#Chapter 128 – Poisoned

Damon It had taken weeks of subtle questions and late-night searches, cross-referencing old infirmary logs with palace procurement ledgers no one bothered to secure. I hadn’t told Ronan. I hadn’t even told Jackson. This wasn’t a matter I could trust anyone else with. The pieces didn’t fall into place so much as collapse, slow, silent, and undeniable. A coded order for a rare herb extract, delivered in secret to the Ashford estate infirmary over a decade ago. A palace apothecary reassigned after handling “non-standard herbal compounds.” A tonic formula marked with a seal I recognized only because I’d seen it once before, years ago, on a condolence card: Luna Ella’s, as in Lila’s stepmother’s, personal crest. She hadn’t just known. She had orchestrated it. Lila’s suppressed wolf. Her fatigue spells. Her slow healing. The fragile thread of her instincts fraying more each day... It was all Ella’s doing; crafted slowly, invisibly, like rot beneath the floorboards. It