?” Evelyn snapped. “You seem awfully eager, Dane.”

“The Luna-heir is necessary to get to the bottom of everything that’s been going on,” Trajan growled. “She’s the only one who can read the journal.”

Evelyn huffed. I could tell from the look on Trajan’s face, we were going to have trouble if my fiancé kept badmouthing his mistress.

“Just try,” I growled at Evelyn.

She flinched and looked shocked. “Fine.”

She walked forward and put her hands on Aurora’s chest. Light flashed from her hands.

When she pulled them away, nothing had changed.

“She already looked better than the other two. I don’t know what you thought my magic would do. I’m leaving.”

Evelyn turned on her heel and walked out of the room.

EVELYN

I ground down my irritation with Dane for calling me to tend to Aurora. I shouldn’t have reacted so badly. I knew we needed her.

But for the last five years, I’d thought I’d won. That no one could threaten my relationship with Dane.

Now that she was back… I suddenly felt like I was losing again.

A noise down the hall caught my attention. I looked up…

And saw my mother.

I gasped. On instinct, I dove into the nearest room and hid. I thought back to our last conversation, where I hadn’t given her the money she wanted.

“Evie. I know you aren’t refusing me. You know what happens when people refuse.”

My breath caught in my throat. My heartbeat sped. Slowly, carefully, her footsteps approached my hiding place.