Chapter 13: Worth the Death Penalty

**Zedd Evans**

The night was still young as I strode up and down the rather long length of the living room. I sighed slowly as I repeated my walk across.

I was anxious.

That was definitely very obvious.

Something was bothering me.

I looked at the sky, judging the time by the amount of darkness.

It should be time already.

I wondered how everything was going at the moment.

Was it all fine?

It had always been, fine, everything I mean, until some days ago when my twin sisters had done something inherently stupid and began to point fingers at one another like some uncoordinated fools.

They were that stupid? Yes.

I could tell who was being truthful and who was telling a lie.

I knew they had switched. I had thought that it was just harmless fun. I just did not know that they were contorting something so sinister.

Their crimes were something unbelievable, unforgivable yet irremeable. And there was nothing that I could do for them now since the prince had found out about their extremely stupid alliance.

I could not bring the matter to light because of the current situation on ground at the moment, despite the fact that I honestly knew that it was undoubtedly the hand work of Elena.

Ellen could never plan such a thing. She was too dumb, too naive, too selfless and obviously not scheming enough to do such a thing.

The plan was well versed above her stupidity.

Elena had indeed done all these like Ellen was saying, pleading not guilty.

I could read the fear in Elena's eyes whenever she faked a tear or pretended to have been torn apart by anything that Ellen was accused of.

Elena was scared. She was frightened that the truth would implicate her like it had dome to Ellen and she would find herself in prison, lose her mate or worse case scenario be granted the death wish.

So she would rather Ellen died.

Elena was selfish. She had always been sort of the black sheep in the family with some shitty character which she tried to hide whenever she was home.

But can one successfully keep his or her inherent nature away?

I was disappointed in my sisters actually. Elena especially for pushing Ellen onto something so devious and Ellen for stupidly going along with it as if she did not know the implications of such an act.

They deserved punishments so they could learn a hard lesson. Yet, they were still but my sisters. My blood. And I Zedd Evans loved them because family was still family no matter what.

So, I wanted to help them.

But then how could I save one and not save the other?

If I were to bring the truth that I knew to light, Elena would be given the death penalty too for deceiving the prince, Sebastian.

And If I hid the truth that I knew, Ellen would have to suffer for Elena, holding the grievances of doing so in her heart against me and the rest.

So, I came up with the perfect plan that would allow the two of them to live.

I had had to pretend like I did not care am iota about Ellen who was in imperial custody so no one would suspect me when my plan was finally in action.

I was going to save Ellen from prison.

I had planted my people im the imperial prison slowly over the time she had been there and had them make sure she was alright and well protected.

Then I had done something which was also worth the death penalty.

I had incited some of the prisoners to work for me. And then I had planned a jail break with my sister looking like a side piece.

The three prisoners I had incited to work for me where strong rogues who had been caught at the border and accused of trespassing some days ago.

It had been easy to convince them to work for me because they wanted to quickly return to their abandoned journey.

They were on some sort of tour. They would not let me know which kind of tour or where else they were going.

I was not bothered by it any ways. I was just content that they could do the job that I would assign them.

They had agreed to break out of the prison with my given external help and bring my sister out, rescue her from the imperial dungeons during the jail break and bring her down to the south border to meet me who would be there to collect her.

The plan was set for today because tomorrow was the trial.

I prayed to the moon goddess that nothing would go wrong.

I began to pace the living room once again as I muttered my prayers and supplications.

A philomel flew into the living room through the open balcony and rested on my shoulders. I held out my hands to it as it settled on my palm. I found the letter tied to its feet and took it, opening it to read its contents.

It was from the escape squad.

Everything was over.

My team had confirmed that my sister had been taken out of the imperial prison during the pretend jail break.

The three rogues must have taken her to the border, my team informed me in the letter.

We were using this method of communication to avoid being discovered. It allowed no room for any sort of evidence that could point back to me.

I hurried to my bedroom and wrote a short and concise reply before planting it on the bird.

Then I urged the bird towards the open window, and it flew away.

It was my turn to step in.

I took my car keys and headed for the south border immediately. I would meet either the three rogues or my sister there.

I parked my car away from the border and covered the remaining distance to the forest border on foot.

I followed the description the rogues had drawn on a map to the point that was marked the point of delivery.

I got there and did not see my sister.

Where was Ellen? Had the rogues taken her away?

Fear made my throat and chest to constrict as I thought of the worse case scenarios.

Then I saw a branch of vegetation with a blue dress tied to it. I recognized it as the materials of the current clothes I had last sent to my sister in prison.

I went to the vegetation and untied the clothes, my heart easing.

This was the sign that the rogues had indeed dropped off my sister and continued on their supposed tour.

Mayhap Ellen had hidden.

I decided to walk around and look for her. I searched for a while in conspicuous places for hiding, but I did not see her.

As I was about to give up, I found a rabbit which was holding onto the same type of material in its mouth.

Ellen's clothes.

It must have bitten it off her. I headed in that direction.

Then, I found her.