Chapter 25 The Scary Lady

I ran up the stairs so fast my lungs felt like they were on fire. The halls were dark and the candles were almost gone. My boots hit the stone floors with a loud, heavy sound. I did not look at the guards. I did not look at the shadows. I only thought about the red bag and the head on the dirt.

Torian’s men were in my woods. They were close. I could feel them like bugs crawling on my skin. I reached the big doors of the nursery and pushed them open with both hands. They hit the stone walls with a loud bang.

"Leo!" I yelled.

The room was quiet. A small fire was dying in the grate. The smell of old wood and sweet flowers was thick in the air. I looked at the big bed in the middle of the room. Leo was sitting up. He looked very small under his blue blankets.

Martha was standing next to him. She was the head maid. She was old and had gray hair that she kept in a tight ball. She was holding a wooden bowl and a silver spoon. A thin line of white steam rose from the bowl into the dark air.

"What are you doing?" I barked.

I walked toward them in three big steps. My hand was on the handle of my knife. I felt the white light of my wolf pushing against my skin. My heart was beating like a drum.

Martha jumped. The silver spoon fell out of her hand and hit the floor with a tiny clink. She looked at me with wide, scared eyes.

"My Queen!" Martha said. Her voice was shaking. "I did not hear you. I was just giving the boy his supper."

"It is midnight, Martha," I said. I stood right in front of her. I was much taller than her. I could see the sweat on her forehead. "Why are you feeding him in the dark?"

"The little King was coughing," Martha whispered. She held the bowl tight with both hands. "He could not sleep. I made him a special broth. It is an old recipe from my mother. It helps the chest feel warm."

I looked at the brown liquid in the bowl. It looked like mud. It smelled like ginger and honey. But I did not see soup. I saw poison. I saw the Iron-Tooth Pack paying a maid to end my son. I saw the High Council whispering in the dark.

"Give it to me," I commanded.

Martha reached the bowl toward me. Her fingers were trembling. I did not take it from her. I did not want to touch it.

I swung my arm and hit the bowl with all my strength.

Crack!

The wood bowl flew across the room. It hit the stone fireplace and smashed into ten pieces. The hot brown soup splashed all over the white rug. The smell of ginger got very strong.

Martha let out a small scream and backed away. she hit the wall and stayed there. She put her hands over her mouth and started to cry.

"Who sent you?" I yelled. I felt the cold ice of my power filling the room. "Was it Marek? Did the Iron-Tooth rider talk to you at the gate?"

"No! No, Elena!" Martha sobbed. She fell to her knees in the dirt. "I love the boy! I have been here since you were a baby. It was just soup! Please do not hurt me!"

I did not listen to her. I turned to the bed. I wanted to pick up Leo and run. I wanted to hide him in a place with no doors and no windows.

"Leo, come here," I said.

I reached out my hands to grab him. I wanted to feel his heartbeat. I wanted to know he was okay.

But Leo did not move toward me. He scrambled back to the far corner of the bed. He pulled the blankets up to his chin. His golden eyes were huge. He was shaking so hard the bed made a rattling sound.

"No!" Leo screamed.

The sound hit me in the chest like a rock.

"Leo, it is Mama," I said. I tried to make my voice soft, but it came out loud and sharp. "I am saving you. The soup was bad."

"You're mean!" Leo yelled. He started to cry. Big, fat tears ran down his face. "You made Martha cry! You broke the toy! You look scary!"

"I am not scary, Leo. I am your mother."

I took a step forward. I wanted to touch his hair. But as I got close, the white light of my wolf flared up. The air in the room turned freezing cold. The water in the washbowl on the table turned to ice.

Leo let out a shriek that made my ears ring. He hid his face in his hands.

"Go away! Go away, scary lady!" he sobbed.

I froze. I looked at my hands. They were covered in the dust of the training yard. My eyes were glowing violet in the dark. My energy was like a wall of knives. I was trying to protect him, but I was the thing he was afraid of. I had become a monster to save his life, and now my own son could not look at me.

The room felt like it was shrinking. I could hear Martha’s loud sobs from the floor. I could hear Leo’s heart racing like a trapped bird. The toxic air of my own fear was filling the nursery.

The door opened again.

I turned around, ready to kill whatever came through.

Valerius stood in the doorway. He was still in his gray rags. He had blood on his chest from the beating Jarek gave him. He looked weak and tired. He did not have any power. He did not have a wolf. He was just a man.

He walked into the room. He did not look at me. He did not look at the broken bowl. He walked straight to the bed.

Leo looked up through his fingers. He saw the broken man in the rags.

"Daddy?" Leo whispered.

My son jumped off the bed. He did not even look at me as he ran past. He threw his arms around Valerius’s legs. He buried his face in the dirty fabric of the rags.

"Daddy, help me!" Leo cried. "The scary lady is mad! Make her go away!"

Valerius looked down at the boy. He didn't say a word to me. He reached down with his bruised arms and picked Leo up. He held the boy against his chest and tucked Leo’s head under his chin.

The cold in the room started to melt. The ice on the water turned back into liquid. Leo’s crying stopped almost instantly. He just let out small whimpers and held onto Valerius’s neck as if his life depended on it.

I stood in the middle of the room with my arms empty. I felt like a ghost. I looked at the man who had branded me, holding the son I had died a thousand deaths to keep safe.

Valerius looked at me over Leo’s shoulder. His blue eyes were not mean. They were just empty. He turned around and walked toward the rocking chair in the corner, carrying my son away from me.

"I want to stay with Daddy," Leo whispered into the silence. "Don't let her touch me."

I backed out of the room. I hit the door frame with my shoulder, but I did not feel it. I walked into the dark hallway and leaned against the cold stone.

I had the throne. I had the army. I had the crown.

But as I heard Valerius hum a low song to my son inside the room, I knew the truth.

I had lost the only thing that mattered.

I looked down the hall toward the stairs that led to the dungeons. My teeth were grinding together.

I needed someone to pay for this. I needed to hurt someone until the hole in my chest stopped screaming.

I started to walk. I did not go to my bed. I did not go to Silas.

I went down into the dark, toward the cell where Seraphina was waiting.

If my son thought I was a monster, then I was going to show the world exactly what a monster could do.

I reached the bottom of the stairs and grabbed a torch from the wall. The orange light hit the iron bars of the first cell.

"Wake up, Seraphina," I hissed into the dark. "It is time to talk."