Chapter 3

　　Lysara's POV

　　"NO!" I blurted out before I realized what I had said. "No, that's not possible, let me see my child, let me see my baby."

　　Gently, Wren said, "Lysara, please, try to stay calm—"

　　"You're lying. You have to be lying. Take my baby now.You're lying, you have to be lying, take my baby now." I screamed, my hand pulling my hair from its root.

　　"Im sorry I failed you," Wren said in a thick voice. "I'm so sorry."

　　"There has to be something." My hands shook as I touched her, holding her wrist. "Wren, please. Wren, please. Just let me hold her. Just once. Please don't take this away from me too."

　　Wren's eyes brimmed with tears, but she merely shook her head, gently pushing my wrist away. "I wish that I could give you that, I really do, but it's been decided already, I can't allow it."

　　"Decided by who?" I demanded. "Who told me I can't even leave my own child goodbye?

　　She didn't answer. She just turned away, wiping at her eyes, and will no longer look me in the eye.

　　I don't know how long I lay there after, hollowed out, staring at the ceiling, waiting for somebody, anybody, to tell me that this was all a terrible mistake. No one had appeared, until the heavy boots of one came down the corridor of the hospital.

　　At my bedside, two guards came, their faces impenetrable. "Lysara Ashwyn. The council is in need of your presence now."

　　I weakly replied, "I just gave birth. I've lost my baby hours ago, and whatever this is, can wait."

　　"I am sorry but we have our orders."

　　I wanted to say "no" and argue and cry out at them and tell them that I couldn't give them anything else, but my body was too weak and my spirit was too broken. I let them take me from the bed, and my legs shook to walk them out of the halls and into the council chamber.

　　All the steps were like walking through water. My vision was hazy at the edges, still pained by the sorrow that was too much to bear. But nothing could have been more shocking than what lay behind those doors.

　　When I entered the building, I saw Kaelor right away, standing tall before the council, as usual.

　　Then I saw her.

　　Seris was standing with him.

　　Unmistakably, a mark of the mating man was on her neck.

　　"No," I whispered.

　　I lowered my eyes and the final fragment of my heart broke.

　　Seris was pregnant. Obviously, obviously pregnant, her hand over the bulge of her belly, as mine was before it was all taken from me.

　　"What is this?" I demanded, looking between them. "What is going on?"

　　Elder Bastian cleared his throat. "In your absence, Alpha Kaelor has now taken Seris Valehart as his new mate, and she has been identified as Luna of Silvercrest."

　　""Absence," I said, louder and louder with each word. "I'm not dead, I'm standing right here."

　　"Lysara," said Kaelor, his voice emotionless and flat. "This isn't the time."

　　"Not the time?" I broke into a sob. "When exactly is the time, Kaelor? The right time would have been when you told me you had already decided on her, you'd already marked her, you'd already given her the child I just lost. Is this why you suddenly started hating me! Two weeks into our fucking relationship!"

　　"Enough," Elder Bastian said harshly. "These proceedings are not "about your personal grievances."

　　"Not relevant?" I struck him hard on his face and my anger overcame my grief. hot and consuming. "You're saying it's not relevant as my whole life is being torn apart right in front of me?

　　Elder Bastian said nothing as he wiped his lips. "Charges will be read again against Lysara Ashwyn and then the testimony already heard by the court will be read."

　　I said, "This is madness. You can't be thinking of doing this anymore, can you? See what happened to me. Isn't that enough?"

　　No one answered. The scribe just read the charges out loud, flat and clinical, like it was some list of groceries, rather than deciding whether or not I lived or died. When called, she repeated her testimony and her voice was firm and her eyes sparkled with something I had never noticed before. Not sorrow. Satisfaction.

　　On completion, Elder Bastian looked to the other elders. They exchanged a few words in a quiet manner, but I couldn't hear what they said, before he looked at me again.

　　"This council by unanimous decision finds the murder of Elowen Draven committed by Lysara Ashwyn."

　　"No," I shook my head." No, this isn't justice, this isn't—

　　"Her sentence shall be death, and she shall be hanged at the sun's rising." Elder Bastian said.

　　The room tilted. I heard myself make a noise, a sob, a shriek, but it was like someone else's, it was not my own.

　　Elder Bastian commanded: "Take her to the dungeon. She will stay there until she will be executed.

　　Before I could move, the guards had grabbed my arms and were pulling me out of the chamber, my legs giving way under me. As the doors were closing, I had a last look at Kaelor. He wasn't paying attention to me. He was never, anymore.

　　The dungeon was colder now, but I knew it was only my own body, hollowed out and grieving, that made it feel that way. I waited for a morning that I no longer had the strength to fear.I waited and sat there, curled against the stone wall, staring at nothing.

　　Several minutes later, footsteps were heard walking down the hall. I didn't bother lifting my head until I heard the voice that followed them.

　　"Look at you now," said Seris, "well."

　　I lifted my eyes with a slow motion. With one hand still on her growing belly, she watched me with a look I'd never seen before, on the other side of the bars. Not guilt. Not even fake empathy. Only cold and silent laughter.

　　"Come to gloat?" My voice was hoarse with the question.

　　"If that is the new goodbye" She said.

　　"Why, Seris?" I asked. "What have you done to me?"

　　She laughed, a soft and humorless laugh. "I took back what was mine. Kaelor…He was my first love. I loved him long before the Goddess made you his mate, I watched him for years, I waited for him and then the bad luck of the world gave him to you. You who didn't want the bond as much as I did."

　　I replied, "That's not the case. I loved him."

　　"You liked the concept of being his Luna," Seris snarled. "I loved him, I would have done anything for him and I saw you take it all without even fighting for it, without even appreciating what you had been given."

　　"So you took away my life," I said slowly, "because the Goddess didn't choose you."

　　"I took what was mine," she said. It was easy, and they believed… Your baby—" She was smiling slowly and cruelly. "That was simply a convenient loss, don't you think? I'm sorry about that… so sorry he would never get to see his father…or sibling." She smirked as she caressed her tummy.

　　There was a point when I lost it. As I stood from where I was, dragging her closer, repeatedly hitting her body against the iron bar. She shrieked as she stumbled backwards, but I didn't let go, pulling her towards me, my fingers biting into her arm, years of grief and fury flowing out of me all at once.

　　"You've taken everything from me!" I screamed. "Everything!"

　　"Guards!" Seris screamed. "Guards, help me!"

　　Boots clattered across the corridor as guards raced towards the cell, pulling my hands away from her, yanking us apart and she stumbled back, holding her arm where my nails had left red marks.

　　"She attacked me!" Now her voice shook with real fear, Seris shouted. "She attempted to kill me!"

　　One of the guards pushed me towards the far wall of the cell and said, "Get back.

　　I didn't pay much attention to his words. My chest rose and fell as if it was a pump, my body shook with the power of all that I had just unleashed, when suddenly the ground beneath us shook.

　　There was a loud noise in the dungeon, and dust and stones fell from the ceiling above.

　　Screams could be heard in the corridors, guards yelling at each other, the sound of steel ringed in the noise somewhere.

　　A voice among the others, a guard's voice, raw with terror.

　　"Attack! We are under attack."