Chapter 41: Chapter 41

Lily

Elijah stopped, one hand on hers, as they entered a small clearing. Dapples of sunlight fell unevenly across the needle-covered grass, the edges of the light burning like burnished gold as the sun began its daily descent.

Three stones stood in the clearing’s centre. The middle one was the largest, and though it was well-maintained, it appeared to be the oldest. Watermarks slid down its sides, and fresh moss climbed up it. Dropping Elijah’s hand, Lily moved towards the stones.

“What is this?” she asked, almost afraid of the answer. Names had been inscribed into each of the stones, so many so densely packed that she had to squint in the low light to read them.

“Our memorial.” Elijah stepped up alongside her, his presence a comforting warmth that settled across her chest. He wound a solid arm around her waist, and she leant into him. Tears prickled her eyes at the familiar touch.

Today had overwhelmed her. Her fragile state of mind meant that she’d forgotten why she’d come home with him in the first place.

He bent down beside the stone on the left, his fingers tracing the indented surface. Realisation hit Lily in the gut.

“Those… those are your parents’ names, aren’t they?” She crouched down beside him.

Elijah nodded. As his fingertips slid over the carvings, he spoke. “Valeria Pine – my mother. And Egon Pine.” He swallowed hard. “My father.”

“Pine?” Lily repeated, touching his arm. The muscle was hard as steel, rippling with tension. “Your surname is Pine?”

“The Alpha family decided a long time ago to take the name of the pack as our own.”

“It’s a beautiful name.”

Silence filled the space between them, but it was a silence they both knew well. It was the friend they greeted in the depths of the night, in the last hours before sunrise when grief kept them from slumber.

“Tell me about them,” Lily said eventually, taking his hand to guide him to one of the benches that wrapped around the clearing. “I want to know you, Elijah.” She smiled up at him, and was relieved to see that his eyes were not dark – their grey was middling, and at her smile they lightened further.

“I will tell you.” He shifted in his seat. “If, perhaps, you will share with me what it is that has been bothering you today. You do not seem yourself.”

Lily sighed. “Is that why you brought me here?”

“No.” Elijah shook his head, and the hurt marring his expression told Lily he was telling the truth. “I know about your mother.” Unconsciously, his gaze drifted to the garnet ring she wore. Lily fought the urge to cover it with her other hand. She felt so… exposed.

“I want you to feel at home here,” he continued. “And… I want you to know that, though our circumstances and experiences have been wholly different, I do understand, to some extent.” He shifted again, and Lily read it as discomfort – though not physical discomfort, as she’d first assumed. “I come here when I feel most alone. I do not ever want you to feel that way.”

“It is inevitable,” she said, staring blankly at the stones. “Not because of you. You’ve done so much for me, Elijah. And I already feel more at home here than I have for years – since my mother died – at Blood Moon. All I really had there was my father, and he was as broken by her death as I was. More so.”

He took the hand with her mother’s ring and held it gently. “Then why is it inevitable?”

Blinking back tears, Lily smiled. “Nope. Not fair. You first.”

Elijah sighed dramatically, but squeezed her hand and smiled back at her. “Okay.” He paused for such a long time Lily became worried he might not continue, but then, through shaking breaths, he began. “My mother was… I want to say kind, but it seems too weak a word to start with.”

“I think kind is a good word,” Lily said, her own voice wobbling.

“Then she was kind,” he said, his throat bobbing. “Keeping us – my father and I – safe, and our pack, was what she cared about most in the world. I truly believe she would have done anything to keep us safe.” He wiped his eyes. “My father was much the same. When I looked at them together, I could see precisely why they were mates.”

Lily pressed her body closer to his, wanting to offer whatever comfort she could.

“I’ll have to show you his desk.” Elijah laughed softly, the sound wet, clouded with unshed tears. “He hated it. I do, too. It's frivolous and ornate, and hardly practical. But it was given to him as a gift by his father when he took over as Alpha, so I suppose he loved it, in a way. And I suppose that I do, too.

“When they died… I was lost. The – the people that killed them,” he snarled the word, and Lily shuddered at the raw violence in his voice, “were people they had trusted.” He gulped. “And I was the only one left.”

Lily put a hand on his thigh and squeezed. He wrapped her close, pressing his face into her hair and breathing deeply. She listened to his heaving breaths, to the racing of his heart, and she allowed the bond to guide her as she listened.

“It was their advisors,” he said slowly, carefully, as though he was considering every word. “They… they drowned her.”

The hiss that burst from Lily was entirely unconscious. “What?”

Something in Elijah seemed to close down as he continued. Lily fought to meet his gaze, but it was fixed on the memorial stone, right where their names had been carved.

“They didn’t even bother taking her that far. They grabbed her from the herb garden and took her to the river. They wanted to shame her. I – I heard her screaming. So I ran.

“They dunked me under the water when I arrived.” He swallowed. “I tried to save her. There was this – I don’t know, this burst of strength. I shoved my head up, up – until it broke the surface, and I fought them, trying to get close to her, to save her.

“I was too late,” he finished lamely, tears spilling freely down his cheeks. “She was dead. Seeing – her, it was too much. I was weak again, and they shoved me under the river, holding my head down. I heard the sword before I felt the steel against my skin.” He brushed his fingers down the scar on his face, and Lily recoiled. She’d imagined the injury had been the result of a stray claw on a full moon fight – not a blade wound inflicted upon a child.

“My father arrived before they could kill me, too.” He glowered at the stone, but there was more than anger and fear in his eyes. “He took the blow intended for me.”

At last, it clicked into place.

“Elijah… I’m so sorry.”

He laughed, the sound strangled by tears. “It’s my fault. You have nothing to apologise for.”

Lily sat up straight, grabbing his shoulders and forcing him to meet her eyes. “Neither do you. You were – what, twelve?” At his nod, she carried on. “You did everything you could. The only people to blame for their deaths were the people that killed them.”

He nodded, his eyes darting to her nose, her cheeks, her chin. Lily sighed. She could hear his unspoken words as loudly as if he’d shouted them.

“I know what I say won’t change anything. But it wasn’t your fault, Eli. It wasn’t. You don’t have to hold onto that guilt.” Dropping her own gaze, she took both of his hands in both of hers.

It was his turn to sigh. Breathing deeply, he inhaled and exhaled until they no longer caught on the slickness coating his throat.

“I’m sorry. I – I haven’t told anyone that.”

“You have nothing to be sorry for. I’m here to listen – whenever, wherever.” Lily pressed a kiss to his damp cheek, her lips touching the scar.

“I’m so thankful to have met you,” he breathed, touching his forehead to hers. “I think you might be my salvation.”

“I think you might be mine,” she whispered, closing her eyes as the sun dropped behind the crooked line of pine trees, casting them both in shadow.