"I promise," she whispered.
"Training begins tonight," Vale commanded, glancing at the three Alphas.
"And you three will escort her everywhere. She does not breathe without one of you present."
The Eye in the Gargoyle
As the group filed out of the room, none of them noticed the tiny, black lens embedded in the stone pupil of a gargoyle carving near the ceiling.
Miles away, in a room draped in velvet and shadows, a figure sat before a wall of monitors.
The flickering blue light illuminated a scarred hand resting on a mahogany desk. On the screen, the footage showed Mary trembling as Myles knelt before her.
"So it's true," a distorted, gravelly voice whispered into the darkness.
"She's a freak," a second voice spat.
Samantha stepped forward from the shadows of the room, her face twisted with a level of vitriol that bordered on madness.
"She embarrassed me in front of the entire academy.
She took my status, my pride... she ruined me.
"I want her dead. I want her torn apart in those woods."
The hooded figure chuckled, a sound like dry leaves skittering across a grave.
"No, Samantha. Not dead. Death is too simple for a crown princess. She must be silenced. Broken until she is nothing but a shell."
The figure turned to Samantha, the light catching a strange, ancient coin he flipped between his fingers.
"You have forty-eight hours to ensure she doesn't survive the Trials intact."
"Use the opening I've given you. Reach out to her, pretend to be a friend if you must, but lead her to the center of the woods."
Samantha's eyes gleamed with a cruel, hungry light. "The forest is hungry," she whispered, echoing a phrase she had been taught.
"And so am I," the figure replied. "Let the Moon Trials begin."