Bride Of The Shadows

Chapter 10: Speechless

They both swiftly departed from the chamber to the grand hall and outside the double doors of the castle. Alistair's return caused them to completely forget about the palace's etiquette.
Blair hurried down the stairs and her legs were touching the ground. The wind blew frantically in the open atmosphere, where the sun was gone out of sight and the sky was already getting darker.
"Oh, Alistair" Blair whispered with her mouth wide open, She dashed to meet her son, who seemed to be in a state of exhaustion.
Her green eyes observed her son's messy hair and mud-stained clothes, His eyes were swollen and red, as if he had been crying all day. She couldn't imagine what he had endured.
As she approached him, she slowed down and quickly wrapped him in a tight hug. She sniffed while gently caressing his hair with her hands,
"Alistair, you all got me worried" she mused.
Zephyr stood motionless, his gray eyes carefully inspecting Alistair. His forehead was creased with a frown due to Alistair's appearance. He was not anticipating his son to look this way. And was that blood?
Wait! Something isn't right!
"What happened, my love?" She inquired, Her breathing became raspy as she crouched down and clasped his arms.
"Where is everyone else?" She probed.
Blair glanced behind Alistair to see no silhouette or indication that someone was approaching, which suggests that something bad must have occurred to the rest.
Alistair's eyes lowered, and a deep throbbing in his chest began. It was as though he was condemned to death by being hanged in front of everybody, and evervone had their harsh gaze upon him. He could see the fury, especially the look his father gave him as if he was certain that Alistair had committed some wrongdoing this evening.
He had to make this real, he pondered deeply.
Hermione had vanished from his life and he could now enjoy all the affection he craved. This was the outcome of his long-awaited wish. He had to deceive them to achieve his goals, and the opportunity was right in front of him.
But why? Why couldn't he lie? Why couldn't he have what he wanted? He demanded from himself.
Alistair's inner thoughts betrayed him. He was hurt by the apprehensive look in his mother's eyes as she anticipated a response from him.
What?
Was he assuming that she would not ask for Hermione? Was he thinking they were going to embrace him with open arms when he had pushed their beloved daughter down the cliff?
What was I thinking?! Alistair asked himself
He had made a grave mistake, he thought inwardly.
But still, he couldn't tell the truth. Telling the truth was too costly for him because he knew they would be angry and refuse to talk to him again, they would punish him for what he had done.
This was it. It was time to put his acting to verity.
Alistair bit into his inner cheeks so deeply, that his fangs pierced them, allowing him to shed a tear because it had been quite a while since he had shed a tear, and he needed to make this look real.
Alistair smiled inwardly, feeling his eyes dripping with tears. He glanced over to his other side with teary eyes, where she had leaned down to his height and cradled his cheeks in her hands.
"Alistair, what's going on? Where is your sister and Celeste?" She looked at him closely, almost crying as her eyes became moist.
Blair examined him thoroughly and was even hurt by the presence of blood on his clothing.
"Mother... I am sorry to have disobeyed you" He started, his tears falling freely.
"We snuck out of the palace. Celeste said she had this nice place to show us, so we fell for her and left the chamber. When we got there, we planned to use just thirty minutes and return to the castle, but then these men came out of nowhere and they hurt us, they took Hermione and Celeste away" He explained, his chest rising and falling, and a look of trepidation revolved on his face. She held him tightly to stop him from trembling.
"But I was lucky to escape their clutches and even got injured while fighting them off. I was so scared, I thought I'd never return. I was so scared mother" He hurried into her embrace and laid his head on her chest. He didn't stop crying and his cries increased in volume. He performed so brilliantly that his mother trusted his words.
But someone didn't.
Zephyr's expression hardened at Alistair's lies that were spoken blatantly.
He nearly trusted the story- because of his appearance until he realized that the blood on Alistair's clothes was not that of him or any human, but that of an animal.
Alistair's heart was beating quite fast and his eyes twitched.
All of this, Zephyr discerned from where he was standing and he was enraged that Alistair had lied. Despite his impatience, he waited until his son finished acting before blowing up his cover. "Who are these people, what do they look like? We need to save Hermione" Blair separated from the hug to examine Alistair's face, then inquired about the people's appearance to find Hermione and Celeste as quickly as possible.
Agnes was going to be so mad, Blair thought to herself.
The thought of her innocent little daughter being held by strangers made her heart bleed internally. It was as though it was being shredded by thousands of knives.
A tear escaped her eyes as she pondered continuously, Hermione was not normal at this moment, and she must be terrified at the hands of the ones who had kidnapped her.
"They were masked, I didn't get to see them" He replied in falsehood once again.
"Where did they leave to? In fact, where are you coming from?" She continued interrogating him.
"There are no men, Blair" Zephyr spoke, his teeth clenched as the words fell out of his mouth. He glanced over to Alistair and observed him looking down fearfully. He then made his way to where they were.
Blair turned her head towards him, "What do you mean?"
She returned her gaze to Alistair with a puzzled look on her face, "And that's not even his blood, it's of a chicken" He spoke with certainty.
"What?" Blair's eyebrows furrowed, her gaze lingered on Alistair, she was expecting him to counter to what his father had just said, but he simply looked down.
"Why don't you tell me what happened? I'm losing my patience here!" He bellowed at the young boy, who swallowed hard. Nothing could ever get past Zephyr, did he forget?
That was stupid of him.
How could he forget his father was an Alpha werewolf, and his senses were heightened?
It was easy for him to discern that he was lying and had spilled chicken blood on his body to deceive them.
Alistair had no option but to convey the truth, "I pushed her" His voice was low.
"You what!?" His mother shrieked, rising to her feet.
"I pushed her" He reiterated, "Down the cliff" He continued, not knowing where he had gotten the sudden bravado from.
He gazed at his parents with tears in his eyes. Things were never going to be the way he planned. They were always going to love Hermione and he could do nothing about it.
"How could you do that?" Her lips parted in shock, and her teary eyes glanced at her husband who had been right all the time, but he wasn't looking at her. He was gazing at Alistair with an expressionless face.
"How about you kill me now?" Alistair's voice resonated in the air.
This time Zephyr turned to glance at Blair who was stupefied. Alistair just rendered her speechless every time he parted his lips to say something, she began to doubt if this was truly her son.
Breathing heavily, Zephyr ended the little chit-chat by ordering the guards to lock Alistair up in his chamber.
"I'll go look for Hermione and Celeste," He told Blair before leaving the castle.