by Eva Brandt
I suspected that wasn’t completely true, but I didn’t call him out on his lie. When he took another deep breath, I waited, giving him time to gather his thoughts and find the ideal path to his foe and sibling. As he took off running, I followed, with my subordinates behind me.
He didn’t shift into his wolf form, something which I suspected might have had something to do with the pendant he’d hidden in his jacket. Still in his humanoid shape, he unerringly led us through the cramped, dirty alleys of the city, not faltering once.
The subsidiary group of scavengers that Kai had destroyed had been smaller than my main one. It had mostly served as a scouting unit for my larger operations and a point of contact with other, independent parties of plagues. I suspected that was how they’d been found. Independent plagues were far more indiscreet than those who answered to me, and tended to die quickly and be a liability because of their reckless behavior.
Granted, there was also the fact that this particular pack of Banished had been clever. Up to a point, I respected Declan’s brother, and I’d acknowledged his skills even when I’d been incapable of experiencing emotion. But Kai also believed that Declan was on his side and would never cooperate with plagues. He’d have no way of knowing that his little brother had turned on him once again.
And so, Kai hadn’t bothered to hide the traces only shape-shifters could’ve found. He’d been in a rush and had actually left some specific marks to follow. “It’s not that unusual,” Declan explained when Helena asked him about the practice. “Werewolves often split up in smaller groups when they retreat from an attack spot. The Alpha may leave messages like this, using a combination of his sharp claws, saliva, and even urine. Other species can’t detect it, since it’s very specific to each individual pack.”
“That seems unnecessarily convoluted,” Vance pointed out, his tone inquisitive, but carefully level. “Why go through all that trouble?”
I suppressed a sigh of irritation. If Vance kept speaking, there would be no need for Declan to take him on later, as I’d end his miserable life just out of annoyance. “Because shape-shifters lost their magic a long time ago, and they’ve been trying to find ways around that,” I told him. “Technology can’t always help them when their best weapon is a shape-shifted body. Now stop wagging your tongues, lest I remove them from your mouths.”
Everyone—including Declan—shut up. I had no intention of leaving him without a tongue, and he knew it, but he wasn’t in the mood for much conversation anyway. He’d thrown his full focus into tracking down his brother. Maybe he thought that if we ended this faster, it would hurt less. But feelings didn’t work that way. Even I knew that, and I’d only had emotions for a couple of weeks.
The pack of Banished had taken refuge in the sewers. Scavengers had used this approach in the past to attempt shaking Alarian pursuers off their trails. It didn’t work when the person in charge of tracking them down was a very determined werewolf.
We heard them before we saw them. The group had stopped to tend to their wounded in a larger section of the sewers. I gestured for my teams to split up like they’d been instructed, all the while choosing a position that would allow us to observe the Banished without being spotted. “Do you think they were telling the truth, Alpha?” one of the male werewolves asked. “About Declan.”
“No way in hell,” another replied. “Declan would never become a scavenger. Even if he’d been inclined to do such a horrible thing, Mathias Vandale wouldn’t have just accepted him. They were trying to trick us, to throw us off the real trail.”
I recognized the second person as Kaiden Whelan. Declan’s brother had indeed been looking for him, intending to avenge him. The confirmation of what we’d already suspected simply made what we were about to do even worse.
Declan obviously had no desire to continue eavesdropping on the conversation. Without waiting for me, he stepped out of the shadows and walked up to his former pack. “There was never a need to throw you off any trail, Kai. I’m not hiding.”
Like one being, the werewolves turned toward Declan. Kaiden’s eyes widened when he saw his brother. “Declan? What are you doing here? How?”
I took this as my cue to step in. “He’s here because I asked him to, of course.” I made my way to Declan’s side and brushed my fingers over his cheek. “On my command, to be more specific. Isn’t that right, my pet?”
The gesture served a dual purpose, to anger the Banished and make them drop their guards, and to provide Declan with some comfort. It didn’t help him. No matter how close we might’ve been, I wasn’t sure how to reach him.
Confirming my worst fears, Declan nodded. “Yes, Your Highness. I live to serve.”
Every single member of Declan’s pack had a reason to resent him. His decision to join The Pure Kingdom of Alaria had compromised a lot of their safe houses and operations. But even so, he remained, in a way, one of their own.
The werewolves all started to growl, their eyes glowing threateningly in the dim light of the sewers. They might not have magic any longer, but that didn’t change the fact that they were dangerous.
Kaiden clenched his fists so tightly his claws dug into his palms, drawing blood. “What have you done to my brother, you monster?”
I continued playing my part, just like I’d sworn I would. “Nothing he didn’t want me to.” I smirked smugly, although I felt little joy over the exchange. “I assure you my pet is a very willing participant in all the games we play.”
Kaiden took a step forward and bared his fangs at me. “You’ll undo whatever spell you cast on him, or I’ll make you regret the day you were born.”
I shot Kaiden an unimpressed look. I’d heard more creative threats, from far scarier people. Still, it was a good effort, and I appreciated that he was making it for Declan’s sake.
“You know as well as I do that won’t happen,” I told him. “Contrary to popular belief, I’m not an unreasonable man. I’ll give you a choice, Alpha Whelan. You can try to save your brother—who doesn’t need to be saved, by the way—or you can make sure your pack survives today. What will it be?”
The answer should’ve been simple. An Alpha werewolf would never pick a family member over the well-being of the pack as a whole, and Kaiden Whelan was anything but stupid. He hesitated, looking at Declan with an expression that held a mix of heartbreak, guilt, and regret. At last, he straightened his back and took a deep breath, as if bracing himself for something very painful. “Declan, I—”
“Don’t finish that sentence,” Declan cut him off. “I’ve chosen my path. Now, you need to choose what’s best for you and for the pack.”
He was practically telling his brother to take my offer and let the whole matter go. Maybe Kaiden would have done exactly that, but his underlings didn’t have his level of intelligence.
“Traitor!” someone shouted. “I knew you couldn’t be trusted.”
The words were barely intelligible, but I understood enough to be prepared for what followed. The werewolf pounced at us, shifting mid-leap and aiming for Declan.
Maybe it was for revenge. Maybe it was for honor or out of simple stupidity. Whatever reasons he might have had, he never reached his target.
I didn’t even have to think about what I was doing. I just lifted my hand and a bolt of electricity emerged from my fingertips.
The powerful blast sent the werewolf flying back and his body hit the wall with a crack. He slid down to the ground, his fur scorched and his limbs twitching. I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was dead.
I felt no regret at having killed yet another person who’d been trying to do the right thing. Mostly, I was irritated, because if not for him, we could’ve ended this without further bloodshed.
For a few seconds, the rest of the werewolf pack just stared in complete disbelief. Declan broke the almost awkward silence. A small smile appeared on his face, and he hummed thoughtfully, eyeing the dead body with unconcealed amusement.
“Oh, dear. You should’ve
chosen a less reckless beta, brother. I hope you have a spare. Ryder isn’t getting up from that one.”
If he was trying to bait Kaiden into a battle, he succeeded. There was no turning back, not anymore. The Alpha couldn’t allow his beta’s death to go unpunished. It was unwise, but the Banished were not known for their rational approach to reality anyway.
One by one, the werewolves shifted into their beast-like forms and attacked us. The three who were in the lead didn’t get the chance to take more than a couple of steps. I intercepted them with a static field, immobilizing them with powerful jolts of electricity.
The Alpha was among them, and I congratulated myself for having removed the worst threat from the get-go. It would still be unpleasant for Declan to have to kill his former friends, but in the big picture, they were more or less irrelevant.
Declan seemed to think the same, because he allowed himself to shift. The form he chose was not the one Kaiden’s pack used.
Instead of dropping on four paws and turning into an animal, Declan became a true half-wolf. His bones changed, but he remained upright. His skin sprouted fur and he gained a tail and a snout, but he didn’t lose his human posture or intellect. “That was a mistake,” he growled.
I’d heard that werewolves, as well as other shifters, had possessed an in-between form a long time ago, but it had been lost along with their earth magic. Even scavengers had become unable to use such skills, although their diet was far more suited to their natures than Declan’s had been.
Declan shouldn’t have been able to change into such a form. Even if he’d embraced the same path of gore and destruction I was on, it should’ve at least taken him some time to adapt.
The others didn’t understand him, but not because he lacked humanoid vocal cords. He just wasn’t speaking in English. He seemed to be using a strange form of Finnish dialect. It wasn’t a good sign.
Despite everything that had changed since I’d first met Lucienne, one thing remained as true as it had been that day. We were all still Accursed. Lucienne was not the one in danger—we were—which meant that the Accursed Syndrome would start kicking in any moment now, and there was no telling how it would manifest.
Taking that into account, it shouldn’t have been so surprising that Declan’s words—or rather the language they were spoken in—paralyzed me. They reached into a part of me I hadn’t known was there, and the flashes I’d experienced in the past returned with a vengeance.
My view of the sewers blurred, my vision darkening around the edges as the fragments of the curse still on Mathias dug into my consciousness more sharply than any blade. Our own memories were doing this to us, feeding the Accursed Syndrome, and I didn’t have the strength to fight it, not on my own.
I couldn’t pull Declan out of his fugue either, not in the middle of a battle, and not when I felt like I was going to collapse too. I scrambled for help, for someone, anyone who could anchor us and drag us out of the sudden onslaught of the curse.
My thoughts went to Lucienne. Even when she’d deemed herself a simple human, she’d always wanted to assist us. She might not remember us now, but I still believed in her, in the strength of what we shared.
“Help us, Lucienne,” I called out to her. “Help him. Please. You’re the only one who can do it.”
At first, I feared it wouldn’t work. I sensed her presence surging at the back of my mind, but it was distant, maybe even hostile. She was confused, and why shouldn’t she be? No doubt Pierce and her father had made her believe all kinds of nonsense about us.
But she could beat their lies and conditioning. She’d shattered the mind blur I’d cast on her at a time when her powers had been in their incipience. All she needed was a little push, a reminder of who and what she truly was.
It might’ve been selfish of me to do it. She might not be in any state to help us at all. But I needed her anyway, and we’d always said that love was a very selfish emotion.
“Please,” I insisted. “Don’t let go of what we have.”
She didn’t miraculously remember me, but I hadn’t expected her to. Things had never gone so smoothly for an Accursed. The damn spell always put us in the worst possible situations, and Lucienne was not omnipotent. But she must’ve still sensed some kind of connection between us, because she held onto me and reached back.
“There’s nothing between us,” she said, “but I won’t let go of you, not until I find you and you answer all my questions.”
It was a threat, but it was something. Hatred was better than indifference, than her absence and the not knowing if she was coherent enough to think on her own. The sound of her voice and the familiar, if distant, feel of her magic cleared my head. I recovered just in time to see Declan disemboweling a werewolf who’d been foolish enough to approach him.
Howls of grief filled the sewers, but Declan didn’t seem to care. He threw the carcass aside and licked his claws. “Let that be a warning. All those who...”
He trailed off mid-sentence, his body going rigid, a wave of familiar power flickering around him. The realization that he’d heard Lucienne as well filled me with a relief I had trouble hiding.
It was only because of the ongoing battle that no one realized something was wrong with me. It appeared I’d gotten lucky and hadn’t collapsed or done anything too suspicious during my fit. My men were following their instructions to the letter and taking out the werewolves Declan had not yet had the time to tear apart.
Hoping I wasn’t making a mistake, I summoned my magic and allowed it to fill the sewers, so overwhelming it even made Declan drop to his knees. The werewolves didn’t have a chance to resist it. Within seconds, they all went down, some shifting back to their human forms, other staying as wolves, but convulsing and contorting painfully on the ground.
I lifted the spell, since I knew it would do damage to my own forces as well. Accursed didn’t die from oxygen deprivation as quickly as humans did, but repeated exposure to such magic could affect the brain. I theorized it might be one of the reasons why some of the plagues were so insane. Being used as Mathias’s playthings on a regular basis must’ve left traces.
I didn’t care about their health and well-being, but I still needed them to find and rescue Lucienne. Hopefully, the brief reminder would suffice and I wouldn’t have to do further damage.
“Enough,” I bellowed. “There’s no need for further waste. Alpha Whelan, admit it. You’ve lost. You can’t win against me. You never could.”
Kaiden didn’t answer. He stubbornly remained in wolf form, the last gesture of defiance of a defeated man. I respected that and didn’t force him to shift, even if I could’ve. Instead, I focused on my subordinates. They were recovering faster than the werewolves and already getting up.
“Stash the ones who are left,” I ordered. “They might have more information. And if they don’t, we can use them to spice up future dinners.”
“Yes, Your Lordship,” Declan replied as he turned back into his human form. “Of course. It will be as you wish it.”
His servile words seemed to shatter something inside Kaiden. He shifted shapes as well and tried to reach out to Declan one last time. “Snap out of it, little brother. Don’t do this. Don’t bow down to him. You’re better than this. You can fight it.”
“I could, yes,” Declan replied, “but there’s nothing to fight.”
Declan knelt next to the fallen Alpha and gripped his shoulder. “I’m doing what I always have, Kai, following my own path and that of my soulmate. You should follow yours and forget about me.”
It was the last mercy Declan could grant his brother. Kai didn’t seem to understand it. When he looked at me again, it was with even more hatred than before.
“I hope you know I’ll kill you for this.”
“Good luck with that, Alpha Whelan. Stronger people than you have tried. I am death. I cannot be killed.”
It was probably a lie. Even Mathias could die, although he’d yet to find a method of how that could be acco
mplished. But none of them knew that, and as far as I was concerned, that was the way things needed to stay.
Rescuing Lucienne from her captivity depended on many things, and one of them was the illusion of Mathias’s invincibility. If we didn’t have that, if the plagues realized their leader was falling apart inside, our already shaky plan would collapse like a castle of cards. And when that happened, the consequences would be devastating, not just for us, but for the world as we knew it.
Seven
The Dead Witch
Pierce
I shouldn’t have listened to her. I should’ve stayed with Lucienne. I knew that even as I left her room and abandoned her to her fate, to her madness. But I was afraid of what would happen if I did stay, afraid of what the apparition who was following me would do.
I walked down the corridor that led to my room, vibrating with helplessness and anxiety. By my side, Bjorn Lindberg smirked, and the expression reminded me so much of the day he’d almost killed my sister that I wanted to scream. “Problem, Mr. Garnier? You didn’t think we’d just let you do whatever you wanted to her?”
Mostly, I’d thought I could handle them, at least until I had a permanent solution that would allow me to destroy them altogether without Louis’s help. But when had my life been so easy?
Delphine grabbed my elbow before I could answer. I stopped and turned toward her, meeting her concerned eyes with my own. She hadn’t noticed Bjorn, although the damn incubus was standing right next to her. “We have to do something about this,” she commented. “At this rate, her magic will go out of control.”
“And what do you suggest? It’s not like we can stop her nightmares. We have no knowledge of what Louis’s magic did to her mind.”
I was acutely aware of Bjorn listening to our conversation, but at this point, I didn’t even care. Let him hear. Did he really think that he was the only one worried about Lucienne? I was her true soulmate. I was the one who felt all her pain and grief. And yet, I was still helpless, because I was backed into a corner, forced to work with the same person who’d created this infernal state of affairs, to begin with.