CHAPTER 227: _ THE FALL OF SIERRA

"Sierra came into my room while I was asleep," Heidi begins. "She was holding a knife."

All four brothers stiffen, as if someone had flipped a switch.

Heidi speaks in such a slow voice that each sentence seems to cost her effort. "She was standing over me when I opened my eyes. She’d already said she was going to make me pay. Then she climbed on top of me and tried to stab me... in the head."

Morgan curses under his breath, violent enough that Rowan actually takes a step back.

Heidi’s voice trembles. "I tried to push her off. I didn’t think of anything else. I just wanted her away from me. Then... something happened."

She pauses, searching for the exact words. She keeps rubbing her palms together like they still scare her. "It felt like a surge. Like something exploded inside my chest and hands. Then lightning... I-I mean real lightning shot out of my palms and hit her. She flew back. Hard. She went through my door, hit the hallway wall, rolled down the stairs, and... kept hitting things on the way down."

Her voice cracks. "She wasn’t moving when she stopped."

Oh... he knows one of these moments, Amias thinks. Moments when power awakens for the first time. It can be messy, alright. In Heidi’s case, her power manifested in the face of danger, making its impact on her opponent brutal.

Silence presses into the hallway. Even Rowan looks stunned.

Amias finally sighs. "That was your power manifesting."

Heidi doesn’t look up. "I didn’t mean to do it."

"That does not matter," Darien snaps. "She attacked you. You defended yourself. End of story."

"She almost killed you," Grayson adds. "If anyone deserved consequences, it was her."

Morgan hits the bars once with his fist. "This should not have happened without me there."

Heidi lets out a breath. "But Sierra is the only daughter of the Castells. And I’m..." She gestures to herself like the title alone explains the problem. "... just a Moon Blessed. They already think I’m dangerous. The soldiers arrested me before I could even explain."

Darien stares at her. "Do you have any proof?"

Heidi laughs once, but it’s humorless and small. "Everyone saw Sierra injured. No one saw her trying to stab me."

That says enough, Amias thinks to himself.

Morgan’s jaw shifts hard enough that a crack echoes in the cell. His eyes flick toward Rowan. "What is this case looking like for her? Is it bad?"

"For the first time in his lifetime, your reckless brother is asking the right questions." Vark comments in Amias’s head.

Meanwhile, Rowan stiffens at Morgan’s question. His hand twitches near his belt like he expects a weapon to jump out and solve the problem for him. "Sierra Castell sustained fatal internal injuries. The healer says she’s unconscious and... not stabilizing."

"Holy shit, NO!" Vark nearly screams. "Our mate has gotten herself in such an ugly mess."

He’s right... Amias internally affirms. The pack leaders were formerly looking to destroy her before and she’s just given them a straight ticket for an excuse to do so.

Grayson’s arms tighten protectively around Heidi, who goes still under his touch like she doesn’t know if she’s allowed to be comforted. Amias watches the way her shoulders tremble, the way her breath hitches quietly every few seconds. It’s like she’s shrinking more by the minute.

Rowan continues. "Her survival rate is... around fifteen percent."

The number dries up Amias’s throat as his eyes nearly bulge out of his sockets. Fifteen? Fifteen out of a hundred?!

How... How on earth is that possible? Heidi said she shoved her. Fine, her powers were activated, but the victim isn’t just some human. She’s a wolf belonging to one of the pureblood families in the pack.

It doesn’t add up.

"We did not expect that." Vark’s voice rumbles inside him restlessly. "One shove does not do that. Not even from an Alpha. Not unless the magic behind it is celestial."

Celestial? Touched not only by the goddess, but by the heavens themselves. Too powerful for her tiny frame to even understand.

Amias can’t stop staring at her hands—those small palms that unleashed something so lethal it almost tore through a wolf’s natural healing.

Her healing... right. Sierra’s wolf should be able to save her.

"Her wolf?" Amias hears the question leave his own mouth before he decides to speak. "Why isn’t it healing her?"

Rowan inhales sharply. "The healer says... the wolf took the majority of the damage. It’s non-responsive. They’re preparing for a cleansing to separate Sierra’s dead wolf from her body. If they don’t, the girl’s organs will begin to shut down."

WHATTT?!

Amias’s jaw drops. He can hear Morgan’s shocked scoff and Grayson’s petrified gasp. Darien seems too stunned for a reaction, justifiably so.

It’s insane. It makes no sense. How can a single push from a she-wolf cause that much damage? How can Heidi effortlessly kill a wolf spirit?! Amias tries to wrap his head around the things he’s hearing to no avail.

It is true—the prophecy.

He can hear Heidi sucking in her breath. Her knees draw up tighter, head ducking like someone just dropped a mountain onto her spine. Grayson swears under his breath, quietly enough not to shake her more.

Darien steps forward, tension emanating from his aura. "A single blow can’t do that."

"Reports say it did," Rowan answers simply, even though he looks like he doesn’t want to.

Vark growls inside Amias. "That was not a simple shove. That was divine energy. Old blood. Something sacred... or cursed."

Amias presses his tongue to the back of his teeth, swallowing the panic rising like steam.

Heidi keeps pulling her knees closer, like she’s trying to make herself smaller than the damage she caused. The brothers exchange looks that say everything they don’t dare voice out loud. Even the lights on the wall seem quieter, as if the room itself is holding its breath around her. Amias feels a chill crawl up his spine. Power like that doesn’t just appear. It can’t be inherited either.

Oh, Goddess, Heidi, What. Are. You