Heir To The Iron Crown: Butterfly ✓

33 - þrjátíu og þrír

My eyes opened to dimmed lights in a foreign space. The light wasn't too sharp, but it still hurt my eyes to keep them open. I could feel someone's presence beside me, and no one else.

I forced my eyes open, looking up to see an unfamiliar room, white sheets, white walls and green tiles on the floor.

The infirmary.

I looked to my right, and saw the last person I expected to see when I woke up.

"Frida," I called out to her, although my voice was weak and barely audible. Thankfully, it was just enough.

She was sat up on a bed similar to mine. She turned around to face me, and I couldn't believe it was her. Her eyes had sunken into their sockets, her cheeks pulled in, hollow. Her hands seemed to be shaking as she tried to eat from a tray of food in front of her. Even her blonde hair had lost their shine, her skin pale and patchy.

I tried to get up, failing at first, but still managing with the support of the pillows behind me.

"Don't try too hard," she said, her focus on her food again. She seemed cold, hostile.

Not that we were ever close, or even friends to begin with. I don't think we've ever even made proper conversation before.

"What happened to you?" I asked her.

Frida just scoffed, shaking her head, shakily dropping half the contents of her spoon before putting it in her mouth.

"At least my efforts weren't in vain," she said, her eyebrows raised. "Rosa was right, maybe you weren't completely a lost cause."

"I don't understand," I said.

"Typical Rayne. Everything needs to be spoon-fed to you isn't it?" she said.

I felt as if pushing her at this time could backfire. Besides, she isn't the only one who can explain.

"Valente?" I reached out to him.

"I'm coming," I heard his voice almost immediately.

Gramma came into the room at that same time.

"Rayne!" she said and hugged me. "Thank goodness you're awake! We've been waiting for so long!"

So long?

The door opened to reveal Valente, who was sweating as if he was just in the middle of a workout, his tshirt put on inside out as if in a hurry.

He came to the other side of me, pulling me into his arms, his emotions rushing through our bond, so much more intense than what he was showing.

He kissed me hard and sat on the bed beside me. We were both lost for words.

I felt Gramma take my hand in hers. I saw her look at Frida with gratitude.

"Thank you my child," she told her, to which Frida rolled her eyes in response, and went back to eating her meal.

"Frida saved you Rayne," Gramma said.

"What happened exactly Gramma?" I asked her. "How long have I been out?"

"About three weeks," she said. "The pack doctor said that was a given since the amount left in you wasn't lethal anymore, so your body needed rest to fight it on its own."

"I was injected with silver," I told them.

"Thankfully Eidis didn't fare well at heights, her weak hand couldn't give you the full dose. But it was still enough to put you in coma, so we had to get it out somehow," Valente said.

He turned to look at Frida, and then back at me. His voice was now a whisper.

"We had to act quick, so she agreed to suck the silver out. We couldn't perform cupping, it would take too long," he said, his eyes teared up. "You were slipping so fast."

"Frida mostly spit it out, but she couldn't protect herself from all of it. Thankfully she could endure it enough to not pass out, but it's made her very weak," he said. "No one else could have done it."

I suddenly felt a great sense of gratitude for Frida, regardless of her cold demeanor, I now owed her my life.

"Thank you Frida," I said to her, my words sounding almost pathetic in comparison to what she had done for me. But at this point of time, it was all I could do to show gratitude.

"Whatever," she said, continuing her meal.

I turned back to Gramma. "If a little bit affected a silvertooth this much, then how am I alive?"

I heard the sound of a spoon dropping into a bowl.

"Because you fucking shifted," Frida said from the other bed. "What? You think I couldn't tell? A full dose, and no wolf? You'd be dead at the moment of impact. You survived this long, and that's the only explanation."

"She's right," Gramma said. "I think that's what Eidis planned to do too. If you died of a fall, nobody would suspect her, or at least blame her. And nobody would check for the poison because you'd have died on impact. Even if you were strong enough and went into a coma, you couldn't have survived the silver for more than a few days."

"Her plan was foolproof. It was clear she wanted you dead," Valente said, his anger showing.

"She wasn't alone," I whispered.

I wanted to take those words back the minute I said them. I knew Valente didn't like his aunt, but was it okay to tell him what she said before training that day?

"Where's Eidis?" I asked before he could ask me something else.

"The dungeons," he said, plainly.

The what?

"Valente-"

"That's the least she's going to get at this time. I'll be shifting next week and announcing that I've chosen you as my Luna. Only then will I deal with her," he said.

We don't have any prisoners, and the dungeons are just for a namesake. Since our shift to Hof we didn't have dungeons like those we had in Akureyri, so the Delta had deep pits dug underground, covered with flat wooden tops. If ever someone broke pack law, they were thrown into the pits. And based on their crime, it would be for some days, weeks, months, and even years.

I thought it was completely inhumane, and to think that a girl my age was in one of them gave me chills.

"Valente get her out of there," I said, my voice stern.

I heard Frida laugh a mirthless laugh.

Valente was suddenly serious, and his tone had taken an Alpha authority.

"She has been in there for all this time and she will stay there till I say so," he said with some finality, showing me this wasn't up for discussion.

I wondered if he'd be this unforgiving with his aunt.

"What about Sylvia?" I asked him.

"What about her?" Gramma asked, raising an eyebrow, her voice laced with distaste.

"Well, where is she?" I asked her.

Both Valente and Gramma looked at each other. Valente seemed at a loss for words, so Gramma had to speak up.

"She's been missing since you started to recover. Sylvia ran away."