She knew that Nick was going to kill them, since there was no way that he would be merciful enough to let them live. Not after all that had happened. Tears blurred her vision and burned down her face. I love you, Coren. I love you so much. I will find you after this, I’ll never leave you. Never.
Nick listened to the words that he knew he wasn’t supposed to hear, and stepped forward to grab Coren by his black and white hair, never breaking eye contact with Zara. Slowly, he reached down and drew the knife out of the man’s chest, leaving the blade exactly as it was in the process. He would not step on Ziem’s last act in the world by altering the instrument of it. He laid the edge of the knife against Coren’s throat and left it there for the space of a long moment in which no one in the audience around the Court could breathe, as a single tear slid down his face.
As it fell onto Coren’s forehead beneath Nick’s chin, Coren could feel a single drop of the Ironborn Prince’s power through the drop, and he looked up for a moment at his killer before he turned his eyes back to Zara. His last thoughts were of her name, as Nick slid the knife across his throat and his life ran out with the water of his blood.
Zara screamed as she watched, and as Coren’s pulse slowed, she could feel every last beat of his heart. She tried to break through the iron that she knew she couldn’t bend, only to touch him once more before he was completely gone, but she was just barely out of reach.
When at last he was gone, she screamed again in a kind of pain that most wolves never heard or even knew that Heartborn could feel. Most of the time, Heartborn were the happy ones, the ones who were forever flitting around from lover to lover and making friends wherever they went. The human howl was a distillation of the day’s pain in a single sound, the agony that every surviving mate felt when their other half died, but amplified because the pain tore out of a piece of Zara’s own Heartborn soul.
She collapsed to the bottom of her cage in a sobbing, whimpering mess, talking to herself and saying Coren’s name over and over as if doing so would revive him, her entire frame shaking uncontrollably.
Nick let Coren’s lifeless head loll to the side and stepped past the body to within arm’s reach of Zara’s cage, looking down at her. “You. Stoneborn.” He said without looking away from Zara, but he was speaking to those behind Veronica’s throne.
A few of the Stoneborn stepped out behind it. They were both afraid, but their faces were as still and as calm as ever. As they had trained to be. They didn’t say anything as they waited for his command.
“They came at Sedovin’s command, Prince Nickel.” Reston said gently from where he was standing behind Nick. “But when the battle began, they fought against their companions. I saw them turn myself. They turned on the traitors as the traitors turned on us.”
“We knew nothing of our Alpha’s plans against you, my lord.” One of them said, though he was obviously still afraid, both of Nick personally, and of the collected Council as a whole.
“If Prince Reston vouches for your loyalty, I will accept his word.” Nick said evenly, still without looking away from Zara’s quivering form. “You will build a prison of stone with a single door and no windows. Make the walls of the cell inside thick enough to admit no sound.” He crouched down to look at Zara closely, but it wasn’t cruelty on his face or remorse, or even pity. It was apathy. “Make it a place where she can be left alone, given ample food and water to survive, for as long as it takes her to die.”
Zara twitched at the sound of his voice, then whimpered and curled up even further as she continued to mutter nonsense along with Coren’s name. There was no telling how long she would survive, now that her mate was dead, but no one could seem to find a trace of sympathy for the wolf that had entered their home, lied her way into their hearts, and betrayed them all.
The Stoneborn bowed to Nick and rushed off to begin their work, leaving him standing there looking down at Zara for a moment longer. She could feel what had once been his love for her, his trust, his defensiveness of her, and now his hatred of her, tugging at her heart, giving her what she knew was a false hope for life. She had mated herself to an Oceanborn, and now that she was drowning in his death, Nick’s presence was like a lifeline, promising to keep her above water, to keep her from sinking into the abyss…
But then he turned and walked past her, back to his throne, snapping the cord forever. “Get it out of my sight.”
Zara screamed out in pain again as that hope was ripped away from her, especially when they picked up the cage as it was loosened from the Court floor. She reached out for Coren’s body, for the pool of blood still spreading before him. They took her away as her continued screams filled the air. “Coren! Coren!” But no matter how loud she screamed, he would never hear her again. When she disappeared and the guards carried away Coren’s corpse, all that remained of the two wolves was a wide pool of Coren’s blood, with a single small island of gold and purple where Zara’s necklace had fallen, the
