Sage Pov:
The soup was cold when it arrived.
Sage didn't think much about it. She was too nervous to eat anyway, picking at the bread instead. The ceremony was in six hours. In six hours, she would walk to that altar and accept the Luna bond. She would start losing herself. She would become something that wasn't Sage Monroe anymore.
She drank the soup just to have something to do with her hands.
It tasted fine. A little metallic maybe, but she figured that was her anxiety making everything taste wrong. She was about to erase herself. Of course her senses were distorted.
She finished half the bowl before her stomach started hurting.
It wasn't a normal pain. Not hunger pain or stress pain. It was a sharp, twisting sensation that made her grip the edge of the table. She set the soup down carefully. Her hands were already starting to sweat.
By the time the pain hit her full force, she was on her knees.
It wasn't like anything she'd experienced before. It was like something was ripping through her insides. Her stomach convulsed. She ran to the chamber pot and started vomiting violently. Everything came up. The soup. The bread. Bile. She was shaking so hard she could barely stay upright.
"Help," she gasped. "Someone help me."
Her voice was too weak. Nobody heard her. The pain kept coming in waves, each one worse than the last. She thought about the poison in the soup. That's what this was. Someone had poisoned her.
Astrid. It had to be Astrid.
"Help!" she screamed this time, louder. "Please somebody help me!"
The door burst open.
Kael was there before anyone else. He took one look at her on the floor, covered in sickness, and his entire body went rigid. His eyes flashed pure gold. The temperature in the room seemed to drop.
"What happened?" he demanded.
"Poison," Sage gasped. "The soup. Someone poisoned me."
Kael roared. The sound was inhuman, primal, a wolf's howl trapped in a human's throat. He caught Sage carefully and lifted her away from the chamber pot. Healers rushed in, their movements fast and efficient.
One healer knelt beside her immediately, his hands glowing with soft green magic. He touched her stomach and his expression darkened.
"Shadowroot," he said grimly. "Mixed with night thistle and something else I can't identify. It's designed to make her sick, not kill her. Someone wanted her suffering, not dead."
Kael's grip on Sage tightened. "Find who did this. Now."
Guards poured into the room. Kael laid Sage on the bed and didn't leave her side while the healers worked their magic, trying to counteract the poison. The pain slowly faded as the green light did its work. But the nausea remained. The weakness remained.
Sage felt like she'd been hit by a truck.
"Don't leave me," she whispered to Kael, and he nodded. He stayed, his hand on hers, his presence steady and absolutely furious.
An hour later, guards dragged in a kitchen servant. He was young, scared, shaking as badly as Sage had been shaking. Kael rose from the chair beside Sage's bed and moved toward the servant like a predator.
"Who paid you?" Kael demanded.
"I don't know!" the servant gasped. "I swear, I don't know who she was! She came to the kitchen in a hood, gave me gold, told me to put the poison in the Luna's dinner. That's all I know!"
"Who was she?" Kael's voice was death.
"I couldn't see her face! She kept the hood up the whole time! I heard her voice though. It was cold. Cruel. But I don't know who—"
Kael's hand shot out and grabbed the servant by the throat. He lifted him off the ground effortlessly.
"You poisoned the one person who could save my kingdom," Kael said quietly, and that quiet was worse than screaming. "You poisoned my mate. Do you understand what you've done?"
"I didn't know it was—I was just—"
"Execute him," Kael said.
"No." Sage's voice was hoarse but clear.
Everyone froze. Kael looked back at her, his eyes still glowing gold with rage.
"Don't," Sage said. She forced herself to sit up, though her body screamed in protest. "He was paid. He was desperate. He's not the one who deserves to die."
"He poisoned you."
"And you caught it," Sage said. "I'm going to survive this. He's just someone who needed money. The real enemy is whoever hired him. And you know who that is."
She could see it in everyone's faces. They all knew. Everyone suspected Astrid. But nobody would say it out loud because Astrid was a noble house, and accusations without proof were dangerous in pack politics.
Kael released the servant, who collapsed to the ground gasping. Guards dragged him away, and Sage could hear him sobbing with relief that he wasn't dead.
Kael came back to the bed. "You should rest."
"The ceremony," Sage said. "What time is it?"
"In four hours," Kael said. "We can postpone it. Get you stronger."
"No." Sage shook her head. She felt like she'd been broken and reassembled, but her mind was clear. Someone had tried to kill her before the ceremony. That meant Astrid was desperate. Desperate enough to commit a crime that could get her executed.
And it meant that whatever Sage was about to become, it terrified someone enough to poison her.
"Four hours isn't enough time to recover anyway," Sage said. "The poison is going to weaken me. The magic is going to be complicated. I need to think."
"About what?"
Sage looked at Kael. He was standing over her, his face still furious, his hands clenched. But his eyes were searching hers, asking a question he was too proud to voice out loud.
"I'll accept the bond," she said, and watched something in him relax slightly. "But I need something from you in exchange."
"Anything."
"One week," Sage said. "Give me one week. Let me research the old texts. Let me talk to Elder Morrigan and the oldest council members. Let me see if there's any alternative to the traditional Luna bond that could save your kingdom without erasing me completely."
Kael was quiet for a long moment.
"Morrigan will refuse," he said finally. "She'll call it stalling. She'll demand the ceremony happen immediately."
"Then that's your problem to solve," Sage said. She was still weak, still poisoned, but her mind was working now. Working hard. "You're the Alpha King. You can force the council to wait one week. And if there's no alternative, if there's absolutely no other way, then I'll accept the traditional bond willingly. I promise."
"Willingly?"
"Yes," Sage said. "I've thought about Lycan. About Elena. About Thomas. About all the children dying in your villages. I understand what's at stake. But I need to know I tried everything before I lose myself."
Kael knelt beside the bed. His hands found hers and he gripped them like she was the only thing keeping him anchored.
"If you're playing me," he said quietly, "if this is a trick to buy time to escape—"
"It's not," Sage said. And it wasn't. She meant what she'd said about the children. But she also meant what she'd said about research. Because Kael had said something that stuck with her. He'd said the prophecy was absolute. But prophecies could be interpreted different ways. And maybe, just maybe, there was something the council and Morrigan had missed.
"One week," Kael said. He was making it a promise, binding it with his tone. "I'll convince the council. But Sage, if we don't find something, if one week passes and there's no alternative—"
"Then I surrender completely," Sage said. "My free will, my memories, my entire self. I give you permission to do whatever you need to do to make the bond work."
She could see the relief wash over him. But also the guilt. He hated that he was asking this of her. She could feel it in the way he held her hand like it might break.
"Rest," he said. "Let the poison finish working through your system. One week, Sage. We have one week to find what no one else has found in a hundred years."
He left her alone in the chamber, and Sage stared at the stone ceiling above her bed.
She'd just gambled everything. If there was no alternative, she'd lose herself in seven days instead of four hours. If she was wrong, if there was no other way, she'd made the situation worse by bringing hope into a hopeless situation.
But if she was right. If there was something hidden in those ancient texts, something Morrigan had overlooked or rejected. If there was a way to save his kingdom and keep some part of herself intact.
Then one week was everything.
Sage closed her eyes and started planning. Tomorrow, she would ask for access to the library. Tomorrow, she would start searching. Tomorrow, the real race against time would begin.
Because in seven days, one way or another, she would stop being herself.
The only question was how much of herself she could save before that happened.