Chapter 9 – Let Them Whisper

Elena's POV

The city felt colder today. Or maybe I was just colder inside.

I stood in the kitchen of Ember Flame for what I knew might be the last time. The place I built with my bare hands—seasoned with sweat, silent nights, and buried dreams. The air smelled like roasted garlic and thyme, but it didn't feel like home anymore. Not really.

I packed up the essentials—my knives, my apron, the worn-out wooden spoon Jules once gifted me when I opened the place. The one that said "For the Luna who feeds hearts before stomachs."

I chuckled bitterly.

Hearts. Mine had been fed lies. Starved of truth.

I dropped the sealed envelope on the courier desk across the street, addressed to the Culinary Council. I hadn't opened the letter again. I didn't need to. I already knew I'd said yes. To freedom. To possibility. To me.

But I wasn't ready to go just yet. There was one last thing I had to say goodbye to.

The garden.

Not just any garden. The garden. Tucked behind the packhouse, hidden behind the kitchen wing and a patch of stone walls no one visited anymore. Years ago, I planted herbs there with my own hands—lavender for calm, rosemary for strength, mint for clarity. It had been my little sanctuary.

I knew the guards wouldn't let me in through the main gate, not with the way things were. So I took the long route. Jules had arranged for someone to distract the eastern patrol. She didn't say who, and I didn't ask. Some things are better left unknown.

I walked with my hood pulled low, heart pounding in my chest. My boots crunched against the dry dirt. As I neared the garden, I paused.

It was overgrown. Neglected. Wild. Exactly how I felt.

I knelt down by the rosemary, brushing my fingers gently across the leaves. They were dry, a little brittle, but alive. Still clinging. Still growing. Still surviving.

Like me.

I plucked a small sprig and brought it to my nose. My throat tightened.

I loved here.

I whispered it into the silence.

I stood, wiping my palms on my jeans. Just as I turned to go, I heard a voice I'd hoped never to hear again.

"Well, well," Catherine said coldly, standing at the edge of the clearing like a ghost draped in power. "Back to poison more herbs?"

I didn't flinch. I didn't even look away.

"I came to say goodbye," I said calmly.

She scoffed. "Goodbye? What a luxury. You should be banished again. Stripped properly. I warned Damien you were unfit from the start."

I met her gaze, even though my hands trembled. "You warned him because you never wanted someone he couldn't control."

Her eyes narrowed. "Don't play the victim, Elena. You broke this pack. You brought shame to our bloodline."

"No," I said softly. "You did. When you chose a snake over your own family."

A sharp silence passed between us. I didn't stay to hear her response.

But fate wasn't done with me yet.

Damien stepped out from behind the wall. I didn't need to sense him—I felt his presence like a weight in the air. Heavy. Complicated.

He looked… wrecked. Tired eyes. Slightly unshaven. Guilt written into the lines of his face.

"Elena," he said quietly.

I turned. "I didn't come for you."

"I know." His voice was rough. "Still… thank you for coming."

"To a dying garden?" I smiled faintly. "We had something in common."

He stepped closer, like he wanted to say something more. I could see the words dying behind his lips.

"Why now?" he asked instead. "Why leave everything?"

I stared at him, steady. "Because you let them erase me. You let her erase me."

He flinched. "I didn't—"

"You didn't stop them." I cut him off. "Same thing."

The wind stirred between us. The garden was quiet.

"I never stopped loving you," he murmured, eyes shining.

I shook my head. "You loved me quietly, Damien. But your silence killed me louder than any lie."

And then I walked away.

As I passed through the outskirts of the grounds, I noticed eyes on me—pack members, whispers behind fences. Some looked confused. Others angry. But one, a girl barely older than eighteen, met my gaze.

And she nodded.

Just once. But it said everything.

You were never the villain.

You were never invisible.

I walked toward Jules' car, the rosemary still clenched in my palm.

Let them whisper.

I was done hiding.

And this time… I wasn't walking away as the Luna they rejected.

I was walking as the woman they couldn't destroy.