The Hall Knows Its Own
Janelle's Pov
"Alive," I repeated. The word felt foreign in my mouth, like a coin from another country.
"Alive and held," Verena said. "Not in the castle. Magnus is too careful for that. There is a keep in the mountains where the pack's old prisoners were once kept, and she has been there for twenty-one years." Her voice stayed level, but her fingers had knotted together so tightly that the knuckles were white. "She is the last of the true line besides you. While she lives, the hall has a rightful heir it will not betray. While she is his prisoner, he holds that heir in his fist. He cannot kill her, or the hall will turn on him. He cannot free her. So he has kept her, and waited for the second heir to grow up."
"Me."
