The sickened luna’s last chance

Chapter 87

Ella

The diamond necklace was admittedly beautiful. It hung delicately from Alexander’s hands, tiny stones catching the light and throwing rainbows across the vault walls.

But it could never replace Lilith’s locket. Nothing could.

Still, the gesture itself was touching. Alexander was trying to give me his great–grandmother’s necklace in an attempt to make up for what had happened to Lilith’s locket.

“You don’t have to,” I said quietly. “It’s a family heirloom-”

“I want to.” Alexander stepped closer and twirled one finger. “Turn around.”

I did as he asked, lifting my hair out of the way. His fingers were warm against the back of my neck as he clasped the necklace, and I shivered at the contact. The diamonds settled against my collarbone, heavier than Lilith’s delicate silver chain had been but just as warm.

“There.” Alexander’s hands rested on my shoulders for a moment, warm and broad, before he took a step back. “Perfect.”

I turned back to face him, one hand automatically going to the necklace. “It’s gorgeous. But Alexander, I can’t help but wonder… are there string attached?”

He frowned. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, are you expecting me to wear this to the banquet? To show it off like some kind of token of your…” I bit my lower lip as i struggled to find the right words. “Your fake affection?”

“Ella, no.” Alexander stepped closer, close enough that I had to tilt my head back to meet his gaze. “I’m not giving this to you for political reasons. I’m giving it to you because you lost something important today, and I wanted to give you something beautiful to take its place.”

The sincerity in his green eyes made my breath lodge in my throat. “You mean that?”

“I do.”

One thrum down the bond was all it took. One single pulse of promise, like a soft whisper caressing my mind, and I knew he was telling the truth.

My shoulders deflated with a soft sigh, and for a moment, neither of us spoke. I couldn’t seem to find the right words, not when we were surrounded by all of these artifacts and he was looking at me like I was the most valuable thing in the room.

“I’m sorry about the locket,” he said. “I know how much it meant to you.”

your fault. Gabriel was

you what I was planning. If you’d known I wanted to surprise you with

body enveloping me like a cocoon. His

cramp shot through my lower abdomen. I gasped and doubled over, both hands flying

although he hardly touched me,

through gritted teeth. “I think the stress from earlier is catching up

“We need to get you upstairs. You need to

1/3

Chapter 87

arm wrapped securely around my waist. By the time we reached our bedroom, the cramping had mostly

Evelyn?” he asked as leaned back on the

it was just the panic from

knew it, I found myself drifting off to sleep. And Alexander stayed with

a few hours later, Alexander was gone, but there was a glass of water and some crackers on the nightstand beside me. I sat up slowly, relieved

again as I drank. It just… given it to me with

what confused me

substantial, clearly worth a fortune.

love. The way he’d looked at me in the vault, the way his hands had lingered

immediately fallen back on the contract like it

really felt about me. Did he care about me as his mate, or was I still

were here. I wished I could ask her

kind of guidance growing up, things would have turned out differently. Maybe I would have known how to recognize lo he saw it, or how to protect my heart from getting

had died when I was an infant, and then my father and stepmother had treated me like an inconvenience at best, a burden at worst. They’d never cared enough about my happiness to give me advice about anything, let alone

them, I was just

time, but for everything I’d never had. The mother who should have been there, the

thought about Lilith, and the

to me. She’d been the one to comfort me when I was sick, to hold

sitting here moping about my own feelings and touching Alexander’s expensive gift, she was

to stop feeling sorry for myself and go check on

changing, I made my way downstairs to the kitchen. It was late–past nine o’clock by that point–but I knew she would still be up. Lilith wasn’t there,