Chapter 2

Briony's POV

So he did know how weak I was.

Then why hadn't he blinked before sending me alone into Hollow Pass—a place even the pack's most seasoned warriors wouldn't touch?

Just last week, Sylvia went shopping down in town. My father deployed half a dozen pack warriors to escort her, while my mother fussed over her and packed a thermos of hot cocoa for the twenty-minute drive.

Me, their real daughter? They didn't even care if I made it back alive.

And all because, the night the pack announced the date of the Veil Rite, I hadn't rushed over to congratulate Sylvia.

"When are you going to grow up and act like Sylvia?"

"You're eaten alive with jealousy. One of these days you're going to get her hurt."

"Don't come back without the Veilbloom. And don't count on the antidote."

Rian was the one who drove me up to the pass. I knelt in the snow and begged them while Ferals howled, one after another, in the valley at my back. Kendrick just checked his watch. If they didn't leave now, he said, they'd miss the market up north before it closed—they still had to pick up Sylvia's ring.

I forced the tears back and lifted my chin.

"You're right. I don't want her to have it. Why would anyone celebrate a fraud without a drop of Seer blood? With what little talent she's got, you could hang every charm the pack owns on her and the seven Veils would still rip her mind apart—"

"Shut up!"

A massive force slammed into me and threw me backward. My spine cracked against the memorial stone—the black granite slab carved with the names of everyone who died in the war eighteen years ago.

Whispers rippled through the crowd.

"Briony says Sylvia's a fake?"

"Wait—isn't Briony the Rogue who snuck in?"

Broken bone tore through muscle. I spat up another mouthful of blood. Kendrick let his Alpha aura roll out, and the whole clearing went dead silent. He bent over me, fangs an inch from my throat.

"You ungrateful little liar. Sylvia's Sight hasn't grown an inch in two years, and whose fault is that? Yours."

When a true Seer awakens, her eyes glow silver-white. Her first vision comes crystal clear, and from then on she only sees farther.

Sylvia's eyes had never glowed.

She couldn't stand our parents looking at me twice. There was no way she'd ever let me become the pack's Seer.

So, on the night of my vigil, she pushed open the door of the Seer's cabin.

"Briony," she said softly, from where the lamplight didn't reach, "if I died by your hand, whose side do you think Mom and Dad would take?"

Before I could answer, the hexed thorn was in my side.

When I opened my eyes again, black mist coiled around me, and my fangs were pressed to her pale throat.

"Sylvia!"

Kendrick burst in, and every blow he threw was meant to kill. Elspeth looked at me like I was an animal that had savaged her child. They wouldn't hear a single word—because Sylvia lay on the floor, barely breathing, whispering:

"Dad... Mom... I'm so cold. Am I dying?"

So my own parents brought in the pack's witch, and she worked a blood rite that drew the Seer blood out of my body and poured it into Sylvia's, just to keep her breathing.

The light drained from my eyes, leaving only the black mist of the hex. Then Kendrick used Alpha Command and the witch's bindings to lock away my memories, and told the pack that I was the Blight who'd been hiding among them, and Sylvia was the true Seer I had wronged.

For two years, I was the Blight everyone spat on. Sylvia wore the white cloak.

I swallowed the blood in my throat and let his fangs graze my neck.

"Did any of you actually see me hurt her? That night, it was—"

"Briony! You're back!"

Sylvia came running out of the crowd, stumbling like a clueless pup. When she saw the blood, her eyes filled instantly.

"Oh my God, what happened to you?"

She bent to help me up—and dug her nails into the open wound under my ribs.

I flinched and pushed her hand away.

That was all. I pushed her hand away. She fell backward into the snow and burst into sobs.

"Why would you push me?"

Before I could catch my breath, Elspeth was standing over me. Her palm cracked across my face.

"Briony! Are you picking on Sylvia again?"

That slap carried a Luna's strength. My ears rang, and I went flat in the snow.