Chapter 3

At the gala Rowan had Maeve greet the guests as his date and left the real Luna standing in a corner. When Liam steadied Elara, who had gone white, Rowan's face darkened at once. "Who said another man could touch you?"

Elara looked at him. "When I was on the floor, why didn't you ask who hurt me?" He did not answer.

The lounge had a security-camera blind spot. Maeve admitted she had known about the abortion all along, then kicked Elara in her still-healing abdomen. Back in view of the cameras, Maeve leaned against the wall and said she could walk on her own, the picture of silent suffering. Rowan saw only Elara curled on the floor and decided she was competing for his attention.

Elara reached a hand out to him. Rowan draped his jacket over Maeve's shoulders first, then asked Elara if she was done performing. Elara slowly withdrew her hand, her voice frighteningly calm. "Rowan, this time I mean it. I don't want to be your wife anymore."

Music drifted through the lounge door like a celebration in another world. Elara was in too much pain to make out what Maeve was saying, but when Rowan approached, some instinct in her still hoped he would see the truth. That hope died the instant he draped his jacket over Maeve. Elara pulled her hand back, not to punish anyone, but because she finally understood that begging for help from a man who refused to see her would only humiliate her further.

The bloodstain on the back of the gown kept spreading. Liam tried to take Elara to the hospital, but Rowan blocked the car out of jealousy. Maeve claimed the blood was from Elara's period and urged him not to embarrass her in public.

Elara said, "I would be safer leaving with anyone but you." Rowan mistook her bid to survive for betrayal and ordered her locked in the basement holding room for two hours.

She reminded him that hunters had once trapped her in a dark cellar when she was young, and that he had held her and promised she would never face that fear alone again. Rowan only said, "Two quiet hours. Think it through." When the door closed, it shut that promise out with everything else.

Maeve reset the electronic release timer for three days and had silver restraints put on Elara. Over those three days, Elara heard footsteps three times, but all that ever arrived was a cup of sugar water. She stopped calling out. By the time Gideon noticed something was wrong, the divorce was already final. Elara took the papers and went straight to the airport.

The basement had no windows, and darkness stretched each minute. Elara counted the guards' shift changes and reminded herself to breathe, reminded herself that the divorce was already final. The first time footsteps approached, she thought it was Rowan. The second time, she crushed that hope. The third time, she did not even lift her head. The darkness did not swallow her. It burned away the last of her dependence on an old promise.