Destined for Greatness ✔️

Chapter 22

"How hurt did Ellis get?" Paige asked, hurrying after Ryleigh, who was exploring the building. With every room she saw, Ryleigh was more and more surprised the mansion hadn't come tumbling down like a house of cards yet. What an ironic end to the war that'd be: if they all died because their rickety shelter came crashing down on their heads.

"Graham stabbed him," she said.

"Where?"

Ryleigh opened a door with a bit more force than strictly necessary and the thing came right down, clattering to the floor with a clang so loudly that dust fluttered from the ceiling.

"In his stomach."

"Well, he might survive that," Paige said, nodding a few times.

"Yeah, sure. Only then he got stabbed another time. And another time. And the blade was silvered. O, a bedroom. Who sleeps here? Judging by the scents, I'm guessing Dawn and Josie. I hope they won't mind that their door has given up on its vertical position. Why are you looking at me like that?"

"He got stabbed three times with a silvered blade?" Paige was staring at her with wide, panic-filled eyes. Ryleigh shrugged.

"Yes. So he'll probably be dead soon. He's no Shadow Walker. He's not going to survive that amount of silver."

"If you remembered him – remembered all of him – you wouldn't be taking a tour through the house while he's dying."

"Good thing I don't remember him, then." She stepped back into the hallway and progressed to the staircase leading up to the third floor. Paige trailed after her, and Ryleigh could tell from her memories that she was remembering the brief but meaningful interactions she had with Ellis. "I liked him."

"You've only been in his presence for like five minutes, if I'm not mistaken."

"That was enough. You know I have a good nose for sniffing out characters. He's a good man and he doesn't deserve to die just because Graham thought it'd be funny to stab an alpha."

"I never said I thought he deserved to die. Didn't you hear me chide Graham for it? I'm not happy about it, but what are we to do? He's the enemy. It's not like we can ask Parker to take us there so you can heal him." She reached the top of the staircase and took a few steps before realising that Paige had halted three-quarters up the stairs, looking at her with an expression that predicted no good.

"You're joking, right? You're not seriously telling me you want to go to Midnight Moon and heal Ellis."

Paige looked around her and chased up the last few steps. She grabbed Ryleigh's wrist and dragged her into a room that, miraculously, still had a functioning door. She shut it and twirled to face Ryleigh. "Yes. He's a good man and I think I should go heal him."

"Why? Just because he doesn't deserve this? You realise that he was involved in my abduction, right? If he'd stayed out of it, none of this would've happened."

"We took Carry and Julie. What else was he supposed to do? And don't say that we wouldn't have taken them if he hadn't been involved. They were the only leverage we could get. It wasn't like we could abduct Prince Aaron from the castle. We involved him, so it's our fault he got hurt."

"Alright. Fine. It's our fault. That doesn't change anything. It's a war, Paige. We can't just show up there. I just got out of jail. I'm not in a hurry to get back."

"There won't be any Royal Wolf soldiers there. They don't expect us to go to Midnight Moon. They won't think we have any business being there."

"We don't have any business being there."