Chapter 0003

*Blanca*

I almost made it to my room.

When Nessa Winters steps out of the shadows near the last turn that takes me to my chambers, I leap backward, not out of fear but out of surprise. I hate it when she does that. Recently, she’s been doing it more and more. I’m not sure why. Maybe the fact that we are all twenty-one now and our wolves are more active has something to do with it. I don’t know, but I don’t like it.

“Well, well, well, if it isn’t the nasty bitch who calls herself a princess,” Nessa says, stepping closer to me. Out of other nearby shadows two of her friends appear. I’m outnumbered. That’s not unusual. Not that I ever fight back anyway. If I did, I’d get it worse from my parents.

Nessa’s father is an ambassador from an allied pack. They’ve been staying in the castle for years now, negotiating treaties or something like that. I don’t know why she’s here. I just know that she hates me.

“Leave me alone, please,” I say. “I’m just trying to go to my room.”

“Oh, is that what you’re doing?” Nessa’s dark eyes widen, and she shakes her head as she presses her lips together in a mocking fashion. In her best impersonation of my voice she says, “Just trying to go to your room?”

I take another step back and run into a wall. “That’s right.” I see one of the castle cats standing over in the distance, licking its paws beneath a table, and wish I could switch places with her. If I were a cat, all I’d have to do is sit around and eat scraps the cooks drop or maybe chase mice.

I wouldn’t be the one who is constantly being chased.

“Well, I’m afraid if you want to get to your room, you’ll have to get through us first, you fucking bitch!” Nessa swings her hand in a semi-closed fist so that her fingernails connect with my cheek.

My head snaps to the side, and my arms go up instinctively. I can’t hurt her, but I really don’t want to be hit anymore. “Stop!” I shout at her. “I mean it.”

“Stop!” She uses that mocking voice as her friends laugh, and she hits me again. I wish I could do something to protect myself that didn’t involve hurting her back, but the last time I hit her, my mother beat me so badly, I could hardly walk the next day.

I can’t take another beating like that. Not this close to the Haze. If I can find my mate, maybe I can get out of here.

As she hits me another time, I press myself against the wall and wish, for an instant, that the cat across the hall was a wolf or a bear, that it would attack her, sort of like that bird trying to peck Kieran’s eye out.

“Stop!” I say again, but before the word is even fully out of my mouth, I see a blur of gray fur and hear a hiss, and Nessa is no longer hitting me.

Instead, she’s falling to the floor, screaming so loudly, my ears ache. I cover my ears and plaster myself to the wall as her two friends begin to scream as well. Neither of them are trying to help her, though. I wish with all my might that that cat would stop attacking her. I know that I will get in trouble for this, even though I had nothing to do with it.

Did I?

I remember what happened with the bird and how Mr. Blake said he didn’t do that. Now, this cat has done something similar. Could I…?

No, there’s no way.

But just in case, I make that sound I heard Mr. Blake make in the back of his throat, the best I can, and wish that the cat would stop.

It doesn’t.

I reach down and grab the cat just as I hear my brother’s voice shouting down the hallway. “What in the world is going on?”

I fully expect the cat to rip my hands to shreds. Instead, as I hold it, it begins to purr. I set it down on the floor, and it runs away, just as Kieran arrives.

“You–you psychotic bitch!” Nessa shouts at me, wiping blood on the back of her hand as she scoots across the floor away from me on her ass. “You witch!”

“What the fuck happened?” Kieran asks as he looks from Nessa to me and then back again.

“It was a cat.” I wipe my own blood off my face on the back of my hand. Nessa hit me hard enough with her claws to draw blood from a few places. “It came at her, the same way the bird attacked you.”

Kieran’s eyes are practically glowing, he’s so mad. I know Nessa has a thing for him, but I always thought she wasn’t good enough for him. Now, I am beginning to wonder if maybe he likes her, too. “Go to your room right now, bitch. When father hears what you’ve done–”

Out of nowhere, the cat is back. I hadn’t wished for it to happen this time, but it jumps on Kieran’s back and sinks its claws in.

He shouts and reaches around to grab the cat. I scream, thinking he’ll kill it, but the kitty sinks its claws into his hands, and he shouts and lets it go.

I watch in shock for a moment before I decide not to press my luck any more. If Kieran thinks I did that, too, he’ll do more than slap me a few times. I rush between the girls and head toward my room, praying I can get there before he catches me.

I’m almost to my door when I feel his hand clamp down around my arm. He spins me to face him, pressing me up against the wall right next to my room. His eyes narrow as he lifts a hand and presses it against my neck.

It’s been a long time since Kieran hit me. He usually just calls me names and leaves the dirty work to someone else. But I can feel his wrath coursing through his veins as he seethes, his lips twitching with words of damnation he has yet to spew in my direction.

He’s so close to me, I can see the tiny flecks of blood on his nose that must’ve splattered there from the bird attack. He squeezes my throat, and I go completely still, staring into his icy eyes.

He leans in so that his nose is practically touching mine, and I know he’s either going to choke me out or punch me so hard I’ll crumple to the ground.

But he doesn’t do either of those things. He just stares at me. as if he’s in a trance of some sort.

Electricity prickles deep inside of me, my lower abdomen clutching in a way it never has before. My heart thrums in my chest. I can hear the blood whooshing through my ears.

Something strange is happening; I’ve never felt like this before–especially not when I was looking at my brother, but the wolf inside me stirs in a way she never does.

He must feel it too.

And as quickly as it comes, it goes–at least for me. I grab his arm trying to push him back, and even though he is much stronger than me, it works, in a way.

He releases me with a cry of anguish. “What the fuck? You little bitch! Have you been studying magic down there with that wretched Blake?”

Grasping my throat with both hands, I rasp out, “No! I didn’t do any of it. I don’t have any powers.” My legs feel weak beneath me, but I fight to stay upright.

“Whatever the fuck it is you’re doing to me, knock it off! I know how badly you want the throne. Father told me you’ve been scheming. Well, it won’t happen!” He turns his back to me, leaving me leaning against the wall wondering what the hell he’s talking about.

I want the throne? Why would I possibly think I could ever get the throne?

“Stay away from Nessa!” He turns around and glares at me. “Touch her again, and I’ll break your hand.”

I don’t wait around to see if he means it. Instead, I dart for my room, lock the door, even though I know he has a key, and sink to the floor. With my arms around my knees, I begin to sob. I have no idea what’s going on, but something strange is in the air.

I cry for several minutes before I remind myself that I have to be strong enough to survive this, to get out of here. Lifting my head, I look out the small window across my tiny room–and that’s when I see it for the first time.

A fine, light, misty cloud–of Haze.