Grace' POV

The screams had been going on for hours.

I stood outside the queen's chamber with my hands clasped tight enough to hurt, listening to Her Majesty cry out again and again like something was tearing her apart from the inside. The other maids whispered prayers to the Moon Goddess but I just stood there frozen because I didn't know what else to do.

Nobody told us it would be like this. The royal healer had assured everyone that the delivery would go smoothly, that the baby would arrive under the blood moon as a blessing. But this didn't sound like a blessing. This sounded like an execution and Her majesty was the one being killed.

"Grace." One of the older maids touched my shoulder. "Fetch more water. Make it as hot as you can get it."

I nodded and hurried down the corridor, grateful for something to do besides stand there uselessly. My hands shook as I filled the basin in the kitchen. The cook didn't even look up from where she was preparing a meal no one would eat.

She was as nervous as the rest of us.

Everyone in the palace could feel it. There was this sense of wrongness in the air that made your skin crawl.

I just couldn't pinpoint what it was.

When I got back to the chamber the screaming had stopped.

For a moment I thought the worst had happened. Then I heard it, a baby's loud cry and relief instantly coursed through me so hard I almost dropped the basin.

Thank the Goddess. Thank the Goddess.

But then I heard the queen's voice, it was weak and confused. "Wait. Wait, there's another one."

My blood went cold.

The door burst open and the healer stumbled out looking pale and wild. "Get Seer Elara. Now. Tell her it's urgent."

I didn't ask questions. I just ran.

Seer Elara lived in the east wing in a room that always smelled like sage and something bitter I could never name. I pounded on her door hard enough to bruise my knuckles. "Seer Elara! The queen needs you. It's the birth, there are two babies, please!"

The door opened before I finished speaking. Seer Elara stood there already dressed, her blind eyes somehow looking right through me. "I know, child. I've been waiting."

That should have been my first warning to run because something evil was coming but I didn't pay attention.

We rushed back together, my heart hammering the whole way. When we entered the chamber I saw Queen Avaline propped up against pillows, her dark hair plastered to her forehead with sweat. In her arms she held a baby wrapped in white cloth, but her eyes were on the second bundle the healer was cleaning off.

King Jared stood by the window, his face unreadable.

"Two daughters, Your Majesty," the healer said quietly. "Twins."

The queen's face crumpled with something between joy and exhaustion. "Twins. Oh, my darlings. Let me see them both."

The healer brought the second baby over and placed her in the queen's other arm. For a moment everything felt almost normal. A mother with her newborn daughters. A king with his heirs. The blood moon streaming through the windows showering them with its blessings.

Then Seer Elara stepped forward.

"I need to examine the baby," she said, and her voice had gone strange and distant. "Both of them."

The queen hesitated but the king nodded sharply. "Do it."

Seer Elara took the first baby, the one born earlier, and placed her wrinkled hands on the infant's head. She was quiet for a long moment then she smiled. "This one shines bright. Strong wolf and powerful bloodline. She will bring glory to your house."

Queen Avaline let out a breath that sounded like she was sobbing. "Oh thank the Goddess."

But when Seer Elara reached for the second baby, everything changed.

The moment her fingers touched the infant's skin, she gasped and jerked back like she'd been burned. Her blind eyes went wide and her whole body went rigid.

"No," she whispered. "No, this cannot be."

The room went so quiet I could hear my own heartbeat.

"What is it?" King Jared's voice so harsh that I coward back even though it wasn't directed at me. "What's wrong with her?"

Seer Elara's hands trembled as she examined the second baby more carefully. The infant didn't cry. She just lay there with her tiny eyes closed, peaceful and unaware. When the Seer finally spoke, I wished she had stayed silent instead.

"She has no wolf."

The queen made a sound I'll never forget, it was a gasp and a whimper.

"No wolf?" The king stepped closer. "That's impossible. We're direct descendants of the First Alpha. Every child born to our line has a wolf."

"Not this one." Seer Elara's face had gone gray. "And there's something else and it very… dark. I can feel it coiled around her like a shadow. This child carries a curse."

"What kind of curse?" The king's voice dropped low and dangerous.

The Seer closed her eyes. When she opened them again she spoke in an even stranger voice. "Two born of one womb. One light and the other shadow. One will rise in glory, the other in ruin." Her voice changed, again. "But beware, for the darkness you bury will one day consume the light."

Silence followed after that.

Then the king moved. He crossed the room in three strides and snatched the second baby from the Seer's arms. The infant finally made a sound, a small confused whimper that broke my heart.

"Jared, wait." The queen tried to sit up but she was too weak. "What are you doing?"

"What needs to be done." He stared down at the baby with no emotion on his face at all. "We can't let this thing destroy our kingdom. We can't let it destroy our true daughter."

"She's our daughter too!" The queen's voice cracked. "Please, she's just a baby, we don't even know what the prophecy means."

"I know exactly what it means." The king turned to face his wife. "The Seer has never been wrong. If we keep this child, she will bring ruin to everything we've built. To her sister. To our people." He looked down at the baby again. "She doesn't even have a wolf, sh-she's an abomination!"

He made a look of disgust at the child like she wasn't his own.

"Then what do you suggest?" Queen Avaline's face was wet with tears. "You want to kill our own child?"

For a moment I thought he might say yes. Then his jaw tightened. "No. But she cannot exist. No one can know we had twins. No one can know about the prophecy." He turned to the healer, to the Seer and to me. "Everyone in this room will swear a blood oath never to speak of this night. And the child will be locked away where she can never threaten anyone."

"Jared, please." The queen reached out with one shaking hand. "Don't do this."

But he was already moving to the door. "Send for the guards, have them clear out the North Tower and bring me someone we can trust." His eyes landed on me. "You. What's your name?"

My voice came out barely above a whisper. "Grace, Your Majesty."

"Grace." He repeated it as he memorized it. "You'll serve the child. You'll bring her food and water twice a day. You will speak to no one about this, that means you will tell no one she exists." His eyes bored into mine. "If you breathe one word of this to anyone, I will have you and everyone you love executed. Do you understand?"

I couldn't breathe or think at this point. But I nodded.

"Say it," he commanded.

"I understand, Your Majesty."

What else could I do? What else could I say?

The rest of the night passed in a blur of horror. The guards came and went silently. The healer prepared the blood oath and we all cut our palms and spoke words that bound our tongues forever. The queen sobbed into her pillows, clutching her remaining daughter like someone might steal her too.

And I stood there holding the second baby, the cursed one, the unwanted one, and felt her tiny hand close around my finger.

When it was time, the king handed me a key. "The North Tower. Go to the top floor, there's a single room there. That's where she stays. No visitors. No exceptions."

I took the key with numb fingers.

As I carried the baby through the empty corridors, she started to cry. Soft at first, then louder, like she knew somehow what was happening and she understood that her whole life had just been decided for her before she was even an hour old.

The North Tower was cold and dark and smelled like dust. The stairs seemed to go on forever. My legs burned by the time I reached the top. The room was small and bare with the exception of just a crib and a window too high for anyone to reach.

I laid the baby in the crib as gently as I could. She looked up at me with unfocused eyes and I wondered what color they would turn out to be. I wondered what her voice would sound like. I wondered if anyone would ever know her name.

Then it struck me…

The king hadn't even given her one.

I pulled the thin blanket up around her tiny body and she gripped my finger again, so small and trusting it made my chest ache.

"Forgive me, little one." My voice cracked as I tried to keep the tears at bay. "May the Moon Goddess have mercy on us all."

I gave the baby a name.

Verity.

It meant truth.

Because I knew, even then, that this wouldn't end well.

She reached up and held my finger. The moment she held my finger, a wonderful feeling washed over my whole body. In that moment I didn't realize that…

This little baby would one day change the fate of everyone in the kingdom.