I shake my head. “I don’t know. I don’t know anything. I don’t even know why she went into the forest.”
“Sleepwalking?” Astra looks at me sharply.
“It can’t be.” My wolf is frantic inside me. “She onlygets in that state between midnight and dawn. It’s too early. And she was awake, Astra. We were at the festival.”
“Let’s see what the healer thinks,” she murmurs.
The healer checks Selene’s pulse, breathing, and temperature, her hands glowing faintly with diagnostic magic. “She’s stable. No poisons. She appears to be…sleeping.”
“But why can’t we wake her?” My voice cracks.
“I don’t know.” The healer meets my eyes, genuine concern there. “Her vitals are strong. She should be conscious. But something’s keeping her under.”
I lean down and press a kiss to Selene’s forehead. Her skin is still too cold against my lips. “I’ll fix this,” I whisper in her ear. “I promise.”
I force myself to step back from the bed, from Selene’s pale face. Everything in me screams to stay, to guard her, to never let her out of my sight. But if Kieran saw something, if he knows what’s hunting my mate, I need to talk to him.
“Stay with her,” I tell Astra and Daciana. My wolf howls in protest, but this is necessary. “Don’t let anyone near her except this healer.”
Daciana nods, her hand moving to unsheathe her sword. “Where are you going?”
“To find Kieran.”
I turn to leave, and my wolf howls for vengeance.
A guard seesme and sends me to the King’s study, where I find both Lucian and Leon. Kieran is sitting at the table with them, hands neatly folded. Calm. As if he didn’t just hand my unconscious mate to me in the woods. From the looks on Lucian’s and Leon’s faces, they’ve been caught up on at least that much. My wolf is clawing at my ribs, demanding I go back to Selene, but I force myself to sit down across from Kieran.
“Talk.” I growl at him. “Now.”
His gaze meets mine. Steady. Unflinching. “Your mate bears the mark of the Ulvan.”
I blink at him. “What?”
“I tried to warn her days ago. But she didn’t listen. Couldn’t understand.” He leans forward. “Someone has bound your mate to death magic, Commander. And tonight, whatever controls her tried to take her completely.”
“What are you talking about? What the fuck is an Ulvan?”
Kieran’s expression doesn’t change. “The mark of the Ulvan is a banned practice. Part of your mate’s wolf has been bound to the undead.”
“Bound to—” Lucian cuts himself off, shaking his head. “What do you mean, bound to the undead?”
“I’ve smelled it on her since we first arrived.” Kieran’s voice stays measured, clinical. “Rot, mixed with her natural scent. The undead is both living and dead, a puppet used by a necromancer to control a shifter. It’s forbidden magic, but I know it.”
My mind is reeling. “You’re saying someone created this—this thing—and attached it to Selene?”
“Yes.” He meets my gaze steadily. “I saw the mist in the forest tonight. It strengthens the link between the necromancer and the victim.”
After sighing heavily, Leon speaks for the first time. “The red mist. We’ve been trying to identify it for weeks.”
“It’s a conduit.” Kieran’s fingers drum once against the table. “Does your mate have gaps in her memory? Times she can’t account for?”
Ice floods my veins. “She sleepwalks. Doesn’t remember leaving her quarters.”
“She’s not sleepwalking.” The correction comes quickly. “The necromancer is controlling her. Moving her like a puppet.”
The mate bond flickers weakly in my chest, and I have to fight the urge to run back to her. “Why would someone target Selene? She’s just a healer. She doesn’t have any special power or—”
“Selene may not be the target.” Kieran’s eyes narrow. “She may be the vessel.”
