Four Days Later:

Four days changed everything in the kingdom.

The sun still rose in the same indifferent way every morning, but Aire had begun to disappear inside it.

She still existed in the corridors when required. She still responded when spoken to. She still appeared when summoned but she no longer belonged to the rhythm of the castle.

She now spent most times in the most quiet part of the gardens and then, she lingered near windows.

Now she moved only when necessary, and even then it felt like everything in her had been carefully shut away.

.....

That evening, rain pressed softly against her chamber windows. The sound was steady, persistent, almost comforting in a way Aire no longer trusted.

She sat near the edge of her bed, with a book open in her lap. She had not turned a page in the book for nearly an hour.

A knock came to her door. The first one in days since she asked the maids and Madam to stay away. She’ll prefer them staying away, than looking at her the way they did.

Aire’s fingers tightened slightly.

For a brief moment, she expected Madam.

She had learned to recognize her footsteps.

"Come in," Aire said quietly.

The door opened softly, and it was not Madam.

Alaric stepped in instead.

Aire’s eyes lifted immediately, guarded without effort. He was carrying a tray of simple food.

He closed the door behind him carefully and walked in like he belonged her. That didn’t make Aire feel any better.

"I knocked twice," he said lightly. 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

Aire watched him without speaking.

He placed the tray on the small table beside her bed as if it was the most normal thing in the world.

He glanced at her. "You stopped coming to dinner." He began softly.

Aire leaned back slightly against the headboard. Her voice came out dry when she spoke. "I assumed the kingdom preferred eating without impending doom nearby."

Alaric paused.

Then, very faintly, something like amusement tugged at the corner of his mouth. "That’s one way to describe yourself," he said with a light almost smile.

Aire didn’t respond.

Alaric pulled the chair near her desk and turned it around before sitting down on it backwards, resting his arms casually over the backrest.

Aire said nothing. She simply stared at him.

He looked around her room briefly. "You’ve been here all day?"

"I go outside when summoned."

"That’s not what I asked."

Aire’s gaze flickered toward him. After a silent beat, she responded. "Yes."

Alaric exhaled through his nose, absorbing her reply. Then he said, "You’re making the castle nervous."

Aire let out a short laugh. "I’m not," she corrected.

Alaric studied her face carefully then. He briefly glanced at the marks on her neck. He did not stare to seem rude, but Aire noticed anyway.

Her jaw tightened slightly. "I am fine," she said flatly.

"I didn’t ask."

That made her pause briefly.

Alaric leaned back slightly.

Then, like it was nothing important at all, he began speaking about something entirely ordinary.

He sighed softly, and began to speak of a patrol rotation near the west wall. He softly trailed off, and began to speak of a supply issue with the southern kitchens in the castle.

He talked on, and on. The words came poring out of Alaric like a contract over a broken dam. Aire listened. She didn’t understand all of what he was saying, but she listened.

He then began to talk about a guard who apparently keeps falling asleep during night shifts.

Aire blinked once. She still didn’t interrupt.

Alaric kept speaking like someone talking about a normal day, and not like someone in the middle of a prophecy crisis involving her existence.

"So," he said finally, "I told them if he sleeps on duty again, I’ll assign him to cleaning horse stables for a month."

Aire stared at him. She cleared her thraot softly. "...You’re joking." Her voice came out a bit rapsy.

"I’m not."

Aire exhaled.

Alaric’s expression softened.

After a moment, her voice dropped slightly. She held his gaze. "Do you believe I’ll destroy wolves too?"

The question landed differently than everything else in the room.

Alaric went still.

The air shifted. He didn’t answer immediately.

Aire’s eyes stayed on him, waiting for the version of him that would confirm what the rest of the castle already believed.

Finally, Alaric spoke. "I believe," he began. "...frightened people destroy innocent things long before prophecies ever do."

His reply didn’t comfort her. Aire looked down at her hands slowly. Her shoulders lowered by a fraction. Her body felt less.

Alaric stood after a while. He stared at the tray. She had barely eaten. She took a few bites while he spoke, but nothing more.

"I’ll come again," he said simply.

Aire glanced up at him. "Why?"

He shrugged slightly.

"Because you stopped eating in public and someone has to make sure you don’t decide starvation is part of your rebellion."

Aire stared at him. Very faintly, her lips curved into a little smile of appreciation.

He simply nodded once and left.

........

Meanwhile, outside the chamber door beifre Alaric steoped out, Nate was standing there. He stood there, so still like he had been carved into the stone itself.

He hadn’t meant to stay. He had come to speak to her, and to apologize. The word still sat in his chest, unfamiliar and poorly formed.

But then he heard it Alaric’s voice inside her chamber. Her heard her soft exhale, like she was taking her first breath for the first time after days.

And Alaric had caused it.

Nate’s jaw tightened instantly. Everything inside him shifted violently. Too fast to name cleanly.

His wolf reacted in oain and possessive awearness before he did. An ugly, unfamiliar feeling tightening beneath his ribs.

She sounded like she was safe with Alaric.

Nate’s fingers curled slowly at his side.

His expression stayed controlled but something in his eyes darkened.

Inside him, his wolf pressed forward.

Nate didn’t wait to hear more. He turned, and walked away before either of them could sense him there.