The Cat Shifter (Book 1 of Shifter Series)

Chapter 68- Brody's POV

I laid my mate on one of the beds in the tent, and Amity instantly knelt at her side while she tried something else. I didn't say a word while I watched them, pressing my lips into a thin line, and my heart broke and became filled with pain and grief.

"I'm sorry, Your Majesty," Ray said, her voice barely above a whisper again, and tears filled her eyes. "Please," she said and bowed her head, not looking at me. "Forgive me. I-I didn't know that this was going to happen."

I didn't say a word and didn't look at her but only looked at my mate and Amity, not knowing what to say or do.

"Stop apologizing, Raylyn," Carver softly scolded from where he placed the old queen onto a different cot while Trevor and Ronan placed the other two people on the remaining two cots too. "Again, it is not your fault. We had no way of knowing that he would do that or that he was capable of doing that."

"What do you mean?" I asked and looked at Carver, getting very curious and worried about what happened. "Was capable of doing what? What happened?"

Carver sighed and moved a hand through his graying hair and shook his head, clearing his throat. "Dark magic," he said before he looked at me. "He is able to use dark magic, and we didn't know that he would be able to do it."

"Did you know?" I asked and looked at Amity, raising an eyebrow in question. "Did you know that he was able to practice Dark Magic?"

Amity hesitated before she shook her head, not looking at me. "No," she said, her voice barely above a whisper. "I didn't know that he was able to use dark magic. I knew that he was dangerous, far more dangerous than we ever thought, but I didn't know that he was able to use dark magic."

"And why not? I thought you were a powerful Witch? That's what they seem to believe." I gestured to Carver, even though I also had a feeling that she was a very powerful but didn't want to care.

"I am," she said, defending herself, "but he never used it in front of me and would use one of his... "buddies" to do something to any of us if he wanted to cause us more pain." She pressed her lips into a thin line and cleared her throat. "He would sometimes try to use me to do some of the more sadistic things, but I was never able to."

"And why not?" I asked and raised an eyebrow in question. "Why were you never able to?"

Amity hesitated before she looked toward someone that was behind me before she looked at me with tears pricking her eyes. She cleared her throat and bowed her head, not meeting my gaze. "The king placed a spell on me that would make me "forget" magic if the old king tried to order me to do something that we considered dark magic."

She licked her lips and cleared her throat while she shifted on her knees. She tried something else but that didn't work, and she sighed and shook her head while she looked at me again. "It was the only way to keep me safe and alive for her." She gestured to Kat.

"Because she is the heir to the throne and is the throne as you put it?" I asked, and Amity nodded in confirmation. "Then who would use dark magic on those that didn't conform to his ideals?" I asked.

"Many people," Amity said and shook her head. She cleared her throat and shifted again, growing increasingly nervous and worried. "Unfortunately, I am not able to say a lot, not until she orders me to spill everything about what happened to all of us." She gestured to my mate, and I looked at my mate before I looked at her.

"But I am the High King," I said, my voice turning darker and colder, and Amity bowed and flinched backward, leaning further away from me. I set my jaw and narrowed my eyes while I stared at her, not even caring that I had scared her. "What if I order you?"