Chapter 207

Elijah

That morning, I made yet another trip to the prison. I’d hoped to never set foot in this place again, because frankly it was cold and uncomfortable and unsettling, but here I was. I just hoped that Olivia would keep true to her word and that this conversation would be worth it—and that it would also be our last.

As always, Olivia was waiting for me when I walked into her cell. She looked the same as she had the last few times, although her eyes were red-rimmed and puffy now, likely from crying.

“You came,” she said, her fingers fidgeting with the edge of her sleeve.

I wasted no time. “You said you had information about unmarking.”

Olivia nodded and reached into her pocket to pull out several folded sheets of paper. “I wrote down everything I could remember from the spellbook,” she said, holding them out to me. “It’s not the whole spell, but it’s a start.”

Well, color me surprised. She didn’t try to bargain or make small talk before she gave me what was promised. Maybe this place really was changing her for the better.

I unfolded the papers and quickly scanned her neat handwriting. The notes were fragmentary at best—pieces of a ritual involving a full moon, a high place, and some kind of incantation. The words “I unmark you” were underlined several times.

“This isn’t much to go on,” I said, frowning as I continued reading. “And it says here we need some kind of.. artifact?”

“Yes. It’s called the Lunaris Stone,” Olivia said with a nod. “It’s mentioned in several old texts about mate bonds. Supposedly, it amplifies ritual magic related to pack bonds.”

“And where would I find this stone?”

She shook her head. “I don’t know. The book didn’t say.”

I sighed, folding the papers and tucking them into my jacket pocket. She was clearly not lying about what she knew—it wouldn’t benefit her at this point to hide information—so I didn’t press her unnecessarily. But I needed as much information as possible.

“Is there anything else you remember? Anything at all?”

She shook her head. “Just what I wrote down. The unmarking has to be done under a full moon, at a high place—somewhere closer to the sky with an uninhibited view of the moon. And both parties need to be there, willingly participating.”

Great. So I’d have to take Olivia on a field trip if I wanted to do this.

“Where’s the spellbook now?” I asked. “I need to see the full text.”

Olivia’s shoulders slumped slightly. “It’s gone. I had the rogues destroy it.” She paused, looking away. “And even if they hadn’t, I destroyed the pages about unmarking years ago, just in case.”

“Just in case of what?” I already knew the answer, of course. I just wanted to hear her say it out loud, as if it would give me some form of peace of mind.

“In case you ever found out the truth about Thea,” she said. “In case you found out she wasn’t mine. I didn’t want you to have a way to break our bond.”

I clenched my jaw, fighting down the surge of anger her words triggered. All those years wasted, all that pain caused, because of her lies and manipulations. All this time, I could have been happy with my mate. Thea wouldn’t have been traumatized. Things could be so… different.

“Well. I appreciate your honesty,” I said stiffly. “And the information, however incomplete it may be.”

Olivia didn’t respond, just watched me with those foxen eyes that used to be so cunning, so calculating. Once, I’d thought that I loved those eyes. Now they just looked tired. Like she’d given up.

I turned to leave without saying anything else, and my hand was already on the door when her voice stopped me.

“Elijah, wait.”

I froze, expecting to feel the tug of the mate bond, that infuriating compulsion she’d used so many times to force me to listen to her, to stay when I wanted to go. But it never came. For the first time, she hadn’t used the bond to control me. Today was full of surprises, wasn’t it?

I hesitated in the doorway, not turning around, but not leaving either.

“I’m sorry,” she said. Her voice was hardly more than a whisper. “For everything I’ve done to you. To Agnes. To Thea.”

The words were so unexpected that I found myself turning to face her despite my better judgment. Her eyes were wet with unshed tears, her hands clasped tightly in her lap. A damaged part of myself wanted to believe that she was just acting, but truthfully, I couldn’t find a sign of insincerity in her expression.

“This doesn’t fix anything, you know,” I said, referring to the help she’d provided, and now the apology. “You were horrible for years. You still are. You abused a child.”

“I know. I just wanted to apologize.”

For a few moments I just studied her face, trying to decipher if this was just another manipulation. Was she only apologizing now because she thought it might help her get her sentence reduced even further? Probably. It was the kind of calculation I’d come to expect from her.

“Thank you for the apology,” I finally managed. “But I don’t accept it.”

I turned to leave again, and this time, she didn’t call out. But something in me this time compelled me to stop, and I took all of two steps before I halted. I dragged my lower lip through the teeth, cursing myself inwardly as I felt my wolf urge me to say my next words.

“Olivia,” I said without turning around, “I’m sorry about what happened to your daughter. To Isabella.”

The silence behind me was deafening.

“What happened to you—being manipulated by Elemental Enterprises, losing your child—it doesn’t justify what you did to us,” I continued, my hand gripping the doorframe tightly. “But I understand now that you suffered too. That you were taken advantage of by people who saw you as nothing more than a means to an end.”

She said nothing, and I didn’t look back to see her reaction. I didn’t need to. I could hear the soft sounds of crying behind me.

I left then without another word, closing the door quietly behind me and nodding to the guard as I passed. The weight on my shoulders felt marginally lighter as I walked through the prison’s corridors, past the security checkpoints, and finally out into the fresh air.

In the car, I pulled out Olivia’s notes again, reading through them more carefully now that I was alone. The ritual seemed simple enough on the surface—a full moon, a high place, a specific incantation. But finding the Lunaris Stone might prove more difficult.

According to Olivia’s notes, the stone was ancient, possibly as old as the first werewolf packs. It had been used in rituals related to pack bonds—matings, pack transfers, even exile ceremonies. But it had been lost centuries ago. Hell, it was just a rock; it had probably gotten lost and eroded into sand.

Still, I had to try to find it. Every day that passed was another day Agnes had to struggle with her elemental abilities without the stabilizing influence of a proper mate bond. Every day that passed was another day that I was still marked to Olivia, whether I wanted to be or not.

I quickly Mindlinked James.

“James, I need you to research something for me. The Lunaris Stone.”

There was a pause before his voice returned: “The… What?”

I sighed. “Just look into it,” I replied. “Report back with any information you find. Quickly.”

“Yes, sir.”