The Man Who Walked In

"Disappeared?" I repeated.

Mrs. Holt lowered her voice. "Ives sent me away before I could ask more. She said you were to keep to what you knew and not sign anything."

I touched the place beneath my ear.

The crescent was warm.

I held on to that as they escorted me into the council hall.

The king sat beneath the carved royal crest. His queen stood beside him rather than in her usual chair. One hand gripped the back of it.

Severin waited at the council table with Derek and Alpha Mercer. My father sat farther down, his restored insignia bright against his coat.

Tessa was not there.

For once, no one had brought her to enjoy my humiliation.

Severin spoke first. He described an ambitious woman concealing a defective wolf, a secret liaison, a prince whose condition had worsened after my arrival.

The words made a pattern. Each true detail was laid beside a lie until they appeared to belong together.

"Do you deny giving the prince substances not approved by his physician?" he asked.

"I deny poisoning him. Dr. Ives supervised every treatment I assisted with."

"You admitted to childhood use of an unregistered suppressant."

"My mother gave it to me. I stopped taking it thirteen years ago."

A councilor made a note.

Severin's expression remained patient.

"And your association with Derek Mercer?"

I looked at Derek.

He had dressed in dark blue. I had once told him that color suited him.

"He was my intended," I said. "He ended that understanding before I left Briar Hollow. After I was selected, he came to the palace and asked me to return to him. I refused."

"That is a private disagreement," Derek said.

"Then you should not have brought it into a public accusation."

His father shifted forward, but the queen raised a hand.

I continued before fear could change my mind.

I described the cloth, the locked door, the candlestick. I repeated the threat against Owen. I did not soften the words to make them easier for my father to hear.

Derek's mouth tightened with every sentence.

"She was distressed when she arrived," he said. "She had misunderstood a conversation at home."

"I understood you when you said the wolf might kill me. I understood you when you said your child could inherit the throne."

The hall changed around that sentence.

A councilor stopped writing.

Alpha Mercer looked at his son.

Severin intervened smoothly. "An accusation made under pressure is not proof."

I took Mrs. Holt's packet from my dress.

"Then examine who approved his private access to me. Examine who exempted the physician from the guards' restrictions. Captain Rusk preserved the instrument used in yesterday's attack, and the chain the physician wore."

Severin's hand moved toward his ring.

I saw him stop himself.

The queen descended the steps and took the packet from me. She read the authorization, then handed it to the king.

My father's face had gone gray.

"Gareth Vale," the king said. "Did you receive an inducement from the Mercer family to nominate your daughter?"

My father looked toward Alpha Mercer.

That glance answered before he spoke.

"A council appointment was discussed, Your Majesty. It had no bearing on her suitability."

"It had bearing on your willingness," the queen said.

Severin rose.

"We are being distracted. The prince lies unresponsive, his wolf gone. Whatever private offenses occurred, the immediate question is who compromised his treatment."

He turned toward me.

"You placed your hands on him during the attack. What did you take from him?"

The warmth beneath my ear pulsed.

Before I could answer, the doors opened.

Captain Rusk entered first.

Then Lucien walked into the hall.

He wore black, his coat unfastened, one hand curled at his side. Every step was measured. I saw the effort before anyone else did, because I had counted the distance from his bed to the window with him.

This was farther than he had ever walked since waking.

I took a step toward him.

His eyes found mine, and for one brief moment, the hall disappeared.

He was alive.

He had come.

"Nothing," he said.

His voice carried to the farthest wall.

"She took nothing from me."

The king stood so abruptly that his chair struck the stone behind him.

Lucien did not look at him yet.

He came to my side and held out his hand. I took it, feeling the tremor beneath his fingers.

"She has spent weeks helping me recover from a binding someone placed on me four months ago."

Severin bowed his head.

"Nephew, this is an extraordinary relief. We feared—"

"You feared I would wake before you finished."

Silence fell so completely that I heard the queen draw breath.

Rusk brought the physician into the hall under guard. The man's face was bruised where the captain had struck him. Beside him walked the maid who had taken my scarf.

"He confessed to administering the first binding during the prince's treatment for a hunting injury," Rusk said. "He named Lord Severin as the man who supplied it. The maid confirms that Severin's secretary paid her to steal an item carrying the princess's scent."

Severin smiled faintly.

"Confessions obtained by frightened servants and a captain who has already defied the council."

Lucien's grip tightened once against mine.

"Then you will not object to Ives examining your ring."

The physician had gone very still.

I looked at Severin's hand.

Lucien continued, "The second instrument was an anchor. It was meant to draw my wolf back under the original binding. Nora's work had restored enough of our connection that it failed to separate us completely. Ives held the channel steady while we finished what had already begun."

He glanced at me.

The gentleness in that look hurt more than the danger had.

"When the wolf returned, I could feel where the binding ended. It ends in that ring."

Severin moved.

Not toward the door. Toward me.

His hand came out of his coat with a narrow blade, and Lucien stepped between us before I could breathe.

Blue light burst through the hall.

For an instant, the wolf stood around him, vast enough to make the chandeliers tremble.

Rusk caught Severin's arm. The blade fell. Another guard forced the old man's ringed hand against the table.

Lucien's wolf closed its jaws over the dark light rising from the ring.

I felt the strain through our joined hands.

I followed the circles, holding my own ground while his strength moved through its proper path.

The ring cracked.

Lucien staggered.

Then the dark marks beneath his cuff faded to pale scars.

He looked at me, breathing hard.

"There you are," I whispered, although he had been beside me all along.

His mouth softened.

Derek tried to reach us as the guards pulled Severin away.

"Nora, I never agreed to an attack. You know me."

I turned toward him.

He looked younger without his confidence. For a moment, I remembered the apple outside the kitchens and mourned the girl who had treasured it.

Then I let her go.

"Captain Rusk, take him away. He threatened my brother, drugged me, and attempted to force me to sign a false declaration. I will answer every question you need to ask."

Derek stopped as if I had struck him.

Lucien's hand remained steady around mine until the guards closed over Derek's arms.

"She has answered you," he said. "You will not approach her again."

The king began giving orders. The queen came toward us, tears bright in her eyes.

I looked down.

A dark stain had spread beneath Lucien's coat.

"You are bleeding."

He followed my gaze with almost irritated surprise.

His fingers loosened.

I caught him before he fell, and the entire hall finally understood what it had cost him to stand beside me.