“I don’t need guards in my own kingdom.”
She stares at me, unblinking. “That’s not what I meant.”
I swallow hard, feeling the absence of my wolf more than ever.
“You are unwell,” she says, those bright golden eyes seeing into my soul. “Your wolf is frail and ailing.”
“Why?” I ask, hot tears filling my eyes. “What’s wrong with him?”
For the first time, the frustration leaves me and all I’m left with is worry. He’s a part of me. And I miss him.
She doesn’t answer. She just stares, collecting information in ways I’ll never understand.
“Your kingdom is in shambles,” she says, her hair billowing although there’s no breeze in the cold, dank cave. “Your bloodline is in peril.”
I drop to my knees as tears rush down my cheeks. “How do I fix it?” I beg. “How do I save my wolf and my people?”
She steps closer, soundless feet on bare stone, and studies me as if I am something cracked open, something whose fractures are finally visible.
“You have felt your wolf fading for some time,” she says.
“Yes.”
“And you have told no one.”
“No.”
I drop my head as she breaks me open. As she peers inside my wounded core.
“And you come here to seek my advice.”
“Yes. And your ancient wisdom.”
“But you have received my ancient wisdom,” she says. “And you’ve ignored it.”
I look up at her through watery eyes. “The prophecy…”
Her glowing body rises off the ground and her eyes turn white with pure light. “Only the unbound will bind the kingdom whole.”
I squeeze my eyes shut as I feel the words reverberating through every cell in my body.
“But who is the unbound?” I ask in desperation as she lowers back down to the stone floor and her eyes return to their normal eery golden glow.
“Why must you speak in riddles, Oracle? My whole kingdom is in jeopardy.”
“I have given you everything required to save it.”
“The unbound,” I ask, my voice racing to get my questions in before she tires of me and vanishes. “Is it my mate you speak of?”
“I pity you and your species. If this is the best of you, then I do not have much hope for the men of wolves.”
“My mate,” I say, ignoring her jab. “Is she human?Please.”
“She is not of your kind, King Alaric of the Moonborne Wolves. Find her, and your kingdom will be whole.”
In a flash, she’s gone.
I hear thedrip-drip-dripof the water landing on stone. The copper scent in the air subsides.
