Cloaked in Blood

by T. F. Walsh

  Father paced the length of the room and back, one hand holding the side of his face. “If Levin has hurt Aisha, I’ll rip him apart with my bare hands.” His voice trembled with rage.

  With no response on my cell, which was unlike Aisha since she had the phone glued to her palm, I tapped open Twitter and typed in her handle. Her last post was a few minutes ago. No words, just an image of her hand, stretched out and covered in swirly henna patterns. The background was blurred, but I could sort of make out a building and a sign. I enlarged the photo, but it only pixelated it worse. Next to her was a blur of someone standing close, but not much else. Well, she clearly wasn’t in danger.

  “What is it?” Father glanced over my shoulder.

  In the right hand corner of the photo, bright spotlights revealed a set of train tracks fading into the distance, and then it hit me like a battle-ax to the stomach. “She’s at a train station.”

  “Where the bastard is she going?”

  “I’ll get her back.”

  “I’m coming too, so I can wring her neck. If she’s posting photos, then she’s not in any trouble. At least not until I get through with her.” He headed for the door. “I’m sure Levin wouldn’t mind lending us a car.”

  Father’s presence would quickly turn the situation from bad to terrible, and if Aisha was running away, he was the last person she’d want to confront. I had to first discover what was going on. “Better if I go on alone. How would it look to Levin if you left the grounds in a rush? Let’s not draw attention to ourselves.” Yep, put attention on Levin’s suspicions instead.

  His mouth warped into a frown. “Fine, but be quick. And keep me posted.”

  “Of course.” It seemed I couldn’t catch a break today.

  • • •

  I slammed the door to the green Volvo and sprinted across the train station parking lot, streetlights illuminating the night. A frozen wind blasted against me. Walking past a cluster of young boys, talking loudly, and an elderly woman with a walking stick, I finally made it onto the platform. People dotted the area, and I pushed past another woman. Why were so many people out tonight? Scanning the area ahead and behind me showed no Aisha.

  I’d only found one train station on phone maps nearby, so it had to be this one. Unless I’d missed a train and she’d already left.

  Then Father would go AWOL and ... I couldn’t ponder the consequences. I brushed past more people, their perspiration smells filling my senses. Still no sign of Aisha. I pulled my phone out and dialed her number again. She might not be answering, but if she was in the vicinity, I might hear her phone ring.

  I lowered the phone, listening. Nothing at first, then the beat of a belly-dancing tune echoed from across the train tracks, on the other platform. I sidestepped a young couple for a better vantage and spotted my sister staring at her phone, then tucking it into her pocket.

  A guy stepped up alongside her, wrapping an arm around her waist, drawing her closer.

  Zeki!

  Lifting her chin, she pressed her lips to his. My legs weakened beneath me at the sight of her with Father’s captain of the guards. How could I not have known they were an item? Actually, the signs were there, always together, whispering, laughing. Even back in Turkey, they’d been inseparable. I put it down to her having a crush on a wulfkin eight years her elder. I thought back to my spotting Zeki handing a parcel to a Hungarian guard—I was wrong about thinking he was betraying us. He’d probably paid for transport into town.

  Father would kill them both if he knew. That would explain why they ran away, but this couldn’t have come at a worse possible time. And most likely in their eyes, the most opportune one.

  I raced toward the steps leading to an overhead bridge and the other platform. Then a hoot blared and a rattling train approached on Aisha’s side. She and Zeki were hurrying forward with the rest of the crowd.

  Fuck no.

  I shoved past a guy and sprinted up the steps as the train screeched to a halt. The conductor’s Hungarian words blared from the speakers. I shot across the bridge and flew down the stairs as everyone streamed inside the train cars, Aisha and Zeki included.

  “Aisha,” I called out, but she didn’t hear me.

  Jumping down on the platform with a thump, the heavy odor of oil and rotten stench of train brakes filled my nostrils. I hurled myself into their train car. The doors slammed shut behind me.

  Pressed against bodies, I held on to the handle overhead as the train lurched forward before I ended up in someone’s lap. Then I lifted myself on tiptoes and surveyed the area. There in the corner, I spotted Zeki’s dark, sweeping hair, and heard Aisha’s giggles.

  I shoved through the muddle of bodies and stepped out near the back of the car where Aisha snuggled into Zeki’s chest, her arms wrapped around his waist. He had one hand around her back, the other holding the pole to keep them upright.

  Zeki spotted me first, and an incredulous stare skimmed across his eyes. “Selena.”

  Aisha’s head jolted in my direction, her eyes wide, her body flinching away from Zeki as if she’d been electrocuted.

  “What are you doing here?” she asked. The intensity behind her eyes was painful. Her posture was stiff, and her words flew free. “You can’t make me go back. I refuse to be mated. I want to be with Zeki.”

  “Why didn’t you speak to me first? I could have helped you. Now Father’s freaking out about you running away.”

  She huffed and pinched her lips.

  “And what about you, Zeki? You’re abandoning us at a time Father depends on you the most.”

  He swallowed hard and lowered his gaze to Aisha, then back at me. “This was our only chance to escape and for no one to find us again. Once we go home, she’d be sold off, but I won’t let anyone hurt her. You of all people should understand.”

  Everything I’d done recently was to protect Aisha from Father, so how could I not sense their urgency for freedom.

  Aisha glued herself against Zeki, her arms holding on to him with such desperation that my throat choked. I remember feeling that much in love once with Marcin in Turkey. Heck, I felt it earlier today. It seemed as if the world could pass us by, but as long as we were together, nothing else mattered. And I wanted that back too.

  “Goddess, of course, I understand.” I collapsed into an empty seat behind Aisha. How the shit was I going to fix this? Technically, the Hungarians wouldn’t be asking too many questions if they didn’t see Aisha again, but Zeki was a different matter since he was always by father’s side when in the company of Levin.

  Aisha squeezed in alongside me and whispered, “Zeki is my soul wolf. We’ve mated without anyone knowing. Our wolves are connected. Please, Selena, just tell Father you didn’t find us. I’ll find a way to contact you once we settle down.”

  I lowered my voice. “News will get back to Father. Where will you hide?”

  “There are remote packs with a few members in the forests across Europe. I’m sure we can join them. Plus, Zeki is an amazing warrior.” Her smile beamed as she glanced over at him, the fighter who wore a grim expression.

  “Father doesn’t know you’ve left,” I said, staring at Zeki, his shoulders slouched. Regardless of what Aisha said, no pack welcomed new members easily, and most would attack before asking questions.

  “When I find a safe place for Aisha, I’ll return to help the sultan, say my farewell, and take my pack with me to start a new life with Aisha by my side.”

  “He’ll put two and two together before that. Come back with me. I can help you with a more sensible plan.”

  “No.” Aisha shook her head, her bottom lip between her teeth. “I’d rather die before I go be sold off.”

  “You tell her, girl. Never be forced into anything,” an older woman with wild, gray hair a few seats down chimed in. Wonderful, we had an interactive audience.

  “Aisha, the battle of innocence is tomorrow.” I wanted to say I couldn’t do it without her support, but that was me being selfish. “Father
will need Zeki there when the challenge is over. We can’t appear weak. Don’t give Levin any more reason to turn against us.”

  “But how are we meant to leave then?” Her expression crumbled when her gaze swept to Zeki.

  I took her hand in mine. “You have my word that I’ll help you leave once the challenge is over. I’ll distract him. I don’t know how, but I promise.” How could I not? If someone had offered me this opportunity when Marcin and I intended to run away, I would have jumped at it within a heartbeat. Maybe it wasn’t too late for Aisha to have what I couldn’t.

  Aisha leaned against me. “Yes, I trust you.” She took Zeki’s hand, drawing him closer. “What do you think?”

  He rubbed his mouth, taking a long pause before responding. “Okay, we go back, but the moment the challenge is over, we leave.”

  “All right,” I said, my response quick, because all I could take was one problem at a time. Getting the boon was priority. Well, maybe speaking to Marcin tonight. Then I’d deal with Aisha and Zeki.

  The lady listening to us sighed loudly. “Girl, if I were you, I wouldn’t go back.”

  Aisha leaned to face her. “Yeah, well, I’ll do anything for my sister.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  Marcin

  Snow squished beneath my boots as I marched toward the shed outside the castle walls. Clearing my head was crucial. I yearned to release my wolf and run through the forest, but I needed to reserve energy for tomorrow, so the snowmobile was the next best thing to getting away from everyone and all the fuckin’ hell going on here.

  A tornado thundered through my veins, and every rational thought had fled, replaced by a sense of betrayal. Selena’s story made sense, but her excuse wasn’t sitting right with me. The Turkish daggers, the second assassination attempt on me, they all supported her argument, yet I couldn’t bring myself to believe her. And if I hadn’t caught her today, would she have ever told me the truth, or was I the poor sucker who was being used? All I wanted was the truth.

  Outside the shed, the night was too silent, and the invisible noose around my neck hardened. The trees didn’t stir, a heavy moon hung overhead, and silver dots speckled the heavens like bullets. Instead of a gorgeous night, it should be blasting down with hail and denting everything in its wake. My life sure was fucked. Tomorrow was the battle of innocence. Father had said the sultan insisted we bring it forward, and if it weren’t for Selena helping me with my injury, I’d stand no chance of winning. Obviously, the sultan intended for me to participate while still wounded, giving Selena every chance to win the boon.

  Maybe Father was right all along. The sultan intended to use the boon to claim our land as his, so was Selena trying to stop it by helping me heal? Or was it her guilt assisting me?

  If she won, Father would open up all-out war. Wulfkin would die. He’d target the sultan and his daughters first, and I’d stand no chance at protecting them. Why would they be so stupid to claim this land?

  I only saw one solution. Win the boon, no matter the cost. Firstly, I’d set my brother and Daciana free on their own land. Then I’d challenge my father on the basis that he was unfit to continue leading with his insistence of wulfkin paying for their alpha’s actions. The council would be forced to make a move instead of hiding in the shadows like cowards.

  Options were running out, and so was my patience. Enough of everyone jerking me around. This shit ended now. But I had no idea what Father was planning tomorrow. Each time I’d broached the topic with him, he brushed me off. For the first time, I realized what a mistake it was that I hadn’t pushed the topic. If I intended to win, I should know what was coming my way. Idiot.

  I reached for the lock on the shed door when male voices reached me. They came from around the back entrance to the castle.

  Unable to decipher the words or who spoke them, I listened anyway. With the absence of wind, their scent remained concealed, so I crept toward the castle through the fresh bed of snow. I glanced around the corner and spotted Father and the sultan talking beneath a spotlight near the metal doors leading into the castle.

  They turned in my direction in unison.

  “Stop skulking, Marcin.” Father’s voice was loud and filled with sarcasm.

  I stepped out and approached the Varlac leaders.

  “Then it’s agreed.” The sultan held out his hand, and Father accepted his handshake.

  “Agreed.”

  The sultan glanced my way as he broke the handshake, tightness pulled beneath his eyes, and his twisted lips screamed regret. “Good night, Marcin.”

  Once the sultan had returned to the castle, I turned to Father, the hairs on my arms standing on end. “What’s going on?”

  “Nothing to bother yourself with.” He slapped my shoulder and guided me toward the castle. “You focus on winning tomorrow.”

  “What were you and the sultan talking about just then?”

  “When you’re a father one day, you’ll understand that sometimes sacrifices must be made, even if your family will hate you for it.”

  I stopped in my tracks, a few paces from the door, and faced him. “What have you done?”

  He broke into a deep chuckle and patted my shoulder again as if I were his loyal dog. “Absolutely nothing. I’m simply helping out another father.”

  I came up short on what the sultan could possibly have done that required Father’s help. Whatever it was, it had my nerves jumping because when Varlac leaders agreed on something, it couldn’t be beneficial for anyone else.

  “Well, you and the sultan are getting along now. Maybe there’ll be no problems if, let’s say, Selena wins the boon.” I held my breath, watching for his response.

  He cut me a caustic look, the kind that promised death, and his voice dipped into a guttural growl. “I did not raise you to be a defeatist, or have you let that bitch get into your head?”

  Oh, there was my real father, the one who tainted everything he touched with spite.

  “I’m just saying it would benefit both clans if you and the sultan collaborate instead of fight.”

  His cold-pebbled eyes didn’t flinch. “I can see what you’re doing. Stop fishing and focus on gaining the boon so you don’t force me to give special treatment to Selena.” His tone swelled with a scathing inflexion when he said the words special treatment, and the way the corners of his thin lips curled upward when he mentioned Selena left my arms covered in pinpricks.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  Selena

  Outside our guest room window, the morning sun rose from behind the mountains, the snow glinting beneath its glow, and not a single cloud marred the sky. Considering the battle of innocence was today, everything felt surreal, too picture perfect for such an occasion.

  “Our lives rest with you, Selena.” A dark tone underlined Father’s words, the kind he used when he readied to attack an enemy. No emotions, just taking action and ready to die if that was what it took. Was I ready to do the same?

  “I’ve had to pull massive strings to change the challenge to today and give you an advantage over Marcin. Don’t waste my efforts.”

  When I turned to face Father, my throat morphed into a desert. He would be shattered to uncover that I had no such advantage, that I’d insisted to Barka to create an antidote brew for Marcin or, worse yet, had told him about the poisonous daggers. Following last night’s mix-up with Aisha running away, I spent hours defending her to Father, who exploded and ranted nonstop. We didn’t mention Zeki’s involvement as that would only piss off Father worse. But no matter what I said, he wasn’t calming down or letting me leave the room. So much for my plan to speak with Marcin to coax him into understanding that we had nothing to do with the assassination attempts against him. That idea went to shit as I remained locked in my room with Aisha.

  So, I was going blindly into battle.

  Father patted my shoulder and nudged me toward the door. “We should head downstairs. They’ll be waiting.” He glanced over at Aisha, who remained sheepishly
silent, kneeling in front of the fireplace. Whatever happened today, I had to help her with Zeki. Images of the way she clung tight to him on the train lodged in my thoughts, along with the similarity of my situation nine years ago. Me. Marcin. The untamable beat of my heart, the anticipation swirling in the pit of my stomach, gripping Marcin’s hand so hard it hurt ... none of it mattered. Fate had different intentions for me; maybe it wasn’t too late for Aisha to have a fairy-tale ending.

  Father opened the door, and Aisha got up.

  Okay, time to do this. I marched past him into the corridor.

  “Aisha,” he said, “I’d like you to remain here.”

  “What? No way!”

  “Zeki,” Father called out. “Make sure she doesn’t leave the room. Assign two guards, then join us downstairs.”

  I stepped back, but Father blocked my passage, shaking his head and giving me a look that insisted we leave my sister behind.

  “Baba, please don’t leave me here. I’m sorry about yesterday. I want to support Selena.”

  I caught her gaze above Father’s shoulder, but the moment Zeki stepped into the room, he shut the door behind him.

  “Selena, let’s go.” Father waited for me to start moving.

  Soon enough, we were downstairs. We strolled the hallway in silence at first, and the morning icy breeze circled around us from the open doorway farther ahead.

  “What didn’t you want Aisha to see?”

  “Selena,” Father’s voice filtered from behind me.

  He paused and rubbed a hand across his mouth. “Sometimes we have to do things that we don’t want, but it’s about the greater good. Protecting our family. No matter what you see when we head outside, remember that, please.”

  “What did you do?”

  “What I had to. And you need to act like a Varlac’s daughter, not an emotional child.”