The Luna Queen's Rebirth (Ellie and Dominic) novel Chapter 482

Chapter 482

Nico’s POV

They found Vivian’s body that morning.

I heard the shouts first. By the time I made it to the cells, it seemed the entire village had turned out, gathered around the meeting house to see what was going on. I shoved through the crowd and jogged down the stairs and froze.

Dad was standing in front of Vivian’s cell while two guards carried something out on a stretcher.

A body, I realized with a cold feeling. A slender, pale hand slipped out from beneath the sheet, and I knew it was her without even having to look at her face.

Dad met my gaze. “You shouldn’t be down here, Nico.”

“What happened?” I walked up to him and peered into the cell. It was empty. There wasn’t any blood or debris. It was as if she had just died suddenly with no cause.

“Suicide, most likely.” Mom. I turned to see her descending the stairs, holding her skirt up a little with one hand. She sighed, shutting her eyes, and pressed her hand to her chest in a silent prayer as the guards carried Vivian past on the stretcher. “She must have kept some of that poison on her. One dose. Just enough to end it before she had to face her real punishment.”

Dad’s jaw was tight when I looked at him. When I looked back at Mom, she was still shaking her head at the empty cell.

“It’s such a shame,” she said. “She could have had a happy life here… but she insisted on getting herself into that situation.”

“Greed does horrible things to people,” Dad muttered.

I stared between him and Mom as they left the cells together, following the guards back upstairs. My eyes

narrowed.

Suicide.

That was what Mom called it.

But something about this whole situation smelled fishy. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it-maybe it was the way Mom seemed so unbothered by the whole thing, even though she and Vivian had been close.

Or maybe that was the issue. The fact that Mom and Vivian had been close. Vivian, the one who tried to kill my sister, who marked an Alpha against his will.

That was the thing. Mom didn’t have friends, only allies, and she didn’t choose them willy-nilly.

I hated to think that Mom could have been involved in the attempt on Ellie’s life, but the truth was, it had been swirling around in my head since it all happened. Mom hated Ellie. She hated that Ellie even had a chance at taking what belonged to Bastian. She’d made that very clear the night she forced Ellie to stand in the freezing cold as punishment for the accident with the plant.

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+15 Bonus

And there was something else that unsettled me about Vivian’s death.

Last night, way past midnight, I’d been coming home from Amelia’s place over the bridge. I’d had my hood up and my head down, trying to hurry home before Mom realized I was out.

But she’d been out, too. I saw her coming out of the side door of the meeting house with a basket on her arm. She’d looked unhurried, like she was just out for a stroll, but now that this had happened…

It was strange, wasn’t it? That door only led to one place: the cells. And there were only two cells, one filled with preserves, the other filled with the only prisoner we’d ever had.

And judging from the way the basket swung loosely at her side, that basket wasn’t full of meat and cheese.

Something was rotten in Goldenveil.

I found her that evening in the sitting room, going through the household expenses ledger, just like she did every night. I stood in the doorway until she looked up, because I knew better than to interrupt her when she was busy.

The path to Amelia’s house was memorized so thoroughly by now that I could have made it with my eyes closed. It was a little apartment tucked above the bakery, small and warm, always smelling like her. I used the spare key

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+15 Bonus

she’d given me months ago and turned it in the lock, slipping inside to the feeling of a warm fire and her arms around my neck before I even got my coat off.

“I was worried you wouldn’t come tonight,” she murmured, brushing kiss after kiss across my throat. “I missed you today. I was so busy, what with what happened with Vivian, and I’ll admit I’m a little freaked out-”

“Amelia.” I took her by the arms and met her gaze. “I have to Dream.”

She blinked. “But you just got here…”

“I know. But it’s not for you this time.” I took a breath and explained it to her. My suspicions. My fears. Ellie. All of it. “I think I have to warn her, Amelia. I just keep getting the sense… Mom might have it out for her.”

Amelia understood all too well. She knew exactly what my mother was capable of. The scars of it were still mapped across her back, right where Mom had whipped her once for spoiling the bread. Dad caught her and stopped it before it went further, which it would have.

“But I’m going to need your help,” I said. “I haven’t Dreamed of anyone except you in so long, especially not from such a distance.”

Amelia nodded and took my hand, pulling me over to the bed. She sat down cross-legged and patted her lap. I shrugged off my coat, kicked off my boots, and laid down, resting my head on her warm thighs.

Her fingers gently worked through my scalp as she began to hum the lullaby that she always sang on nights like this, when the insomnia took over. Most nights I couldn’t sleep, not without someone else’s dream to slip into. It was only when I was with Amelia, sharing dreams of sunny lakes and warm tangled limbs, that I found rest in her own little paradise.

Soon, sleep began to take hold, and I drifted off into a dream that wasn’t mine.

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