56 Ice Cold
Iris.
“Ione?” My panic rose. “Ionel” But she had gone completely unresponsive. Her eyes were closed like she was sleeping, and she was not moving.
I grabbed her shoulders, shaking her as hard as I could manage, but I quickly grew weak. Taking two fingers to her neck, I searched for a pulse. It took a minute, but I found it. I took a breath of relief. She was not dead, but she was growing more and more cold by the second. Yet, her heart was still beating. I could not wrap my head around what was happening.
“Help! Help!” I screamed with all the strength that I could muster. “Please help! Someone has been hurt!” I yelled in desperation while simultaneously shaking her. But she remained limp, growing colder by the second. What had happened to her suddenly? I tried to think through my haze of panic. She had been alright, speaking normally. Except that she had looked a bit anxious, she seemed completely fine.
The door finally burst open, and a guard entered, confused. “What happened, my Luna?” But his words died on his lips when he saw me struggling to
wake lone. He turned white.
“I will get the Alpha and the deltas,” he assured before bolting out the door.
Maids soon filled in and helped me to carry Ione. I made some space on the large bed so that she could lie down properly. She was not moving, and her lips were turning purple. I reached for her and tried to touch her, but I jerked away. Tentatively, I reached out again and touched her cheek. She was far colder than she had been a minute ago. She almost felt… frozen.
The deltas filled in as well. They all surrounded Ione. When they saw her state, even they were taken aback. They examined her.
“She is frozen,” I heard one whisper. “Almost to the bone.”
My blood slowed to a crawl in my veins. “To the bone!” I blurted, shocked.
They turned to me. “You have to tell us what happened,” their leader said. As some tried to heal Ione, the others turned expectant eyes on me. “Tell us every single detail.”
But I was as confused as they were. “She was alright. She had been teaching me. Then she got up…”
“Ione!” I heard Cassian’s mother before she even entered the room. She hurried over to Ione, pushing away the deltas that were trying to help her.
When she touched her, she withdrew as well. Her face turned pale before she raised her head to look at me, her eyes filled with hatred. “What have you done?” she bellowed. “What did you do to my dear daughter?” she demanded.
“I knew that Ione would not be able to handle her sickness, mother,” she cast me with a smug look. “Now you have shown your true colors.”
I was dumbstruck. “That was not what happened…” I tried to say.
“Don’t you dare lie to the mother of the woman you tried to kill,” Cassian’s mother cut me off. “She was so kind to you, yet this is how you repay
her.”
“I did not do this…”
“A woman that can kill her own father–to–be Luna will, of course, be capable of doing something so horrible!” Zahila spat.
I was at odds with what to do. They would not even let me get a word in.
“My daughter is dead because of you. You are a murderer. A murderer cannot be our Luna. Cannot be
“But she is not dead…” One of the deltas was saying.
But Cassian’s her turned to glare at him. “Keep your mouth shut!” she ordered.
Then she turned to the guards that were still on standby. “Seize this murderer!”
The guards looked at each other, hesitant. They stayed unmoved, avoiding her eyes.
“Did you not hear the Alpha’s mother?” Zahila asked. “Seize the murderer!” she ordered.
They still looked unwilling, casting each other anxious looks.
“If you do not carry out my orders, you will be charged with treason,” Cassian’s mother threatened.
my
son’s wife.”
They looked at her in fear before they began to move towards me. I was speechless. How had things escalated so far in such a little time? “Alpha!” one of the maids greeted as Cassian made an appearance. The crowd of people in the room made a path for him as he walked towards Ione.
The entire room had gone quiet, you could not hear anyone breathing. It was as if everyone, including the room itself, had held their breath.
Cassian slowly made his way to Ione, who was still lying frozen on the bed. His eyes scanned her from head to toe, his expression hardening with every step. He reached out a trembling hand, gently touching her cheek, and quickly withdrew it as if stung.
“She’s freezing,” he said, his voice tight with worry. “What happened?” His eyes locked onto mine, demanding answers.
colder.”
“I don’t know,” I stammered. “She was fine one moment and then just… collapsed. I tried to wake her but she just got colder and
Cassian’s eyes flicked to his mother, then back to me. “Mother, what is the meaning of this?” he asked, his tone low and dangerous. “Cassian, she’s responsible,” Zahila said, pointing a shaking finger at me. “This woman is dangerous. She’s already killed her own father-”
“I didn’t kill her!” I protested, my voice breaking with desperation. “I had nothing to do with this.” The more I looked at Ione, the more my tears threatened to spill. What was happening to her? Was she going to be okay? And being accused did nothing to help.
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Setting
21:04
56 Ice Cold
Cassian’s gaze softened slightly as he looked at me, he reached out to wipe my tears, but then his mother interrupted. “You must get rid of her, Cassian. For the safety of everyone in this pack.”
“My wife is not going anywhere,” he said, his voice filled with barely contained rage.
His mother looked like she had just been gutted. “You defend the woman that killed my daughter. She is your sister!”
“She is not dead, Alpha…” the same delta said. “It’s not ordinary.”
“You think so?”
The delta nodded.
He turned to the deltas who had been trying to help lone. “Can you help her?” he asked, his voice thick with emotion.
“We’re trying, Alpha,” one of them replied. “But she’s so cold, almost like she’s been exposed to extreme frost. We need the Luna to tell us what exactly happened.”
Cassian’s jaw clenched as he turned back to me. “Are you okay? Will you be able to—”
“Yes, I can talk,” I glanced at Zahila who looked like she had just been force–fed dung.
“She was teaching me today and sitting over there,” I pointed at the seat that Ione had been occupying. “When we were done, she came over to sit by me, here,” I patted the space beside me. “She looked a bit pale so I asked her what happened?”
“She looked pale?” Cassian asked.
“Yes, she looked quite anxious. But she told me nothing was wrong,” I continued. “Then she asked how I was doing and I was telling her. Suddenly,
she closed her eyes, telling me that she could not see. That she was stuck.”
“She closed her eyes and she was telling you that she could not see?” Cassian asked.
“Yes,” I nodded. “She said she was stuck.”
“Stuck?” one of the deltas asked. “She said that she was stuck?”
I nodded.
Cassian and some of the deltas exchanged a strange look that I could not read. “What happened next?” he asked.
“Then she said that she could not hear me. She could not feel you.”
They exchanged another strange look.
“Did she say anything before all this happened?” Cassian asked. “Like ask for your permission?”
I looked at them confused. “No…”
“Were you two in physical contact before all of this happened?”
I tried to think back, then I remembered. “She held my hand as we were talking.”
Cassian let out a sigh. He drove his hands through his hair. “She was seeing,” he said. “She was seeing into you.”
“What do you mean, she was seeing into me?” I asked, my voice trembling with confusion and fear.
Cassian’s eyes were full of a mix of anger and sadness. “Ione had a gift, a rare ability to see into others, into their future and past. It’s a powerful and dangerous ability, and it requires a lot of energy and can be extremely draining. She must have tried to look into you too deeply, and it backfired.”
My mind reeled at the revelation. I remembered what she said about her ability. How it had been affecting her, I did not understand why she would try to see into me. Maybe out of idle curiosity, but that did not sound like Ione. I cast a glance at Cassian’s mother, who had suddenly gotten quiet. I had an inkling that she knew something. It was not the time just yet to be pointing fingers. “But why would she do that? We were just talking.”
Zahila sneered, her face twisted with contempt. “Probably because she sensed something dark in you. Something she had to uncover.”
“That’s enough,” Cassian snapped. He turned to one of the guards. “Take her out.” The guard followed his order while Zahila continued to scream and
flail.
He turned to the deltas. “Is there anything we can do to reverse this? To bring her back?”
One of the deltas, an older man with a calm demeanor, stepped forward. “There is nothing we can do. She is stuck in the other realm. She has to find her way back.”
“And if she doesn’t?” Cassian asked, his eyebrow scrunching in worry.
“She will be trapped forever,” the delta said grimly.
