Chapter forty - five - A bite can go a long way

"You're the one creating the new breed," I state as calmly as I can, but I am far from that. My gaze shifts to the stairs, wondering if I can pass him and run, but that is also the last thing I want to do right now.

Erion stares at me, observing any slight twitch, any form of emotion on my face—fear I presume is what he wants to see, but I hide it. "I wouldn't say new." He puts his hand behind his back. "I've been this way for years." When he starts slowly pacing to the sides, my feet stumble backward. "Though I can no longer shift." He stops and twists to face me with a narrowing gaze. "I suppose there are still tricks to a newmade breed."

I should have known. If the General is capable of killing even the mother of his child, then he's capable of so much more. "How—"

"It's simple Nara, I got bitten by a Rumen, and I didn't want to die, so my solution?" He lifts a brow, sounding smug before a smile cracks the corners of his lips. "Test out if I would survive a shifter's bite even if meant I would be one of them."

"And you did." I'm unable to keep the control in my voice—bouts of fury curl against my fingers. I'd thought Darius, other leaders such as the Elven king could be behind this, yet it turns out to be the very people we thought protected us.

"It came out with some interesting results. Two different bites, one outcome." He looks bored now, and I know this can't lead to anything in my favor. I carefully move around, bringing my hand to the blade strapped around my thigh just as he glances at the other cells without any care. "We aren't immortal. We do have an acute sense of smell, hearing... heal quicker than usual, but we still scar, die and share all the horrid traits of a Rumen instead."

His brown eyes cut across to me sharp and animalistic that I freeze. Unease creeps in my veins at the soulless reflecting off his gaze.

"What do you gain out of this?" I ask, is it satisfaction, is he that cruel and delusional to want to do this? "Out of turning humans against their will? The queen—"

"Is desperate for a bigger army than just humans." His words stun me into brief silence, and I can tell by the spiteful smile on his face that my expression must be one he'd love to see every day. So, he proceeds, "Around the time I was bit... Seers told her of a great war in the near future against shifters and beings too powerful for this world."

The knots in my stomach tighten. There'd already been a war within Emberwell in the past. Another one now that's even greater could jeopardize Zerathion as a whole.

"And for someone without power," Erion points out, shooting me a stern glance. "She is prepared to go to any lengths."

Even if it goes against her beliefs...

Erion continues speaking, walking up to Adriel's cell and tapping the bars. The metal clinks and rings for what seems like an eternity as he explains how Venator leaders know what he is and are also the ones who are trusted enough not to defy him. I think of the queen and how her hatred for Aurum led her to what is happening now; despite him, she still detests shifters, dragons. It's no longer hypocrisy; it's her afraid even if she will never admit to it.

Thoughts pile up inside my head, one after the other. And when I conclude something I've dreaded since that night in the woods, I look up through narrowing brows. My stare is anything but kind as I grit my teeth, cutting the General off, "You killed my father."

He puffs his chest as he sighs, yet there's not a single bit of remorse in him. "Perhaps," he says, not even denying it for one second. "But I wasn't the one who ended up with his blood on my hands."

My brows knit at that, and my grip on the blade doesn't lessen as he clicks his tongue and shakes his head. "Everyone always favored Nathaniel. He was good at capturing creatures, but his views..." He winces in mockery. "He didn't believe it was moral to kill dragons, send others to slavery even though that's what humans once were to Zerathion. You can imagine we never saw eye to eye."

"So, you sent someone else to kill him, another one of you," I spit it out. The words cause a stir of revulsion in my stomach that if it weren't for Freya, I'd delight in torturing him just how he'd done with Darius.

Erion hums almost too gleefully. It's sickening. "When he found out about my plans of using humans as a weapon, I had no other choice. I'm trying to protect Emberwell Nara."

I want to laugh at how paradoxical his idea of what protecting means, but I shake my head, fixing a glare on him. "Just like you were trying to protect Freya by killing Brigid?"

His eyes flash in rage. "Do not think Brigid's death was something I wanted. She signed onto that wish the moment she fell for a pitiful shifter."

It doesn't excuse anything. He's a murderer, out of his mind and a poor excuse of a man. "You're sick, and so is the queen."

He's unaffected by my words. Instead, he chuckles, cocking his head to the side. "And what do you think of, say the Deputy?"

My muscles tense up. "Leave him out of this." I want to wince at the noticeable protectiveness coating my voice, but no matter what might be happening lately, I can't help everything I've felt with him.

The General can't contain his smile of vile amusement. He inclines his head forward and says, "Oh, but why should I when he is at the center of this all?"

As soon as those words flow out of his mouth, it's like everything and everyone stills. I'm too afraid to ask the question, but I do so anyway, my voice trembling in the process, "What do you mean?"

He rolls his eyes, drawing closer. "Come on, Nara, think."

I don't want to. I don't want to at all.

Every step he takes to near me, I move toward the walls. "I told him bringing you here would be a mistake." He sighs. "But he couldn't help it. Even after everything, you just seem to fascinate all creatures."

Creatures, creatures, creatures.

*All* creatures.

My heart drums like thunder in my ears, and I beg for my thoughts to be wrong.

"Lorcan..." Erion's smile turns into a sneer. "Was the first to get bitten by me, the one to stay strong, shift unlike me and everyone else down here who are weakening by the day."

*No, it can't be true, no—*

"He was my first successful weapon, and he does everything I say."

Nausea clutches my throat, and I fight to hold it down. "Stop."

"I ordered him to kill your father. I made him attack you that night in the forests because it was our one chance to see if the thief would appear, if he'd sense you were in danger, and we were right—"

I stumble against the brick walls, blocking Erion out as memories ring in my head the loudest. The creature's gaze on me the day my father died was the same as that night Darius took me back to his. The scar on my hand... It can't be Lorcan, it—

"I did warn him you would be nothing but trouble for us. Such a waste of my time." Erion's forceful chuckle brings me back, and his tone lowers with a cruel twist as his gaze wanders from my head to my feet in repulse. "Although—" A thoughtful look. "—You might just be what I need."

I don't need seconds to realize what he means by that as he bares his teeth and runs his tongue along a growing fang. My eyes widen, and it all happens too fast as he lunges for me.

I barely dodge him, pressing the button of my blade as I raise it to defend myself. Erion cracks his neck to the side as I pant, waiting for him to turn and face me. "If you have any humanity in you, you wouldn't do this to Freya." As much as I want to thrust this blade into him, end him for everything he has ever done, he is also Freya's father and the only parent she has left.

A slant of light slashes across Erion's eyes as he twists. Anger cascades down his face that whatever I say does nothing to him. I snap my head to the stairs and charge toward it when he grips the back of my cloak, making me almost scream as I'm thrown against the bars of a cell.

My vision quakes as the blade drops, still I rush for it, grabbing it in the nick of time before the General's arms come round me, trapping mine to the sides. The grip is so tight; my lungs feel as if they are slowly crushing together. I can't breathe, and I try to move my hand as much as I can.

"Let's see what your brothers will think of their new sister," he says, and as soon as he mentions my brothers, rage seeps into my veins, and I clutch the blade harder.

His fangs skim across my neck, and just as he lowers them onto my skin, I jam the dagger through the side of his thigh.

The pressure of his arms loosens on me as he lets out a low grunt of pain, and I slam my head back against his. I hear him shuffle backward until there's a deafening smack against the wall followed by a thud onto the floor.

I choke on my gasp, hunching over as the blade quivers in my grasp. Blood drips from it as I allow myself to recover, and then slowly, I turn and drag my gaze to the General on the ground. His chest rises and falls. He's still alive, but I don't know how long it will take him to wake up.

Sheathing my blade, I spot a set of keys gleaming by his belt. I've been down here too long, and now is my only chance. With caution, I reach down and grab them as I look at the cells one last time, at the men, woman, Adriel... all part Rumen. "I'm so sorry," I whisper because I know I can't save everyone and take off, gripping my free hand against the walls to steady myself as I make it out onto the main passageways.

*"He was my first successful weapon, and he does everything I say."*

The General's words chase after me, and I'm overcome with every emotion searing my insides into nothing but dust. I don't even gather how I get from one point of the dungeons to the next.

*"I ordered him to kill your father."*

I shake my head and slam into steel gates.

*"I made him attack you that night in the forests."*

My hand curls into a fist against the cool steel, and I force myself to bring it down to pull the lever. When I do, Darius is there giving me a weak smile of relief, but I stalk up to him, breathing harsher than ever as I fumble the keys between my fingers.

He says Goldie, but I can't answer it right now as I fit one of the keys to the lock, twisting and turning it, but to no avail, it doesn't work. Frantic, I look for another one, and a strangled noise leaves me when it also doesn't fit.

Nothing is going right.

"Nara," Darius says, his voice commanding me this time to look at him, but instead, I try another set of keys. "What's wrong." He's not asking it like a question. He's saying it because he knows something is wrong.

I shake my head. "We don't have much time—" I stop as the shackle unlocks, blades pull back, and his arm drops.

As much as I want to relax at that, I can't. The blood pools down onto his hands and the crescent before I run to unlatch the other wrist, and his knees slam onto the ground. He almost takes me with him as I place my arm under his and struggle to raise him. "Darius," I whisper as if his pain also radiates onto me. "Please... We need to go."

He stares up at me, and I know he can see the urgency on my face. Nodding, he lifts himself off the floor, and I clutch his hand as I drag it over my shoulder. We stagger out of the gates, and I don't bother to close them as prisoners start jeering at us.

"You're healing my wrist?" Darius says, half confused, and as I shift my gaze to where my hand is holding him, I realize it is just how I'd done with his back, no more blood, no sign of blades having lodged inside his skin.

"I—" I look at him, and his eyes draw me in like they would with anyone. "I don't know how—"

Venator voices suddenly float through the dungeons from near the entrance. Shadows of them appear on the brick walls, and I look to my right at any place we can hide when Darius lets go of me, tugging me back against his body without warning into one of the hidden corners.

One of his arms wraps around my stomach and the other across my chest, securing me. I hold onto his upper arm as the back of my head rests on his chest, and I decide not to utter a word as I take several deep breaths along with him, waiting for the Venators to pass. When we hear feet scrape to a stop along the ground, I clutch onto Darius's arm harder.

"Do you think the General has already killed that thief?" One of them says, and my heart races. The General is still unconscious or... might not be anymore.

"Won't be long," the other says. "You saw how he left him the other day."

I bite my tongue as their obnoxious laughter merge, but almost as if Darius can sense my need to go at them, he presses me harder against him. I feel his heart drum in a slow rhythm on my back, and as the noise dies down, I say quietly, "I think we're clear... You can let go of me now." Neither of us makes a move, and I'm positive my fingernails have dented into his skin.

"It doesn't seem like you want me to, Goldie," Darius whispers it against the arch of my ear, and I can already feel his lips curve into a smile.

I let out a breath sounding thick and ragged, before I realize where we are and push his arms away as I turn to him with a glare. "I see that it didn't take you long to return to your aggravating self."

His eyes illuminate in delighted mischief before I roll mine and grasp his hand, leading him out of here. Shouts can be heard as soon as we make it past the entrance, and I imagine they've noticed the opened gates and Darius nowhere inside his cell.

Darius's strength picks up, and we dart through the spiraling steps that lead us to the outside. The grass wisps in every direction of the wind, and I look ahead to where the woods are.

I shake my head, realizing that he thinks I am going with him. That was the plan, but now... "Wait, wait, wait!" I say, planting my feet to the ground. Darius turns to me with a frown, likely confused why I'm stopping when we are this close to the woods. "I can't go with you," I add while catching my breath.

When he looks as if he's about to disagree, I continue, "I still need to do one thing. And don't try and say I'm putting myself at risk because I know I am. I have been since I came here, so please leave, okay? Tibith is at the den, as are two witches, Leira and Aelle. They will explain what they know so far—"

"What happened when you left me back there?" His voice hardens, and my breath heaves out of me in deep pants.

*Your brother killed my father.*

*The General is behind it all.*

*I can't go with you because I can't leave without hearing it from Lorcan myself.*

"Nothing happened," I whisper because if I tell Darius now, he's capable of abandoning the thought of going to the den, he's capable of confronting Lorcan himself, and he's capable of the worst for the General.

He takes a purposeful step toward me, and his eyes show such conviction, I want to do nothing more than to look away, but I can't. "You have to learn to stop lying to me—"

"And you have to stop pretending you give a shit!" I blurt out, and the words taste bitter in my mouth, thinking back to our last conversation before he was captured.

I run a hand through my tangled waves and shake my head in irritation. Darius can only look down at me as the silence doubles between us, and our breathing comes at a fast and harsh pace. His jaw moves, and there's something so raw in his gaze that it peels back layers of my own, my vulnerability, and my need for sudden comfort.

Whatever he wants to say, he keeps it to himself. It's like he knows he can't win this time, not with this argument and not with me.

He brings out a fisted hand, uncurling his palm to show me the crescent, and a sharp sting pierces my chest.

"I always wondered why it was so special... now I know."

My lips quiver, and I stare at it for a minute too long before dragging my gaze up at Darius and saying with enough lethality to my voice, "Keep it, I don't want it anymore."

He looks at me like he knows there's more to it like he wants to ask what's wrong, but at the same time, I can't bring myself to tell him that the person who was once his only family broke mine too.

"*Please* go," I say, losing all the resolve I have, and he nods with hesitance. He turns his back to me, and I watch him walk away. Disappointment swirls in my veins. It's unexpected when I know he has to for his sake, but... he only makes it halfway before he stops, shifts his head to the side, and shakes it with a grimace as he twists and takes challenging steps toward me.

I don't have the chance to ask him what he's doing as he drops his forehead onto mine, and I close my eyes in an instant, letting us stay like this. I don't try and fight, yell or argue like I usually would. I'm too defeated, and for once, I'm scared that if I move or push him away, I won't have this side of feeling at peace ever again.

"I hate that you're so stubborn," he says with a sigh.

I keep my eyes shut. "Is that the only thing you hate about me? Because I have a long list when it comes to you."

His low chuckle feathers across my lips that I don't know what is happening, but I do know that I don't want it to end just yet. "There are so many things I hate about you, Goldie, that no list will ever suffice."

I bite back a smile. Our foreheads still press together, and my eyes never open as he takes my hand in his. Somehow his are both soft and rough. The touch is gentle, but his skin is of a person who's built, fought, and survived.

He pries my palm open and hands me the crescent while curling my fingers around it so it doesn't drop. "This isn't for me to keep," he whispers, and I can't bring myself to protest because he's right, and with that, I no longer feel him here. A breeze whizzes over me, and after a minute, I blink my eyes wide open, seeing him far head before disappearing between the trees.

The loss of peace is immediate. I'm alone. I have the truth of what happened, and it's the worst truth I'm having to face.

I cradle the crescent in my hands, staring down at it, and it hits me all at once.

*Don't cry, don't cry, don't cry.*

But I do.

Sobs violently come out of me, and I cry and cry. Not for Lorcan, not for those creatures but for my father.