She turned to the wolfguards with a flick of her wrist. “Continue your work. My baby deserves peace.”
The guards released me and returned to digging. My body trembled with fury as I stepped forward, but Scott’s snarl stopped me in my tracks.
“Are you done?” He roared, grabbing my arm and shoving me aside with such force that I stumbled.
I bumped with the urn containing my mother’s ashes, knocking it over. The ashes spilled across the wet earth, mingling with the rain that had begun to fall.
For a moment, everything went silent. The world seemed to stop as I stared in horror.
“No... no!” I cried, dropping to my knees, my hands desperately clawing at the ground. The ashes turned into muddy paste beneath my fingers. Each handful I tried to scoop back was washed away by the relentless rain.
Winona stepped closer, her heels sinking into the mud. She looked down at me, her lips curling into a cruel smirk. “Ariana, why are you lying in the dirt like a stray? Enough of this act.”
Her words snapped something inside me. Fueled by a surge of rage, I shot to my feet and shoved her back. She stumbled, eyes wide with shock, but Scott caught her before she hit the ground.