The world had gone quiet without Charis.
And I never did well with quiet. It left too much room for guilt, too much space for my wolf to whisper things I couldn’t bear to hear. Rhett had chosen to bury himself in the ache of loss, fighting his illness and drowning in grief.
Kael? He had become a ghost. The last time I saw him was on the last day of school. Since then, he hadn’t bothered to reach out to anyone.
Despite everything, I couldn’t sit still. Somehow, Charis’s death was too good to be true. Something didn’t add up. The same feeling I’d felt when my sister Riley had gone missing was the same way I felt when I saw a body that looked exactly like hers turn up after one month.
There was a butterfly mark at the heel of Charis’s left foot. It wasn’t there when they brought her. Plus, the body that lay on the examiner’s table had been a boy. Not the false identity that Charis had created, but a boy complete with male organs.
So, Charis was still alive.
But first, I had to see Kael.
It bothered me that Kael had refused to see us. I’ve tried several times to reach out to him via phone, but he wouldn’t answer until his line stopped going through altogether.
This was my last attempt to reach out. Just as I came down from my car, Rhett drove in.
I waited patiently for his driver to pack before Rhett wobbled down. I gasped with shock when I saw him.
Rhett, the golden boy of Ravenshore Academy, looked like death warmed over. His once-broad shoulders seemed to have collapsed in on themselves, and his expensive winter coat hung on his frame like it was draped over a scarecrow.
His face was gaunt, and his eyes had sunken so deeply into his skull that he looked like a real-life skeleton, only he had flesh.
"Goddess, Rhett," I breathed, moving toward him, "what’s wrong? What happened?"
"Please don’t even start," he said wearily, waving at me dismissively.
"Don’t start?" I couldn’t keep the disbelief out of my voice. "Look at yourself, man. When was the last time you ate? When was the last time you slept for more than a few hours? Are you taking your medications at all?"
Rhett rolled his eyes. "I’m going to die, Slater. This is how dead people look."
"What the hell does that mean?"
"It means exactly what I said." He leaned heavily against his car, and I could see the tremor in his hands. "Doctor Maxwell says my body’s shutting down, coupled with the mate bond withdrawal and what he called pathological grief. I am grieving, and my wolf is grieving too."
As someone who had experienced a mate bond withdrawal, I knew how it felt more than anyone. Usually, when one partner dies, the other finds it difficult to move on. But in Charis and Rhett’s case, the bond was never completed.
"But you didn’t mark her," I said quietly.
"It doesn’t matter," Rhett sighed. "The heart doesn’t care about technicalities, Slater. The soul doesn’t ask for permission before it bonds with someone. She was mine, even if we never made it official. And now she’s gone."
The raw pain in his voice was almost unbearable to listen to. I wanted to tell him the truth, that I’d seen the body, that I knew it wasn’t Charis, that she was out there somewhere, alive and probably in need of help. But I couldn’t, until I was sure, and not until I’d figured out why someone had gone to such lengths to fake her death.
Then again, something still nagged at the back of my mind.
Did Charis stage her death? After all, she was able to disguise her true identity and managed to survive in Ravenshore for three months. I was sure she made some pact with Vale during her stay there, but I didn’t know what it was.
Plus, with Jex still underground, I had limited access to a lot of information. I still had to visit my sister, but I couldn’t just show up without making sure that I wasn’t being followed like the last time.
I didn’t want to expose her cover and put her in more danger.
"How are you holding up?" Rhett asked, trying to change the subject.
"I’m managing," I lied. The truth was, I was barely sleeping, throwing myself into investigation after investigation, following every lead, no matter how tenuous. The only thing keeping me sane was the certainty that Charis was alive somewhere, and that eventually, I’d find her.
"Everything okay at home?"
I nodded, though ’okay’ was a relative term. My family was supportive of my obsessive need to solve the mystery behind Riley’s disappearance. Still, I could see the worry in my mother’s eyes, the way my father watched me like he was afraid I might disappear next. Google seaʀᴄh novel{f}ire.net
"What about you?" I asked. "Besides the obvious. How’s the family handling... all this?"
Rhett’s expression darkened. "They’re handling it by pretending it never happened. According to my father, Eamon Riggs was just a ’regrettable phase’ that I need to get over so I can focus on more ’suitable’ arrangements." He made air quotes.
"Apparently, the Night Moon Pack Alpha was disappointed that I am no longer interested in their daughter, but Lydia won’t let me go. She keeps reaching out to me, and my dad is hinting at just taking her as she is. They want me to get her pregnant at least before I die."
"They want you to be with a woman? Now? While you’re..." I gestured helplessly at his appearance.
"While I’m dying, yes. My father is focused on making sure I leave an heir, at least before I pass. He’s going to divorce my step-mom, so I’m his only hope in preserving the family’s heritage; otherwise, it would be given to another family, and I would go down as the Thatcher disgrace."
Rhett pushed himself away from the car, swaying slightly. "He doesn’t understand that you can’t replace someone irreplaceable. You can’t just swap out one person for another like they’re interchangeable parts."
I wanted to argue and tell him that Charis wouldn’t want him to waste away , but the words stuck in my throat. Because the truth was, I understood. If I lost someone I loved the way Rhett had loved Charis—the way I was beginning to realise I had loved her too—I might react the same way.
"So," Rhett said, eager to move away from discussion of his own problems, "I take it this isn’t a social call. You’re here to see Kael."
"I don’t want to see Kael," Rhett said immediately, his voice hardening. "I have nothing to say to him."
"No." He raised his hand to stop me. "He made his choice. He stood up in that courtroom and condemned her to death. He voted to send her to the Justice Department, knowing full well what would happen to her there. And then he walked away like it meant nothing to him."
"Rhett, I know you’re angry and you deserve to be, but we’re in this together. Charis wouldn’t want her mates fighting with each other. We can’t give up on him," I said quietly. "Not ."
"Rhett, listen to me." I stepped closer, lowering my voice. "Kael might be in worse pain than any of us. Think about it—he and Charis accepted their bond. They marked each other, and they consummated their mate bond. As someone who has been in a situation once, I know Kael would be in more pain compared to both of us."
Rhett’s expression softened, and I could tell he was considering my words.
A completed mate bond wasn’t something you could walk away from. If one partner died, the other usually followed within days or weeks.
"If Charis is really dead," I continued, "then Kael should be in a more pitiable state than we by now. He should be in a hospital, or dead himself. The fact that he’s not..." I let the implication hang in the air.
"What are you saying?" Rhett asked as hope flickered in his eyes.
"I’m saying that maybe there’s more to this story than any of us know. Maybe Kael’s silence isn’t about guilt or indifference. Maybe he’s dealing with something we can’t even imagine."
Rhett was quiet for a long moment, and I could see him struggling with himself. I knew he didn’t hate Kael as much as he talked about. He was angry, yes! But he didn’t hate him.
"But he’s refused to see us," Rhett said with an exasperated sigh. "He won’t even pick up my calls, judging from how the call never goes through, I think he blocked me."
"His phone has been off for a while, but that’s why we came to see him today in his pack. I need you to promise you’d be open to making peace."
"You’re sounding like I’m the problem." Rhett sighed.
"Fine," he rolled his eyes. "I promise."