Chapter 221

Agnes

I jumped back, my heart racing.

“I-I’m sorry,” I stammered. “I heard coughing and wanted to make sure everything was alright.”

Richard nodded and took a step back, putting some much-needed space between us. “Of course. You were just being considerate.” He glanced at the closed door. “I hope Elise didn’t say anything to disturb you. She’s not herself these days.”

“No, not at all,” I lied, not wanting to mention her strange words about “the gift” or shadows watching. “She seems… unwell, but it was nice to meet her.”

Richard sighed, and the way his shoulders dropped slightly with the release spoke of a man who’d been carrying a profound weight for a long time. “Come,” he said, turning and heading back toward the parlor. “I think I owe you an explanation.”

Back in the parlor, the firelight flickered across all of our faces, but particularly deepened the lines in Richard’s face. He sat on the edge of his chair, elbows braced on his knees, staring into the flames.

I turned my drink glass in my hand, watching the way the crystal played prisms of light across my hand. Elijah, sitting beside me, kept glancing between me and Richard.

“Elise went missing about a year ago,” Richard finally began. “She was an avid hiker—she loved exploring the woods around our territory. She knew those trails better than anyone. But one day, she didn’t come home from a hike.”

Elijah stiffened slightly beside me. Richard took a long drink, his hand trembling slightly as he set his glass aside. “We searched for her. The entire pack, search teams from neighboring territories, even the authorities. For months, there was nothing. Not even a trail to follow. It was like she just… disappeared.”

Hearing his story made my chest ache. I knew that feeling all too well—the horror of losing someone you love, believing that they’re alone and afraid in the wilderness, or worse. Searching and searching and finding nothing, not even so much as a clue.

Richard ran a hand through his hair and went on, “Then, about six months later, she just… showed up here.” He gestured toward the entrance of the grand estate. “I heard a knock and opened the door to find her standing there, disoriented, malnourished, clothes in tatters.”

“Thank the Goddess she made it home alive,” Elijah said.

“Alive, yes,” Richard said, glancing up at Elijah. “But she wasn’t… whole. She kept talking about being kept underground, about the trees watching, shadows with eyes. The doctors said it was trauma-induced psychosis. That being alone in the wilderness for six months broke something in her mind.”

I frowned. “Six months is an awfully long time to survive in the wilderness on one’s own, even in wolf form.”

“Yes,” Richard replied, his expression darkening. “It is.”

“There was no evidence of foul play?” I found myself asking, even though I hated to even suggest the notion. “Of someone holding her captive, or…?”

Richard shook his head. “No. Trust me, I had that thought right away too, and we looked. I had all of my men scour the areas where she was found over and over again. Nothing. No bunkers, no caves, no signs of werewolf life. Just wilderness.”

I bit my lip, considering. If there really was no way she’d been held captive, then she must have survived in her wolf form for most of that time. But regardless of how she survived that long, what really surprised me was that Elise, a woman who allegedly had extensive knowledge of the territory, had taken six months to find her way home.

“And her health?” Elijah asked delicately.

“Deteriorating,” Richard replied roughly. “She hardly eats, hardly sleeps. The doctors haven’t found anything physically wrong with her, although they suspect she may have suffered a head trauma at some point. But she gets worse by the day.”

A chill ran down my spine. As if sensing my discomfort, Elijah’s hand found the small of my back.

“I’m so sorry,” I said. “Is there anything we can do to help?”

Richard managed a small smile. “Your concern is appreciated, but no. We’ve consulted specialists from across the territories. All we can do now is make her comfortable and hope she improves with enough time and care.”

“It must be hard, keeping up appearances while dealing with this privately,” Elijah said.

Richard’s expression shifted, a flash of something—gratitude? Relief?—crossing his face. “It is. I appreciate your understanding. Few know the full extent of her condition.” He gave Elijah and I both a meaningful look. “And I would prefer to keep it that way.”

“Of course,” Elijah assured him. “Pack politics being what they are, I understand the need for discretion.” I nodded along, making a silent promise not to tell anyone what I had seen.

Richard looked relieved again. “Thank you. Now, I don’t mean to cut the evening short, but…”

“We should be going,” I finished for him, already standing. “Thank you for dinner. It was lovely.”

Back at the hotel, neither Elijah nor I were ready for sleep. We changed into our bathing suits and made our way out onto the balcony, where we slipped into the waiting hot tub. The warm water soothed my body, and the sound of the bubbles provided a backdrop that helped ease my racing thoughts.

“What a night,” Elijah said, leaning his head back on the hot tub. “Richard’s wife… I heard that she’d gone missing for a while, but I had no idea it was that bad.”

“It’s awful,” I agreed. “And strange.” I hesitated, debating whether to share the odd moment that I’d shared with Elise. But keeping secrets from Elijah had never served me well in the past. “There’s something I didn’t mention back there.”

Elijah raised an eyebrow. “Oh?”

“When I was with Elise, she took my hand and then… she asked if I had ‘the gift.’”

Elijah stilled. “The gift?”

“That’s what she said. She seemed surprised, almost afraid. Then she started warning me about shadows watching and said they would come for me—she didn’t have a chance to say much more.” I lifted my hands out of the water, turning them this way and that to inspect my palms. “Elijah, do you think she could somehow sense my fire abilities?”

He frowned, considering. “It’s… possible, I suppose. But Agnes, she’s clearly not well. She was raving about trees remembering things.”

“I know, but…” I trailed off, dragging my lower lip through my teeth. “It felt like she really saw something in me.”

Elijah moved a little closer. “Look, I’m not dismissing what you felt. If you believe she sensed something about you, I won’t discount that. But Richard made it clear her mind isn’t right these days.”

“True,” I conceded. “And it’s not like we can go back and question her further. Richard seems very protective of her.”

“As he should be,” Elijah said. “She’s fragile, and he’s trying to preserve what dignity she has left.”

I nodded, but couldn’t shake the strange feeling that had settled over me. The whole situation felt… wrong, like there was more to the story than met the eye. That maybe there were details even Richard wasn’t aware of. Things that only Elise knew, but her mind was too addled after her horrific experience to properly convey them.

We soaked for a while longer, eventually moving from the depressing topic of Elise to something more hopeful—Richard’s proposal to expand the Isabella Foundation into his territory. No wonder he was so adamant about it; his own wife had suffered in the wilderness. The foundation could do a lot of good for anyone else in his pack who might succumb to the forces of nature.

I made a mental note to prepare a gift of some complimentary survival bags to send to Richard so he could disperse them to his people. And one for Elise, too, just in case.

Finally, once our skin was pruned up and our eyes were drooping, we showered together and climbed into bed. But while Elijah’s breathing deepened and evened out almost as soon as his head hit the pillow, sleep didn’t come nearly so easily for me.

I laid awake for hours that night, tossing and turning and staring into the darkness as my mind wandered repeatedly back to Elise’s words.

The shadows have eyes.

The trees remember.

You have the gift.

Were these truly just the hallucinations of a broken mind, or was there some truth to them?