the Highers enter the hall, walking up the dais and taking their seats. Once again, two chairs are still left empty and there is no sign of Edward. They all remove their hooded cloaks as the murmurs around the room go silent in their presence.
“It is time to sentence the traitor of Vrohkaria and her followers.” Charles speaks clear and commanding, his voice filling the great hall easily. “We have spoken throughout the night on the best outcome of this rare situation. “The crimes against Joshua Satori are helping a traitor leave her pack and aiding in the kidnapping of a child, kidnapping others to be taken to Eridian to be kept there, failing to inform the Highers of a pack being established, and not handing over the traitor of the lands.”
I turn my head to the side, begging Josh to do what I asked of him. “She made me do it,” he blurts out, and I lose some tension in my body. He can’t be sentenced like this, he just can’t. “She threatened my life and others, therefore I couldn’t leave or tell anyone as I would have been killing those that she said she would.”
“Do you say this in truth, Joshua?” Lord Higher Charles demands, looking between us curiously.
“It is, but I worry she will kill those I care about. I’m trying to protect them, the kids especially.” My spine is straight as I look directly into their eyes as he speaks. No fear. No tremble. “They are all scared she will kill those they love. That’s why they haven’t spoken, all except Kade.” I glance at him, but again, he’s not looking at either of us.
Darius scoffs, and the Highers murmur amongst themselves. “Why would we believe you in what you say? You are basically telling me that you had no choice but to aid her. Yet reports say you are her closest, like a brother to her.”
“I had to be close to her to make sure we all stayed in line so she wouldn’t hurt anyone. Or if someone did something wrong, I could let them know and they could pacify her.” Josh swallows roughly, hating the words that are coming out of his own mouth. Damning me. “I thought we were in love, I was wrong, she just used me.”
Charles hums and leans on his hand, elbow to the chair’s armrest. “What was in it for you, taking people and keeping them in Eridian,” Charles asks me.
I shrug. “I wanted a pack, so I created one and kept them in line. Isn’t that how we do things?”
“Her pack was scared,” Darius adds, green eyes looking directly at me. “She wouldn’t tell me why, but they always cowered in fear from us. Probably in fear of consequences if they spoke something that could kill their loved ones.” The Elites growl around him, eyes locked on me with looks that could have me dead in an instant if it were possible.
“Hmmm.” Charles taps his chin, dark eyes looking between the three of us as I briefly look at my pack members.
Their eyes are hard on Josh’s, but when they come to mine, I hope they see in my own eyes that this is what I want, what has to happen. Josie shakes her head, eyes still red, and I blink slowly at her as Danny’s knee presses against hers.
“Joshua, speak clearly. Did Rhea make threats in any way, to keep you and others in line?” Higher Frederick asks.
I feel Josh’s gray eyes on me. I feel his hesitation at answering when he knows it’s downhill for me, but there is no stopping it with or without his words. I turn my head, my eyes speaking for me. This is the way it has to be. The only way I could get them out of here is if I take the blame for it all.
He swallows, his voice rough when he finally speaks. “It’s true. Everything I said and Alpha Darius has said is true.”
More murmurs and looks of disgust head my way. “You really are a vile woman,” a Higher says, waving a hand toward me as his scraggy, dark hair falls to his chin.
A barrier is put around me again, and I see it glow before pain wracks my body. My wrists strain against the cuffs as I try to move away from the burning within me. I grit my teeth, leaning against the barrier at my back as I growl through the current and the pain lashing up my torn flesh. I feel blood trickle from my ears, adding to my already bloodied body. Sweat gathers at the back of my neck as I hold in a scream that wants to be released, turning to look toward Josh for strength. His eyes hold mine through it, the anguish in them worse than the lightning racking my body. I know it kills him seeing me like this, but it will kill him more if he doesn’t get to Sarah.
The current fades to a low buzz, and I breathe out shakily, wiggling my fingers to stop the tingles there. I stand straight from the barrier as it feels like tiny needles stabbing into me and take a step to the middle, ready for what’s next. I have to be. I don’t look at Kade or at my pack again as my eyes find Charles, that fucking grin on his face at seeing me hurt before he drops it, sitting up straighter in his seat.
“It’s unfathomable how this female is of our kind. She is no wolf, no race of ours,” Charles spits, and the crowd shouts their agreement, calling for my death. “I will accept what Joshua has said as truth. I believe this woman has done unspeakable things to her pack to keep them from leaving and reaching out to any sort of authority. Through no fault of their own, they have been taken and abused by this woman. Sarah Woodly has confirmed that, as have the wounds on her body.” I don’t move, I just keep my eyes on him as he throws out false statements. “A strong, lengthy punishment is to be served, as well as removing the curse on Vrohkaria to rid us of the Rogures. Are you now going to tell us how to remove it?”
I stay silent, breathing evenly. They don’t believe I’m not to blame for the curse, I can’t persuade the room otherwise. I’m the bad guy, the person they are going to use to blame for all the suffering the Rogures have dealt out throughout the land, when instead they should still be looking for a way to stop them.
I can’t win in this situation. They won’t listen to me, and I haven’t helped myself with lying to Darius. All my words are just lies and manipulations according to them all. All I can do now is just endure. The barrier glows again, and my eyes connect to Darius as I’m brought to my knees, the current more intense this time, rattling my teeth as a whimpered breath comes from me.
His green eyes bore into mine, and I see them tighten around the edges, his shoulders tensing as he watches.
“Tell us how to stop the Rogures!” Charles’ voice booms inside the barrier as blood spills from my nose and over my lips as I cough. I squeeze my eyes shut, breathing through it as Runa whimpers inside of me, too exhausted to help share some pain. All she can do is feel it through me.
Charles knows I didn’t cause the curse, so why is he going along with this? I was locked inside a cage and tormented by them. How could I have performed a ritual at seven years old? If for one second, one person would think clearly, they would know the time frame doesn’t add up. The people are too blinded in their anger to see it, the Elites too blinded by what this crystal showed them. They all have fucking wool over their eyes, and they refuse to clear the fog.
The pain eases, and I rest my cuffed hands on the barrier in front of me, blood still dripping from my nose and ears, dribbling down my chin. My body aches, my muscles sore from tensing up so much and my back feels like lava. My eyes open and they lock with Darius’ once again. Through the haze of my vision, I watch as his head tilts, his eyes roaming over my body and watching fresh blood flow from me. His hand twitches at his side before he crosses his arms, looking toward the Highers with a clenched jaw as they speak, breaking our connection.
“She will not tell us Lord Higher,” Higher Frederick tsks. “She cares none for Vrohkaria or our people getting slaughtered by the Rogures.”
“It seems she will not,” Charles muses. “Kaden, say what you have to say to the traitor. Maybe you can persuade her.”
I look over at Kade as he speaks, his voice cold and without any emotion as my breathing becomes labored. “I’ve had my memories blocked, you stole me from my home, and I lost many years with my family. That can never be given back to me. I unknowingly helped you bring people to Eridian under the guise that we were helping them, when you were really just stealing them and making them work in fear around us. I was blind to it all, but no more. The highest punishment should be given, even though I will never get any justice for what you have done to me. I will never get back the time I have lost,” he growls, eyes full of animosity. “Nothing I say will make you tell the truth. You’re sick and twisted, and I’m ashamed I spent so many years looking up to you as a mother when you stole me from mine.” he spits at the barrier. “I want no connection to you. You mean nothing to me.”
If you could see my heart, it would be bleeding from the wounds he had just caused. It would be on the floor beneath his foot as he stomped on it repeatedly, slowly fading into ash. I suck in a shaky breath as I try to remember that his memories are not what he thinks they are. Try to remember that something had been done to him to make him act like this. If he knew, he would be the first in line to remove their heads, I know he would. This is not my Kade standing in front of me.
It’s probably for the best he doesn’t know. It will keep him somewhat safe for now. But that didn’t stop the pain in my chest that he thought I was capable of doing this. That I could steal someone from their home when all I have done is try to help those that need it after mine was tainted. I’ve been there through so many milestones in Kade’s life, been there through nightmares and heartbreak. I’ve been there through his achievements and creations, through our sacred ritual of getting his tattoo and getting his wolf. It’s me that has given him a life, gave him his laughter, taught him to read and write, and taught him how to be kind.
Not them. Me.
“Can I have a blade?” Kade asks suddenly, and my body stills, my bruised heart pounding against my chest.
“What are you doing?” I rush out, watching as Darius lifts a small blade and holds it out to him. Kade walks up the steps as his chains are taken away, and I track him until he’s standing beside Darius.
“Undoing something I should have never let happen in the first place,” Kade says as he grips the hilt of the blade tightly in his grasp.
I watch everything in slow motion as he brings the blade up to his marked forearm, and he presses the tip to his skin just below the inside of his elbow. Blood wells to the surface. Then in one quick move he slices down his skin, effectively slicing through the design Josh and I lovingly put there and severing our blood link. Destroying what we etched there in the name of the Gods. In the name of our bond, our family.
I fall as my knees give out, and I hit the floor hard, a whimper leaving me as I watch blood drip from his forearm, splashing against the floor. Then, a sharp, stabbing pain slices through my head.
I scream.
Scream and scream and scream as it feels like I’m being ripped in two as the link between us pulls taut. The strand of his link intertwining with mine stretches, pulling as far as it can until it starts to fray. I grip my head, still screaming in pain as tears stream down my face. “Carzan,” I whimper. Then, the strands snap, his link disappearing into the darkness, and all that’s left is a void where his link once was. An endless pit of black as I try to search for his link. Try to reach out and grab a hold of it and never let go, but it’s not there. It’s gone.
Sobs escape me, my body trembling at the loss. I don’t want to feel it, I want it to stop. All of it to stop. It’s too much. I can’t take it. Kade falls to the floor beside Darius, screaming as he holds his head in his hands. Feeling what I’m feeling. They’re going to destroy him. They’re going to destroy everything he is to get to me. Breaking a blood link takes time to gently unravel the strings that connect us together. Shattering it like that is dangerous. A link is sacred, and he’s just destroyed it because of what they have done to him. Broken the vows he made. What else would they make him do in the name of getting to me? He will be a shell of a person when they are through with him.
“Now tell us how to break the curse!” Charles demands of me as again as I sob on the floor, my body shaking with tremors as pain flares up at the sudden loss of Kade’s blood link. I drag my blurry vision to Josh, who is on his knees holding his head in his hands, feeling the same effects of the broken link like Kade and I. “I think it’s time to show her more consequences of refusing us.”
I get to my hands and knees, coughing, barely taking in any air through my cries. I lift my head and see Darius looking at Kade on the floor, his brows scrunched up as he bends and picks up his blade. He looks at me, and the look in his eyes almost seems remorseful, but that can’t possibly be true.
I see two cloaked figures appearing behind Josie and Danny, and my eyes go wide. The cloaked figures bring a knife up to their throats, and I scramble to my feet, my body slamming against the barrier as I bang on it, ignoring the needle-like stabs I get for touching it. My guys behind them start shouting behind the cloths covering their mouths as they try to get to them.
“No, don’t, please. I don’t know how to break the curse,” I cry, still banging my chained hands on the shimmering violet barrier as the guys behind them try to get to them. I look at Darius. “I’m telling the truth. Please, believe me!” He puts his blade back in a holder and takes a step toward me from the top of the steps.
“Just tell us!” Charles shouts, standing and pointing at me.
“I can’t!” I shake my head, looking at the cloaked figures behind Josie and Danny. “I was too youn—” The barrier glows again and I cry out in pain. “I didn’t do it. Please, believe me. Vallier,” I whimper as I watch those blades start to slice through their necks slowly, blood spurting out from them as my eyes meet Josie’s.
Her dark green eyes are kind, telling me without words that it’s okay as a tear slips from her eye. Her head turns toward Danny, blood coloring her lips, and they look at each other in so much pain, and love and heartache until her body falls to the side, her eyes closing for the final time. Danny lands next to her, his chained hands touching her like he always has done, wanting to be as close to her as possible. Even in death their bodies are close, always with each other, and as I watch their essence coming from their body, I let it all out in an anguished scream.
All the pain, all the hurt, all the heartbreak comes from me as Runa stands and lets out a mournful howl within me. Cracks form on the barrier before it flashes, and I’m flung back, my body hitting against it as my chains pull, and then I’m yanked to the floor.
I see black boots appear through my blurry vision in front of me, laces tied neatly but now covered in specks of blood. I lift my head, sobs still wracking my body, guttural sounds coming from me as Darius crouches on the other side of the barrier. He looks at Kade behind him, still gripping his head in his hands, to Anna, Taylor, Sebastian, Hudson and Colten who are trying to get up, pulling on their chains. Then to Josie and Danny, their essence floating up and into the air. Then finally to Josh on his knees to the left of me, his head hanging low, before his eyes come back to mine, flashing black quickly before returning to green.
He clenches his jaw. “This is only the beginning for you if you don’t—”
“Remember what I told you in the cave,” I cry, cutting him off as my eyes lock with his. Darius’ dark brows lower in confusion as I continue. “About someone you love, protecting it.” My eyes flash, and my face begins to tingle. “I’m too late for them,” I sob as I look at Danny and Josie’s bodies behind him. “But I can’t let anymore be taken from me.”
“What the fuck are you on about?” he demands, voice harsh. He looks behind him, at Lord Higher Charles who still stands, looking toward us before his gaze meets mine again.
“I can’t let it happen, but if I must reveal myself, so will you,” I choke out. “But you are not worthy of being hidden, of being Vihnarn.” His eyes widen at my words, shock spreading across his face as he looks over my features.
“Don’t,” he growls low, so low that a shiver goes through me as I hiccup through my sobs.
“We are all falling, and so will you.”
I feel whispers of fingers stroking my face, palms cupping my cheeks, and I look deep into green eyes speckled with silver before I close them. Feeling a warmth spread all over my body, a warmth that’s familiar.
Safe.
Home.
“It’s okay, sweetheart. Let go. This is your path. You have done so well to stay hidden. I didn’t want this burden to fall on your shoulders. I never did, Milal, but it has. I know you are frightened, but the lands needs you to right the wrong. It’s time.”
“Mom,” I whimper, feeling the warmth become hotter, centering at my chest and traveling up to my neck and face.
“Yes, sweetheart, I’m here. I’ve always been here, within you. I made sure of it. It’s time for me to go now, though. It’s time for me to give you the last part of me that has been waiting for you.”
“Don’t go Mom, please. I need you.” I reach out in the darkness, but feel no one there.
“Hush now. It’s alright. All you need to do is let go. You are not going to break the promise you made to me. I release you from it.” Lips touch my forehead, tiny pinpricks of pain caressing there before it becomes hot, and I see flashes of light behind my closed lids.
Memory after memory rushes through my mind. Playing with Mom and Dad in the woods behind our house. Gathering the lesia flowers and giving them to Mom. Dad giving me my knife and the proud smile on his face. Mom and Dad dancing to their own music on our porch. Then pain and confinement. Hiding away from the opening of my cage when I heard footsteps. Sneers and mocking laughter taunting me as I cried. Them touching me. Josh hugging me and panicking about the amount of blood when he got me out of the basement. Josh holding me through the nights and promising me would always be with me.
Getting Kade and cuddling him as he cried after a nightmare and soothing him when he fell. Burying his mate, getting his wolf, and the smile on his face after he changed the first time. Getting our tattoos and creating the blood link. Josie helping me with her hugs and gentle touches, helping me with Kade when he would sometimes stop eating. The way her eyes lit up when they landed on Danny, and Danny twirling her around and laughing as they spoke in hushed whispers to each other. Meeting Solvier for the first time when I had tears rolling down my face in the forest, feeling so lost and having too much pressure from Eridian. Solvier curling up next to me, and me laying against him and sleeping. And him guiding and offering advice as we walked along the lakes and told me stories.
And Darius.
Darius eyes landing on me in The Deadlands. Darius with the wisps. Darius with the wolf pups. Darius with his tattoos. Darius helping me find Sam. Darius as he held me in the cave when I had a nightmare. Kissing me under the moonlight, and looking at me with speckled silver flecks in his eyes, seeing deep into every fiber of my being.
Heat rushes through me, and I welcome it. I welcome it all with open arms as I let go.
“That’s it. I’m so proud of you sweetheart. You are strong, my girl. Show them.”
“I’m scared.”
“I know, Lasandrhea, but have courage and show them. Show them you will not break, that you will not surrender. Show them all exactly who. You. Are.”
The heat leaves my body in a rush, the lingering touch on my forehead disappearing as my eyes spring open. My hair floats around me like I’m underwater, and I rise from the ground, barely feeling any physical pain. My legs are steady, my spine straight, and I feel power coursing through me, lighting me up from within. I keep my eyes on Darius as he follows me to standing, and I see his markings mixed into the tattoos on his neck pulse, reacting to mine on my face, neck and torso.
He looks over my own markings, tracing them everywhere he can see them with light green eyes full of shock and awe. He follows the one in the center of my chest, traveling in delicate lines to spread along my collar bones to the top of my shoulders, then thinly up my neck. His eyes move to my face next, following my markings from my cheekbones to up and around my temples before stopping in the center of my forehead.
“So that’s who you are,” he whispers, reminding me of all the times he’s asked as the great hall becomes silent. The last time he asked me who I was, I told him that I was someone he wouldn’t want me to be.
“I’m Lasandrhea Zaphina Kazari, Canaric wolf, Heir to Zahariss, protector of the lands. You, Darius Rikoth…” I pause, watching as his eyes flash black and his markings crawl further up his neck to just below his jaw. “You are Canaric wolf, Heir to Cazier, destroyer of the below.”
And then I let loose a blast of power, shattering the barrier around me and knocking him back as everyone screams.
To Be Continued…
