Book 2 - Warriors: The Servant's Promise

Chapter Twenty-Five

Evectri had a hard time flying through the air on his way toward the territory his father wished to claim. His wings were damaged greatly, but he pushed on. After all, he knew that Negro wouldn't be stopped. Not this time. Not when he had such an advantage over these cats.

"Evectri, do you want to take a break?" Cura asked him.

"No, I'm fine," he lied quickly. Cura's icy blue eyes narrowed tightly.

"Fly down." she demanded.

"I'm fine," Evectri repeated, avoiding her harsh gaze. Her glare intensified immediately, forcing him to cringe slightly. She always had a way of scaring him when she was right.

"Fly. Down." Cura growled. The silver prince sighed, but flew down quickly to the ground. It was all yellow grass from here to as far as he could see, and the ground was hard under his feet.

"I was fine," Evectri insisted. Cura scoffed as she and Intono landed. "Oh, so you don't believe me?"

"No, I don't, and I never will," Cura told him honestly. "You were never truthful to what you really felt, so I'm just going to do this from now." Evectri gave a bleak smile.

"Thanks, sis," Evectri said. However, he frowned and looked at his paws. "Right now won't be the only time you'll have to deal with this, it seems." Cura's smile also vanished as she watched her brother.

"It'll be okay," she reassured him. "It won't be like normal." Evectri sighed, sitting down as his feet became hot in the warm dirt.

"These cats don't even know how to defend themselves against our kind, Cura," Evectri pointed out. "How do you know that the outcome won't be worse than all those times before?" Cura shrugged, successfully putting on a soothing smile.

"You and Tavo can do great things together, Evectri," Cura answered. "You'll be able to save these cats." Evectri just looked away.

"I barely lived through my father last time he tried to kill me," Evectri reminded her. "What if he succeeds this time?" Cura hesitated, her blue eyes clouded with emotion. After a few heart-beats, she sighed.

"Evectri, what happened with you and Negro is in the past," Cura tried to explain.

"No, it isn't!" Evectri hissed. "Just because I made one defiant move—one movement that wasn't a direct order—he had to attack me. Just once in my life I wanted to stand up for what I believed in. Just once in my life I wanted everyone to see what I saw. But no, because of course, all cats are apparently evil."

"You know it wasn't anything like that," Cura reassured him. "Negro was just angry you were defying him. He doesn't really care about the cats, just the fact that you didn't protect Tavo when needed." Evectri's amber gaze shot toward her blue eyes and narrowed tightly.

"Tavo could take care of himself by that point, so there was no reason for me to assassinate a whole army of cats when he could have escaped on his own!" Evectri snapped. Cura took a step back, her eyes wide. Intono, who stood in the distance keeping watch, gave a sorrowful look to the silver prince.

"That's what Negro wanted you to do?" Cura asked. "I thought he just wanted you to save Tavo..."

"No, otherwise I would have been more than happy to do it," Evectri mumbled. "Negro wanted me to be useful, though, and told me the army of cats also needed to go. I refused, and, well, you know the rest." Cura was stunned.

"Was that always how father used you?" Cura asked after a few moments. Evectri shrugged.

"I'd never had to flat out ambush an army on my own," Evectri stated truthfully. "But sneaking into their camps and killing spies and Beta's were in the everyday agenda for me. Sometimes I had to torture them for information, sometimes it was just a simple kill. On rare occasions he let me simply fight, but still I was trying to kill only one cat and the rest were just in the way." Cura stared at him.