Destined for Vengeance ✔️

Chapter 30

Who would have thought practicing paid off. Jade spent most of her waking hours working on developing her magic, which had left her more than a little tired, but it had also – perhaps for the first time ever – left her hopeful.

She'd started the day after she had come to Midnight Moon, realising that she could not afford not to improve with this many minds around her. It wasn't that she never used to practice before. She'd just never had a chance to develop her skills beyond what her pack had to offer. She had no problem tuning out the thoughts of thirty, but to tune out the thoughts of three hundred, let alone three thousand, was something else entirely.

Her father always said step one was to stop fighting. You couldn't control what you couldn't face. She had spent hours sitting cross-legged on her bed, allowing the thoughts to wash over her. At first, it was too much to bear, but she had not resorted to silver once. The thoughts came in waves, and she was in the middle of the ocean, desperately trying to stay above water, but every time a wave would crash into her she'd go under. And she'd never learned to swim.

It took her days, if not weeks, to teach herself to filter out the layer or noise farthest away from her – the wolves on the edges of the territory. It was a small feat, but it was more than she'd ever achieved before. The first time she succeeded, it took her hours. With continued practice, she learned to do it quicker and quicker.

It was not enough. The outer layer was also the weakest one, and thus the one that bothered her the least, but it was a start. She held onto that feeling of progress when she walked into the dining hall – the pack's loudly beating heart. It was a harsh reminder of how much work she still needed to do. Her hand automatically moved to the chain around her neck, scorching her fingers. Ideally, she wanted to get to a place where she did not need to rely on silver to get her through the day, but for the moment it was the best she had. Apart from Aaron, that was, but the day she was going to depend on a man for her sanity was the day she'd lose it.

"Hey, you're here," Ellis said. She smiled at him and sat down on an empty chair, glancing around to see if Ryleigh was there yet. She wasn't.

"Yes," she said, focusing her attention on Ellis. "I'm ready to do this." She wasn't actually sure at all if she could eat with this much pressure on her skull, but she was confident enough to try.

She looked up when Ryleigh dumped herself in a chair beside her. It was hard not to pull her features into an expression of concern upon seeing her. She was so pale her skin was nearly translucent. That was nothing new for her, but what was new was that the challenging glint had dissipated from her eyes. It was like a light had gone out.

"You alright?" she asked, hushing her voice even though everyone could hear it anyway.

"Fine."

But her hands were trembling, and her voice lacked its usual harshness. Jade wished she knew what to do, but experience had taught her Ryleigh would reject any form of help anyway. And so she did what she knew Ryleigh wanted: pretend everything was alright. She met Austin's eye. He was sitting across from them, staring at Ryleigh with his brows drawn down.

It would be so much easier if she'd let them in. Why did Ryleigh insist on self-destructing? Why did she insist on taking everyone down with her in her misery? Why did she insist on being desperately miserable, like that was some kind of testament to their dead kin?

"I heard Prince Aaron is away on business," Julie said, smiling at Jade. "Do you miss him already?"

Jade felt her cheeks catch fire. She tugged at the collar of her shirt. "Well, we hardly know each other, so I have little right to miss him."

"Of course you have a right. This is fate," Ellis said. "I'd be more concerned if you did not miss him."

"I'd be counting the seconds till he came back," Carry said, sighing happily. "You're so lucky. Your mate is, like, the most handsome guy in the kingdom."

"I second that," Julie said, raising her glass at Jade.

"And he's rich and powerful," Conall said. "I can't believe you're going to be our queen." He shook his head like the end of the world was truly upon them. "A Shadow Walker on the throne."

All the air was sucked out of Jade's lungs. "Let's not look so far ahead. I'm no queen."

"But you will be," Ryleigh said. There was a resentment in her tone that surprised Jade. "But it won't be a Shadow Walker on the throne, because you won't be one anymore."

Jade was saved the trouble of responding when their food was brought out. A painful silence hushed over the table as the servants passed around them, putting steaming plates in front of them.

"I will always be a Shadow Walker," Jade said.

Ryleigh shook her head. "Not if you become a Royal Wolf. It's one or the other. You can't bow to Alder and still call yourself one of us."

"I'm not bowing to anyone."

"No? So you're not accepting the king as part of the deal? You're going to refuse to have any dealing with him?"

"Well, no." She glanced around her. Everyone was watching her and Ryleigh, hanging onto every word of the conversation and loudly commentating on it in their minds. "Perhaps we shouldn't be discussing this here."

"Why? They already know how I feel about that man."

Jade pressed her pendant tightly against the skin of her palm. Not for the first time, she suppressed the urge to kick the scornful bitterness out of Ryleigh. "Prince Aaron has asked me to meet his parents. I said yes." She had no clue why she chose that exact moment to tell her that – like throwing oil on fire. Maybe it was an act of defiance.

Ryleigh made no reply, and neither did her face. There was no anger in her eyes, and her features didn't change in the slightest. Jade started to think she hadn't even heard her.

"So what are you going to do?" she asked at last, her voice so neutral it scared Jade. "Shake his hand? Eat with him? Say 'yes, Your Highness' and 'thank you, Your Highness' and 'it's such an honour to meet you, Your Highness'?"

"I don't know, Ry. Can we just not do this right now?"

"When do you want to do it? After you meet him? After you've mated Aaron? After you're crowned queen?"

"Stop."

Ryleigh shook her head, but lapsed into silence again.

Jade massaged her temples. The thoughts of the people at the table were erratic, worried, slightly judgmental, more than slightly upset. They were all surprised at Ryleigh's viciousness, especially since it was directed at Jade. They shouldn't be. This was the Ryleigh Jade knew best, though definitely not the Ryleigh she liked best.

"I don't get it. You encouraged me to meet him."

"So you could reject him, yes."

"Ryleigh, come on," Austin said, softly, as if there was any way he could ever speak softly enough to chide her without their werewolf friends overhearing it.

Ryleigh looked at him, then around the table. She got up and shot Jade a look that reminded her so much of their father that she froze to her seat.

"If you're really a Shadow Walker, you'll kill that royal mate of yours." 

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A/N: Ryleigh keeps spiralling. I'm not sure how much farther she can push people away before there's no coming back. I suppose we'll find out. 

Thank you for reading!