Chapter 14: Chapter 14

CHAPTER 14: The Taste of Silver

The temple walls breathed.

Liam pressed his palm against the stone, felt it pulse beneath his fingers like a living heart. Faint blue light traced veins through the rock, illuminating symbols he couldn't read but somehow understood. *Blood.* *Bone.* *Moon.* *Sacrifice.*

"Don't touch that."

He pulled his hand back. Luna stood in the doorway, her silver hair pulled back, her face harder than he'd seen it. Three days since she'd found him in that stream. Three days of running, hiding, learning. Three days until the blood moon.

"What is this place?" he asked.

"A sanctuary." She stepped inside, her bare feet silent on the cold floor. "Built by the first Wolf King. Before the clans fractured. Before the Council existed."

Liam looked around the circular chamber. Pillars rose toward a ceiling he couldn't see, disappearing into darkness. The blue light pulsed in rhythm with his heartbeat. With the wolf inside him.

*She's hiding something.*

Alexander's voice had grown stronger. Sharper. Less like a whisper and more like a second set of thoughts running parallel to his own.

*She brought you here for a reason.*

"I know," Liam muttered.

"Know what?" Luna asked.

"Nothing." He moved away from the wall, flexed his fingers. They'd healed faster today. The cuts from last night's training session had closed within an hour. His senses sharpened hourly—he could hear Luna's heartbeat from across the room, smell the river on her skin, taste the copper of old blood in the air.

"You're progressing faster than expected," she said.

"Alexander helps."

Her expression flickered. Pain? Regret? It vanished before he could read it. "Does he speak to you often?"

"All the time." Liam walked to the center of the chamber, where a circular depression held stagnant water. His reflection stared back at him—but the eyes weren't his. They glowed gold. "He tells me about the old wars. About the Council's betrayal. About you."

Luna went still.

"He says you were his mate. That you fought together during the Great Schism. That you were the one who—" He stopped. The words caught in his throat.

"Who killed him?"

Liam nodded.

Luna walked to the pool's edge. Her reflection joined his in the water. Where his eyes glowed gold, hers were silver. Two moons in a dark sky.

"It's true," she said. "I ended Alexander's life. And I would do it again."

"Why?"

"Because he was losing himself. The Wolf King's power—it doesn't just change your body. It changes your soul. Alexander became something else. Something that would have destroyed everything we fought for." She met his gaze. "The same thing that's happening to you right now."

*She lies.*

Alexander's voice thundered through his skull. Liam winced, pressed his palms to his temples.

*She was jealous. Power-hungry. The Council promised her control over the northern territories if she eliminated me. She took their offer.*

"Stop," Liam gasped.

"Liam?" Luna reached for him.

"Don't touch me." He stumbled back. His vision blurred, split, reformed. Two Lunas stood before him. One with silver hair and sad eyes. One with fangs and blood on her hands.

*Seven days,* Alexander whispered. *That's how long I lasted after her betrayal. Seven days of agony while she watched. Seven days of—*

"I said STOP."

The word exploded from his chest. Blue light erupted from the symbols on the walls, shot across the chamber, struck the pillars. The ground shook. Cracks spiderwebbed across the stone floor.

When the light faded, Luna was on her knees.

Her hands covered her face. Blood dripped between her fingers.

"Luna—"

"Stay back." Her voice was broken. Raw. "You have more control than I thought."

"I didn't mean to—"

"Yes, you did." She lowered her hands. Blood ran from her nose, her eyes, her ears. "You wanted to hurt me. Alexander wanted to hurt me. You're becoming him faster than I anticipated."

Liam looked at his hands. They were normal again. Pale skin. Short nails. No claws. But he could feel the wolf just beneath the surface, pacing, waiting, *hungry.*

"How do I stop it?" he asked.

"You don't." Luna stood, wiping blood from her face. "You learn to share. The Wolf King's power isn't something you control. It's something you negotiate with."

"Negotiate?"

"Every time you shift, you give him ground. Every time you use his strength, he takes something from you. By the time the blood moon rises, you'll either be a partnership or a parasite."

*She speaks truth.*

Alexander's voice was quieter now. Almost tired.

*But she doesn't tell you the cost of partnership.*

"What cost?" Liam asked aloud.

Luna's eyes widened. "You can hear him right now?"

"Clear as I hear you."

"Impossible. The bond shouldn't be that strong until after the ceremony."

*She doesn't know about the mark.*

Liam looked down at his chest. The crescent moon and wolf's head glowed faintly beneath his shirt. He'd kept it hidden. Even from her.

"What aren't you telling me?" Luna demanded.

"What aren't *you* telling me?" he shot back.

Silence stretched between them. The blue light pulsed. Somewhere in the darkness above, stone scraped against stone.

"I loved him," Luna said finally. "More than I've loved anything. But Alexander became a monster. The power twisted him. Made him paranoid, violent, dangerous. The Council didn't have to convince me to kill him—they just had to show me what he'd become."

"And you think I'll become the same."

"I know you will. It's not a question of if, Liam. It's a question of when."

*She's wrong.*

"Then why save me?" he asked. "Why bring me here? Why train me at all if you think I'm doomed?"

Luna walked to the pool. The water had stilled. Her reflection stared up at her—younger, softer, a woman who hadn't yet killed her king.

"Because I saw something in your eyes that I didn't see in his. Doubt. You're afraid of the power. Alexander embraced it. That difference might save you."

"Or get me killed."

"Or get you killed." She turned to face him. "But we don't have time for philosophy. The Council knows you're alive. They've tracked you here somehow. We have three days until the blood moon, and you still can't shift on command."

"I shifted last night."

"Partially. You got claws and fangs, then passed out for six hours." She crossed her arms. "You need to shift fully. Hold it. Fight in it. Before the ceremony."

"Then teach me."

"I can't teach you. I can only push you." She pointed toward a passage on the far side of the chamber. "Through there. There's something you need to see."

Liam hesitated. Every instinct screamed at him to run. Alexander howled warnings in his skull. But Luna's eyes held something he hadn't seen before—fear. Not of him. For him.

He walked toward the passage.

The tunnel narrowed quickly. The walls pressed in. The blue light dimmed until he was walking in complete darkness. His enhanced senses reached out, touched nothing but stone and silence and the faint scent of—

*Silver.*

He stopped.

The passage opened into a chamber. Smaller than the first. Circular. Lit by a single beam of moonlight that somehow pierced the stone ceiling above.

In the center of the room stood a pedestal.

On the pedestal rested a sword.

It was ancient. The blade was dark, almost black, etched with symbols that matched the ones on his chest. The hilt was wrapped in leather so old it had fossilized. The guard was shaped like crescent moons, their points curving inward.

"Touch it," Luna said from behind him.

"That's silver."

"Pure silver. Forged in moonlight. Quenched in the blood of the first Wolf King."

Liam's skin crawled. Every cell in his body screamed at him to flee. Silver was poison to werewolves. A single touch could burn through flesh. A wound from a silver blade could kill even an elder.

"Why would I touch that?"

"Because it's the only thing that can kill a Wolf King." Luna stepped past him, approached the pedestal. "And because if you can survive holding it, you can survive the ceremony."

*She tests you.*

Alexander's voice was sharp. Alert.

*The sword is mine. I forged it. I bled into it. It will recognize my bloodline.*

"How do you know I can survive?" Liam asked.

"I don't." Luna picked up the sword. It didn't burn her hands. "I survived because Alexander never wanted me dead. But you—" She held it out to him. "You need to prove you're not him."

The blade gleamed in the moonlight.

Liam reached out.

His fingers touched the hilt.

Pain exploded through his arm. White-hot. Agonizing. He felt his skin blister, his flesh sizzle, his bones scream. But he didn't let go.

*Hold.*

Alexander's voice was calm now. Almost peaceful.

*The pain is the price. The power is the reward.*

Liam gritted his teeth. Blood dripped from his palm, ran down the blade, sizzled where it touched the silver. The symbols on the sword began to glow. Red. Then gold. Then blue.

The pain stopped.

The sword hummed in his hand. Alive. Aware. *His.*

"Impossible," Luna whispered.

Liam looked at his palm. The burns were healing. But something else was happening—the mark on his chest was spreading. Tendrils of light crawled across his skin, up his neck, down his arm, wrapping around the sword's hilt.

"What's happening to me?" he asked.

Luna's face had gone pale. "The sword is bonding with you. That shouldn't be possible. Not until the ceremony."

"Why not?"

"Because the sword contains Alexander's soul. His consciousness. His *will.*" She backed away. "If it's bonding with you now, that means—"

*She finally understands.*

Alexander's laugh echoed through Liam's skull. Loud. Triumphant. *Hungry.*

*That means I never left the sword.*

*I've been waiting in the blade.*

*Waiting for you.*

Liam tried to drop the sword. His fingers wouldn't obey. The light from the mark consumed his arm, his chest, his face.

*The blood moon rises in three days,* Alexander said. *But I don't need the ceremony. I just need an heir foolish enough to pick up my sword.*

Liam's vision went white.

The last thing he heard was Luna screaming his name.

Then the wolf inside him opened its eyes.