Chapter 23: Disloyal Weregirl

I throw my feelings at him, letting my grandfather see, feel, and smell my fury, taste the defiance I embrace. Yes, my king. My words mean nothing, platitudes.

"Our thanks to you," Oleksander says to Caine while I gag on his change of heart. "I had no idea."

Caine bows his head to my grandfather. "You are so quick to judge," he says, looking straight at me, "but we, too, care for the honor and glory of our werenation. We may have different ways of being, have been raised to alternate laws outside the embrace of those who rule our people, but we, as a pack, long only for the good of all werewolves."

His pretty speech doesn't fool me, but I feel my grandfather soften next to me. "Your observations of the Dumonts?"

"Merely in service of you, my king." Caine's eyes meet my Oleksander's. "I took from our initial meeting, they are old enemies. It is best, in my experience, to understand those who oppose us, first hand."

Oleksander nods, his anger toward me seeping out as he accepts Caine's explanation. But he didn't see the two of them together, the wereleader and Andre.

He lies, I send to my grandfather.

He cuts me off instantly. You will hold your silence, Oleksander sends. Until I can decide what is to be done with you, my disloyal weregirl.

I have never been disloyal. I want to pound on him with both fists, like the child I am to him. My heart hurts more now than it ever has, even over Sage. How can my grandfather think of me this way?

You have wasted five years, Oleksander sends to me. Five years we could have used toward solidifying the base of the werenation, five years in which you could have produced an heir to your throne with one of power. Not wasted on a normal who can't forward us in any way, but only degrade our people's name further. We have had to fight for what little respect we've gained. And you want to muddy our newfound power with the base blood of a normal?

Grandfather, I send in a snap of fire. You bigot. His back stiffens. Five years, I send back, fury now taking over as I allow it to rise, I chose to live free for the first time.

Oleksander's power hits me hard enough to make me flinch. I had thought being kind and generous with you, he sends, would make you a stronger leader. Now I wonder if it's only made you petulant.

I hit him back without thinking. He spins toward me, glaring, in shock and his own rage but I don't care.

For once, I send, I would like to be treated like a person. Not a commodity. Caine's grin follows me as I leave, walking away from the livid Oleksander, his angry voice calling my name. But none of the guards try to stop me, nor do they meet my eyes, and I almost wish they would. I'd be more than happy to finish a fight if they want to start one.

You are confined to the palace, Oleksander's sends.

Go to hell. I cut him off, heading for the front door. I never intended things to spiral this far out of control. How can he be so angry over a normal while Caine and the Dumonts-our most hated enemies outside the Black Souls-likely work in tandem to do us harm? He's lost his damned werewolf mind.

The world feels surreal, broken in pieces, nothing real around me as I stalk out and into the darkness. The cool air of fall hits me in the face, the only reality I know right now. How can everything have fallen apart so badly? I can't help thinking of Sage, of my choices over the last five years and hating everything to do with what I am in a harsh jab of self-loathing.

Maksym lopes from the darkness, coming to my side. "Princess," he says, worry in his voice.

I grasp his hand, pulling him away from the front door, fear surging higher. "Sage?"

"Isabelle calls," my friend says, big eyes worried. "She sounds scared."

My clothes shed in rapid succession as I throw myself into werewolf form. Maks is at my side, barely able to keep up as I run for the spirit power that is Isabelle. We find her quickly, on the outskirts of Yutsk, flickering with vampire magic like a beacon to pull us in.

"I lost him." She's almost in tears, Maks coming to her side, hugging her gently as she reaches for me with sorrow and guilt. "I was cut off by some werewolves, they separated us." She hesitates, shivering. "My power was useless, Charlotte. For the first time in my life, I couldn't use my magic."

I know that means sorcery was used against her, the leap an easy one to make. Only sorcery can cancel out or render helpless other magicks, at least from what I know. But whose? There are no sorcerers outside the Steam Union anywhere near our territory. At least, that is what Piers and his people believe. If that's not the case... who are they and what do they want?

I grip Isabelle's hand tightly. "Did Sage get away?" The werewolves had to be Caine's pack. Mine would have no reason to hunt him.

"I don't know." She huddles against Maks, looking as miserable as I feel. "Your friend was heading for the train, but I lost his trail."

I spin and run for the station, leaving them behind. Stay with her, I send to Maks. I don't want him with me. I'm about to blatantly disobey my grandfather's orders and I want to keep Maks out of it if I can.

The station isn't far, the sound of people and the hum of the locomotive on the track, waiting to depart, loud in my wolf ears. I steal a coat hanging on a line in a back yard, the normal town housing the station unfamiliar to me. I shift into human form, wrapping the warm wool around my body, hurrying barefoot to the edge of the tracks and up onto the platform, eyes sweeping over the people and their luggage boarding the train.

There are so many smells and sounds I have a hard time searching for Sage. But I finally catch a hint of him and follow it, relief engulfing my terror. I find him at last, near the end of the passenger car, head down, hands tight on the straps of his backpack. If I stop now, if I just stand here and watch him board, I haven't broken my grandfather's orders. I can simply observe and ensure he makes it on the train, watch him leave, chug off to safety.

Sage's head lifts, turns, his eyes meeting mine as though he knew I was there, watching him. I hesitate, not sure what to do, rising on my toes as my anxiety rises. He waves at me, half-hearted, looks away.

I can't leave things like this. He has to know... what? That I love him? Stupid girl, that's the worst idea you've had all along. But I have to tell him something, free him from this spell we hold upon each other.

The boards are rough under my skin, cold. He's only a few feet away when the conductor emerges and calls for all aboard. Sage doesn't move as the people move around him, holds his place until I reach his side.

"I'm sorry," I whisper in his ear, tip-toe height just enough to do so. "I never wanted it to end this way."

"I'm sorry, too," he says, voice dull. "I should have left things the way you wanted them. It's not like you haven't been secretive all along." He won't look at me now. "You made it clear in your silence this was nothing more than a tryst to you. I'm an idiot for thinking it could ever be otherwise." He shakes his head. "Princess."

Sage is moving away from me, walking for the train, and I can't let him go. I stop him, spin him toward me, my arms around his neck, my breath his breath as I press my lips to his. The old fire wakes and he's kissing me, too, pulling me tight before letting me go with a soft exhale of air puffing mist into the night.

"You take care of yourself, Charlie," he says with a sad smile, all his anger gone.

"You too." I don't know what else to say.

He turns away, takes another step. Pauses before spinning back.

"I'll always love you," he says. And then, with a final two strides, he's boarded the train.

The door closes behind him, the engine firing up only a moment later. The station is quiet, lights going out for the night, the last train of the day departing. I stand there and watch it leave, tears trickling into the warm wool coat, my feet frozen to the empty platform as the last car disappears into the night and I'm alone.



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