The heat in her face wouldn't settle.
She was aware of everything — the way his gaze moved across her face before dropping to her mouth, the small pause before he looked away. Nina swallowed and fixed her eyes on the wall behind him, her fingers twisted tight in the sheets beneath her.
What was she thinking?
The bowl met the table with a soft sound.
And he stood.
"We return to Vermont Pack tomorrow," he said. "You should rest."
Nina nodded, not trusting her voice to make a sound.
He stood there for a second longer, his eyes on her, and then he turned and walked out. The door closed behind him with a soft click.
Nina sat still for a moment, listening to his footsteps fade down the corridor. Then she dragged a long unsteady breath in and let it out through her nose.
She stepped down from the bed, and walked to the mirror on the far wall.
Her hair was damp at the edges, face pale from the fever, eyes wide. Her hands came up slowly and pressed flat against her cheeks, and the vision rushed back before she could stop it.
The chains. The blood dripping from her face. The pain had been so real she could still feel the ghost of it in her wrists, like it were her own memories.
Her hands were shaking.
She turned them over and stared at her wrists. Nothing there. No marks, no bruising, nothing but her own skin looking back at her.
So why could she still feel it?
Was it going to become so much that she'd lose her mind before the eleven days were even up?
She pressed her lips together and stared at her own reflection, the grey-eyed figure from her dreams flickering at the edges of her memory. Nina clenched her teeth and looked away from her own face.
She shut her eyes and dragged a slow breath.
A knock came at the door.
She dropped her hands quickly, blinking away the tears that almost gathered. "Come in." she said.
The door opened slowly. Moreen stood in the doorway, her eyes red at the rims, her mouth pressed into a tight line as she tried to hold herself together.
"Luna," Moreen called, her voice barely making it out.
Nina forced a smile.
Moreen stared at her, checking for injury, her eyes moving over her face and arms and back to her face again. Then whatever had been holding her still gave way and she crossed the room fast, stopping just short of her, close enough that Nina could see the tears she hadn't let fall yet.
"I thought something had happened to you." Her voice broke on the last word. "I heard you fell over the cliff—" She stopped herself and quickly dropped to her knees, lowering her head to the floor. "Forgive me, Luna. I failed in my duty."
"Oh dear." Nina reached down and took her arms, pulling her back up. "Stand up. It's not your fault."
Moreen rose slowly, her eyes still wet, searching Nina's face like she was still looking for damage she might have missed.
"I'm okay, see?" Nina's voice cracked slightly on the last word but she held the smile in place.
Moreen stared at her for a long moment. Then she nodded, once, and something in her face loosened. "Thank you," she said quietly. "For not dying."
Nina chuckled. "I'm not dying. Not yet."
A knock came at the door.
Nina glanced at it, then turned back to the mirror. "Come in."
Seven stepped in. His eyes moved to her reflection, read the tension in the room in one pass, and he cleared his throat.
"Luna, the Alpha asked me to bring you dinner. What would you like to eat?"
Nina turned around. "Where is he?"
"Having dinner with the other Alphas."
She paused. "Are their Lunas with them?"
Seven hesitated. Then nodded.
Something shifted in Nina's expression. She straightened her spine and reached up to smooth her hair back from her face, fingers moving with a steadiness her hands hadn't had two minutes ago.
"Inform the Alpha I'll be joining him. No need to bring anything here."
Seven looked at her, then at Moreen, then nodded and walked out, pulling the doors shut behind him.
Nina stood in the quiet for a second. She pressed a hand flat against her sternum, felt her own heartbeat beneath her palm, and breathed out slowly. Then she dropped it and looked at Moreen. "Get me fresh clothes."
Seven walked her downstairs after she'd changed. Hades Pack's house was exquisite — less intricate than Vermont but beautiful in a different way, the walls painted like murals from floor to ceiling, the ceilings carved with patterns that shifted and deepened the further you walked beneath them.
She kept her gaze forward.
As they approached the double doors at the end of the hallway, she could hear voices on the other side, low and overlapping. Seven stopped just outside and turned to her.
"The Alpha has been informed you are coming, Luna. Please go in." He bowed slightly and walked away.
Nina stood alone in the corridor. Cutleries sounding on the other side, then she raised her hand to knock.
"...the abandoned house hasn't been opened in twenty years."
Her hand stilled.
The abandoned house?
Her heart knocked hard against her ribs.
" the witch Annalise was killed there. Most of the artifacts in there were taken from her home."
Hades voice sounded.
"So much cursed magic that should not see the light of day."
Nina's fingers curled slowly against the wood.
Witch?
The vision she saw belonged to a witch?
"Too bad Alpha Rodrigo's father could only get the book from her."
Nina's hand dropped from the door.
His father?
She stood very still in the corridor and let it move through her. The grey eyes she'd seen...
They belonged to Rodrigo's father?
"The earth stone is nowhere to be found and we are running out of time—"
The voice stopped talking.
Nina's eyes lifted to the door.
She heard a chair scrape against the floor.
Her eyes grew wide.
Footsteps crossed toward the door from the inside.
And then, the door handle begin to move.