AYASHA'S POV
Sleep came fitfully, interrupted by dreams of blood and fire. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw faces from the camp. Women who had been alive yesterday morning and were nothing but ash now. Their screams echoed in my ears even in sleep.
I jerked awake to the sound of soft knocking at our door. My hand shot out instinctively, fingers closing around the hilt of my dagger where I'd hooked it over the back of a wooden chair beside my bed. The knock came again, careful and measured.
Pavati didn't stir. She slept like the dead, or maybe she was just pretending. With her, I could never be sure.
I slipped from my bed, bare feet silent on the cold stone floor. The dagger felt solid and reassuring in my grip. After last night's bloodbath, I trusted no one. Not even the women who'd survived alongside me.
"Who is that?" I whispered, pressing close to the heavy wooden door.
"I am here to deliver a message from the Crown Prince," came the muffled reply. A servant's voice, nervous and quick.
My heart hammered against my ribs. Koda. After everything that had happened, after the lies and the revelation of his true identity, he was reaching out to me. I could refuse. I should refuse. Every instinct screamed at me to send the servant away.
But I needed every advantage I could get. Being mated to the Crown Prince might be the only thing keeping me alive in this nightmare. And if I was being honest with myself, some traitorous part of me wanted to know what he had to say.
I glanced back at Pavati. Still motionless on her bed, breathing deep and even. I moved the chair away from the door as quietly as I could and turned the heavy iron key in the lock.
The hallway beyond was dimly lit by flickering torches. A young woman stood there, dressed in the rough brown cloth of a servant. She looked terrified, eyes darting left and right like she expected guards to appear at any moment.
"Quickly," she whispered, pressing a folded piece of parchment into my hands. "I was never here."
I looked down the corridor in both directions. The other doors remained closed, no light seeping from beneath them. The surviving Lunas were either asleep or smart enough to stay hidden in their rooms.
I closed the door softly and turned the key again. The chair went back in its place, my dagger hooked over its back once more. Only then did I allow myself to examine what Koda had sent me.
The parchment was fine quality, cream-colored with a wax seal bearing the Lamia crest: a wolf's head surrounded by thorns. My fingers hesitated over the seal. Breaking it felt like crossing a line I couldn't uncross.
I checked Pavati again. She hadn't moved, her breathing still deep and rhythmic. Good. Whatever Koda had written, I needed to read it without her sharp eyes watching my every reaction.
The seal cracked beneath my thumb. I unfolded the letter carefully, angling it toward the dying embers in our small fireplace to catch what little light they provided.
Ayasha,
I know you must hate me for lying about who I am. I wanted to tell you the truth in the forest, but I knew you would be resentful once you learned I am Nahuel's son. What my father is doing to you and the other women is wrong. I cannot stop it without putting everyone of you in danger, but I can try to help in small ways.
I hope you can forgive me someday.
Koda
I read it twice, then a third time. Rage built in my chest with each word. He hoped I could forgive him? He thought a pretty apology would make up for the lies, for the fact that he'd saved me only to watch me compete in his father's sick games?
I stood abruptly and walked toward the fireplace. The embers glowed orange and red, still hot enough to consume paper. Without hesitation, I tossed the letter into the flames.
"What are you doing?"
I spun around to find Pavati sitting up in bed, very much awake. Her dark eyes were alert and calculating. She'd been listening the whole time.
"That was private," I snapped.
Pavati was already moving, lunging toward the fireplace with surprising speed. She grabbed the burning parchment before the flames could consume it completely, dropping it to the stone hearth and stamping on it with her bare feet.
"Ow, damn." She hopped back, examining her singed toes. "You cannot be that stupid as a Luna."
"Excuse me?"
She glared at me like I was a child who'd broken something valuable. "Has all of Whitewater known nothing but peace before Nahuel came? Are you really this naive?"
"I know plenty about survival," I said, heat rising in my voice.
"Clearly not." Pavati crouched beside the half-burned letter, examining what remained. "You just threw away what might be the only advantage any of us will get in this place."
I watched her turn over the charred pieces, her movements careful and deliberate. Something about her intensity made me pause.
"What are you doing?"
Instead of answering, she picked up one of the larger pieces and held it up to the firelight. Then she did something that made my breath catch—she began tearing away the burned outer layer of the parchment.
"He was giving you a clue," she said, peeling back the damaged paper to reveal writing underneath. "Hidden message. Very clever."
My mouth fell open. There, in different handwriting, were words I hadn't seen before. A letter within the letter.
"I don't need his help," I said, but my voice lacked conviction. "That's cheating. It's unfair to the others."
Pavati looked at me like I'd grown a second head. "And here I was, happy to be paired with you." She shook her head. "You are kind of stupid."
"I have honor."
"You are even more foolish than I thought." She stood, brushing ash from her hands. "Do you think the other women won't take every advantage they can get? Do you think they'll play fair while you stand on your principles?"
I wanted to argue, but her words hit too close to home. I'd seen what desperation could drive people to do. I'd watched women kill each other with their bare hands just hours ago.
"Let me see what it says," I said reluctantly.
Pavati held up the partially burned parchment, squinting at the hidden message. "Beauty is always in the eyes of the beholder. The brutality of it is that the face is always seen first before the heart. So guard it with your life."
I frowned. "Oh, he is poetic."
"Very romantic," Pavati said dryly. "Your mate has quite the way with words."
Heat rushed to my cheeks, but I didn't deny it this time. She already knew. No point fighting it.
"That tells us nothing," I said, studying the cryptic message. "What does any of that mean?"
Pavati raised an eyebrow. "I thought you wanted to win fair and square?"
I glared at her. "If he's going to help us, he should go all out."
"That would be suspicious and put a target on our backs," she replied. "The prince can't be too obvious about favoring you, or his father an the others will notice. And if Nahuel thinks his son is undermining the competition..." She drew a finger across her throat.
The gesture sent a chill down my spine. I'd seen enough death for one day.
"Whatever," I muttered, walking back toward my bed. "We should get some sleep. We need our 'beauty rest' for tomorrow."
I settled back under the rough blanket, trying to ignore the way my skin still tingled from reading Koda's letter. Even his hidden message felt like a caress, a secret shared between us.
Pavati remained by the fireplace, still studying the burned parchment. "Beauty is always in the eyes of the beholder," she repeated softly. "The face is seen first before the heart."
"Are you going to puzzle over that all night?" I asked.
"Maybe." She finally came back to her bed, but I could see her mind working. "There's something here. Some warning about tomorrow's challenge."
I pulled the blanket up to my chin and closed my eyes. "Then you figure it out. I'm going to sleep."
But sleep didn't come easily. My mind kept returning to the letter, to the careful way Koda had hidden his true message. He was risking something by helping me, even in this small way. The question was why.
Did he feel the mate bond as strongly as I did? Was he being torn apart by the same conflicting emotions—hatred for his bloodline, gratitude for his protection, desire that had no place in this situation?
Or was this all part of some larger game I couldn't see?
"Ayasha?" Pavati's voice was soft in the darkness.
"What?"
"Guard your face tomorrow. Whatever the challenge is, protect your face above all else."
I opened my eyes, staring at the shadowy ceiling. "You think that's what the message means?"
"I think your mate is smarter than he appears. And I think tomorrow is going to be more dangerous than we imagined."
I wanted to ask her more, to understand what she'd figured out that I'd missed. But exhaustion was finally pulling me under, and I needed whatever rest I could get.
Tomorrow would bring the first official challenge. Tomorrow I would have to prove I deserved to survive another day in this nightmare.
Tomorrow I would have to look Koda in the eye and pretend his presence didn't set my entire world on fire.
The mate bond hummed beneath my skin like a fever I couldn't break. I pressed my face into the pillow and tried to forget the way he'd looked at me in the forest, tried to forget the gentleness in his voice when he'd told me to rest.
I tried to forget that somewhere in this fortress, my destined mate was probably lying awake too, torn between loyalty to his father and something deeper he couldn't name.
But forgetting Koda—forgetting Riven—was impossible.
The bond wouldn't let me.