CIAN
I couldn’t sleep. The ceiling above me had become familiar in the worst way. Every crack in the plaster. Every shadow cast by the moonlight bleeding through the curtains. I’d memorized them all in the hours I’d spent staring up.
My phone sat on the nightstand. Dark. Silent. Mocking me with its lack of response.
The house settled around me. Creaked and groaned like it was alive. Like it was judging me for every mistake I’d made. For calling Valentine. For leaving that pathetic message. For pushing away the one person who might have actually been able to help.
A sound cut through the quiet. Distant but sharp. Footsteps. Running.
I sat up. My heart kicked against my ribs.
Then I heard more footsteps. They sounded urgent . Like multiple people moving fast. Voices shouted but I couldn’t make out the words.
My feet hit the floor before I’d made a conscious decision to move. I crossed the room in three strides. My hand found the doorknob. Turned it and pulled.
The hallway stretched before me. Empty at first. Then a sentinel appeared at the far end. He ran toward me. His face was pale. Panicked.
"What’s happening?" I stepped into his path.
He skidded to a stop. His eyes went wide when he saw me. His mouth opened but nothing came out.
Horror bloomed across his features. Pure and undisguised.
My stomach dropped. "What happened?"
He still didn’t speak. The fool just stood there looking at me like I was something to be pitied.
I didn’t need a seer to tell me what this was about.
I ran.
My bare feet slapped against the cold floor. The hallway blurred past. My lungs burned but I pushed harder. Faster.
The infirmary doors were already open. Light spilled out into the corridor. I could hear the monitors before I even reached the entrance. That sound. That horrible, frantic beeping that meant everything was wrong.
I burst through the doorway.
Thorne stood over my mother. His hands moved quickly across her chest. Pressing down in steady compressions. Maren worked beside him. Her fingers flew over the machines. Adjusting. Checking. Her jaw was tight.
"What the fuck happened now?" The words ripped out of me.
My uncle stood at the side of the room. He paced back and forth. Three steps one way. Three steps back. His hands were clasped behind him.
He looked up when I spoke. "I couldn’t sleep." His voice was strained. Rough. "I came over to see Morrigan. One minute with her and she just started coding." He stopped pacing. "It is a good thing they all came in time. I couldn’t imagine what could have happened."
I moved closer to the bed. My legs felt unsteady. The world tilted and I had to grip the footboard to keep from swaying.
The markings on my mother’s skin had spread. What had been isolated patches of tree bark lesions now covered her arms. Her neck. They crept up toward her face in twisted, organic patterns that looked like roots burrowing under her skin.
They’d tripled. At least.
A shudder ran through me. "It’s even getting worse."
Maren stepped back from the bed. Her shoulders sagged. "I don’t understand how it happened."
"Are you sure about that?" Aldric’s voice cut through the room.
Everyone turned to look at him. Maren and Thorne exchanged glances. Their expressions shifted. Became wary.
"We are, Alpha Aldric." Maren’s words came out carefully.
Aldric moved closer. "When I came in..." He paused and let the silence stretch. "Fia was just leaving. She mentioned something about a cure. Was that tried? Because last I checked... This was alchemy poisoning. It cannot be fixed without the involvement of magic."
The color drained from Maren’s face. Thorne’s throat worked as he swallowed.
Ice flooded my veins. "What the fuck is my uncle talking about?"
Thorne bowed his head. "We tried to make a cure with the herbs we had and what you brought back from the dead witch."
The world seemed to stop. The monitors beeped. My mother breathed. But everything else went still.
"It was my call to give it to her despite Maren and Fia’s objecting." Thorne’s voice was quiet. Defeated. "After all, we did not have magic in our arsenal. But I was just as desperate as you." He bowed lower. "Forgive me, Alpha Cian. I didn’t think she would react this way."
A scoff escaped me. Sharp and bitter. "Does my mother look like a fucking lab rat?"
Thorne bent even further. His spine curved until his head was nearly level with his waist. "I have no words to defend myself Alpha Cian. I am sorry."
My hands clenched into fists. Nails bit into my palms. The pain felt distant. Unimportant.
I wanted to lash out. Wanted to grab him by the throat and shake him until he understood what he’d done. What he’d risked. I wanted to hurt him. But the words I’d shouted earlier in this same room came back to me. The demands I’d made. The anger I’d thrown at everyone for not doing enough.
This was what I’d wanted. For them to get off their ass and be useful. For them to stop making excuses and do something.
Thorne had taken a risk. A stupid, dangerous, reckless risk. But he’d taken it because I’d backed him into a corner with my rage and desperation.
I turned to my uncle. "I want a witch or warlock you can vouch for." The words came out flat. Empty of everything except exhaustion. "With each second that passes, goodness knows what could happen next."
Aldric stepped forward. His hand landed on my shoulder. Warm and steady. "Of course." He squeezed gently. "As soon as dawn breaks, I’ll start making calls. I have made some already and it seems someone... perhaps Gabriel is sharing the unsightly agenda that you killed the witch that has a hand in this mess in response to what she did to your mother." His expression darkened. "So they are wary about coming and our reputation doesn’t help."
Of course. Of course Gabriel was out there poisoning whatever wells he could reach. Making sure I couldn’t get help even if I begged for it.
"Well find someone." I pulled away from his hand.
"I will." Aldric’s voice held certainty.
I moved to my mother’s side. The chair scraped against the floor as I pulled it closer. I sat. Reached for her hand. Her skin felt cold. Too cold. Like she was already slipping away.
I rested my forehead against our joined hands. "I’m sorry, mother." The words burned my throat. "I hate being useless."
Maren coughed softly. "Excuse me." Her footsteps retreated. The door opened and closed.
"I will be going now, kid." Aldric’s voice came from behind me. "But I promise you, it might not seem like it now. But you’ll get over this. It will get better."
I nodded without lifting my head. I didn’t trust myself to speak.
His footsteps faded. The door clicked shut again.
Silence settled over the room. Just the steady beep of monitors and the mechanical hiss of the ventilator. The sounds of my mother barely holding on.
"Alpha Cian." Thorne’s voice was small. Broken. "I... I apologize again. I know it means nothing but—"
"I understand." The words surprised me. They felt heavy coming out. But true. "What you did was fucking stupid."
"Yes." He agreed immediately.
"But I understand why you did it." I lifted my head. Looked at him. He still stood with his head bowed. His whole body curved in submission and shame. "I backed you into a corner. I demanded results without caring about the cost."
"That doesn’t excuse—"
"No. It fucking doesn’t." I cut him off. "But it explains it." I looked back at my mother. At the lesions spreading across her skin like a disease. Like death taking its time. "We’re all desperate. All of us. And desperate people do stupid things."
Thorne straightened slightly. Not all the way. But enough that I could see his face. "Thank you, Alpha Cian."
I didn’t respond. I couldnt. I just sat there holding my mother’s cold hand and watching her chest rise and fall with each mechanical breath.
The night stretched on. Minutes blurred into hours. Thorne stayed. Working quietly. Checking vitals. Adjusting dosages. Doing what he could to keep her stable.
Stable. That word again. That meaningless word that just meant not dead yet.
My phone stayed silent in my pocket. There was still no calls. No messages. Just the weight of my own failures pressing down until I could barely breathe.
Dawn would come eventually. Aldric would make his calls. Maybe someone would answer. Maybe they’d agree to help despite Gabriel’s poison. Maybe we’d find a way out of this nightmare.
But right now, in this moment, all I could do was sit here. Hold my mother’s hand. And pray that stable would be enough to keep her alive until help arrived.
If it arrived at all.