Forest of Lies

Chapter 28-The Monster He Made

I am prey to them. Weak and yet irritating to the eye. How they would think I, a human bandaged and in agonizing pain, something worthy of their watchful wary gazes, is a most interesting thought.

Perhaps it was the chaos I caused in the Arena. Perhaps it was my magic that conjured the vines of which strangled an Alpha to death.
Or, perhaps it is their new found understanding of what a weak human is capable of.

I, however, have no desire to have such questions answered. My body pounds and thrums with pain, stemming from my shoulder, my back, and arms. It takes effort to pull my upper body up and settle against the pillows. No one moves or speaks until I'm fully adjusted, and when one does it is the Alpha King. The beast who ruined my flesh, who destroyed my life, who has put my sister and friends who knows where in the endless expanse of his castle.

"Nyx, many in this room would see you imprisoned for life, and would see my sister's mate executed for treason," King Evander begins, the gazes of the Wild Hunt, his sister, and mother latch onto me even further as if hoping to pierce my inner mind. To scare me into submission. "Alpha Mogrem was this kingdom's highest ranking Alpha after me. His armies vast and lands lush and wealthy. Now he is dead and his mate so stricken with grief that she has lost all her sanity."

"What you have done cannot go unpunished," the Dowager Luna adds, cold eyes sliding over me with disgust and derision. "Neither can the actions of my daughter's human who now languishes in the dungeon, nor the fates of the other humans mated to part of the Wild Hunt and a palace seamstress. You all must pay for what has occurred, atonement for the injured, the scared, and the grieving."

A moment passes in heavy cold silence. Both mother and son glare at me with malice sharp enough to cut stone. Heavy enough to bend metal, strong even to perhaps crush pure diamond.

"She does not grieve," I utter, my mouth dry as the southern desert, voice raspy as an old woman on her death bed. "The mate of that mutt does not grieve."

In an instant, Evander's large hand wraps around my throat. Nearly cutting off my breath, strangling it hard enough that I know it will surely be bruised for days.

"How do you know?"

That is what he says, his voice more a growling rumble than words that I can barely make out. He pulls me close, our noses nearly touching, his fangs on display to either intimidate or to be sunk into my throat.

"I know what insanity you claim she has is not from grief," I rasp, letting a smile slip onto my lips, watching with satisfaction as the Alpha King narrows his eyes with rage once I finish. "She smiles, laughs, no doubt sings with the joy of freedom. After all these years my sister is free from the beast that stole her, raped her, and petrified her within his castle keep. She is happy that Mogrem is gone. And if I had been in my right mind, I would have prolonged his death and tore out his disgusting loathsome, spine."

King Evander stills, body straight as a pin, his head turning slightly as he roars out a single order with eyes glimmering a familiar red shade of wrath.

"Get out, all of you!"

His head snaps back to me, the red hue nearly overtaking his eyes. Voice lowering to a deadly whisper, a promise of agony, of destruction, of revenge piercing every syllable. The rushing sound of running feet and slamming of doors mixing with each word.

"It seems my mate and I are to have a most truthful conversation!"

In one fell swoop I'm sent flying through the air, landing with in a bruising heap onto the floor, on the other side of the king's bed. My limbs shake with weakness, each movement in pulling myself up to my knees is like knives plunging into flesh. I bite through the pain, forcing my mouth shut tight, not giving into the desire to shout out my agony. Not even when Evander stalks around the bed, booted feet pounding all the way to me, prone and on bent knee before him.