37. What Was
CHAPTER 37
What Was
ALIA
“ W hat did you do?” I hissed, striding up to Grandmother’s throne.
She sat with thread and a Red hood in her hands, slowly darning a hole in her cloak.
She looked up, her eyes piercing mine. “What do you suppose I’ve done now, Granddaughter?” she asked.
I crossed my arms and struggled against the urge to put a blade to her throat. “You helped them escape and then they attacked my friends.”
“Who, Aurelia? You must be more specific.”
“Verand and Graham,” I said through gritted teeth.
Her eyes went back to the darning of her cloak. “Oh? How interesting.”
“Tell me why.”
“You were always too straightforward, dear. You must learn the art of subtlety. When conducting an investigation, you do not go to the most likely person and demand they tell you what they have done. It is unseemly. Instead, you find out where the person has been and if any evidence may be in play, and then you convince them you know exactly what they did?—”
“I do know?—”
“But you have not the faintest idea why, now do you?”
I opened my mouth, then shut it. “I know you want the throne back.” I gave a pointed glance to the wooden throne on which she sat.
She chuckled, but something in her eye told me she was disappointed. “I trained you better, Aurelia. Think. You were smart, but you always held back because of your blasted altruism. Stop thinking the best of everyone and actually imagine there are people in this world who are evil for the mere rush it gives them for getting something over on the other. Pain for pain, if you will.”
“Tell me where they are.”
“I do not think I will. You will not harm your dear old grandmother, now will you?” She glanced up, her lips in a thin line. Was she hiding a smile? “No, I think not. Leverage, my dear. Leverage is what you need when interrogating. Not everything can be done through mere threats and stabbing.”
Red flushed my face. I turned and strode from the hall to the sound of her deep chuckle at my back.
“Mom? What’s wrong?” I stood from petting the little sphinx baby.
Mom stared at me for a moment. It was the wee morning hours of the first night of the Blood Moon. “The… the children… when we woke… They’re gone. And no one is helping us get ’em back.”
I ground my teeth.
Mom wrung her hands. “We tried to handle it… tried to get everything together on our own… but we couldn’t. Elder Timone wouldn’t?—”
I set a hand on her shoulder and gave her a gentle smile. “Mom, it’s ok, alright? We’ll get them back. Was it Rey?”
Mom nodded and then shook her head. “We don’t know for sure.”
But it was likely.
I turned to Brandt. “Go find Elder Timone and send him here.”
Brandt saluted and ran off.
“Please go find my nieces and don’t leave their sides. Check Rey’s home first,” I told Enforcer Markus.
Markus hesitated. “You will be alone?—”
“I can care for myself, Enforcer. Those kids can’t. Please,” I said, my heart aching in my chest. After finding out what Rey had done to my sister, he couldn’t be trusted. I needed them safe.
And I only hoped that Rey was truly the one who had taken them. If not, I didn’t know what I’d do.
Markus had furrows in his stormy brows, but he bowed and ran to do as I bid.
“Mom, go be with Anna, alright? I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
Mom gave me a quick hug and darted off. I took a seat in a tent corner, leaning my head on my hands.
Fen, Doc’s son, walked out from helping with a patient. We ran a skeleton crew at night, and he was in charge when Doc was asleep. Most of the creatures had tapered off in the last few days with less and less needs coming in.
I straightened, but he waved at me to remain where I was as he walked over.
“What can I help you with, Miss Alia?”
I stared at him. I had been avoiding him for a long while—mostly because of guilt. It was in my mind to kill him that day, to take out Hood until I found out Hood was Shen. And my mind still asked: would I have killed Fen if I had found him and not Shen that day?
I didn’t know. And that scared me.
“I almost killed you,” I said.
He got down on a knee before where I sat and studied my face. “I know.” His blue eyes were wracked with turmoil.
I shook my head. “No, you don’t know. If I hadn’t found Shen that night?—”
“Luna, I know .”
My eyes darted to his. “But you came here anyway? To the place where we tortured you for years?” I whispered, my throat tightening at the pain we’d caused him.
A tiny smile tipped his lips. “You brought me food and water. You tended my wounds?—”
“After I had made them?—”
“You were a child. So was I. We made mistakes. If I had escaped the day after you took me, you would be dead. But life isn’t about what was and what didn’t occur, now is it?”
I shook my head. “Why didn’t you tell me you weren’t Hood?” I whispered.
“I wouldn’t throw Shen under the dragon, Miss Alia. If it took you believing I was Hood for him to find happiness after the torment his own mother subjected him to, then so be it.”
I set a hand on his cheek. He closed his eyes and leaned into my palm. “You deserve happiness after the torment you’ve been through, too, Fen.”
His head fell to his chest and he took a deep breath. I let my hand drop. When he looked back up, a smile was on his face. The one I suspected he wore as a mask. “What can I do to help ease your burden, Miss Alia?”
As I studied him, I realized Shen had so many people who loved him—likely more than Shen himself knew. That made me smile. I just hoped Fen could find his soulmate and his happiness.
I sighed, rubbing my forehead where a headache grew. “Can you make sure my mom makes it safely home? She sometimes passes out from stress.”
He smiled. It was gentle and more real than any of his flirty ones he sent to nearly every female alive. “It would be my honor, Miss Alia.”
“Thanks.”
He bowed and made his way out.
I leaned my head on my hands. My heart was beating out of my chest and my skin was cold and clammy. What would I do if it wasn’t Rey who had taken them? I had so many enemies?—
“Hello, Mistress Alia,” Elder Timone said, stepping from the shadows of the tent. “You called for me?”
I glanced up at him, straightening. “Yes, Elder. I have a question. What do the laws say of a man who verbally abuses his wife?”
Elder Timone rubbed his forefinger and thumb down his beard. “Have there been any actual bruises? And is this about your sister? You know, your mother brought concerns to me long ago, but we went to interview them both and there was nothing to be proven. If anything, it was your sister who was running your brother-by-binding.” he said with a small, placating smile.
I grew increasingly agitated. My hands kneaded at my blades, even while I kept my face blank. “You interviewed them both? Did you not get my sister alone? Did you not ask her what was happening? Gain her trust before you stuck them both together to ask if there had been abuse?”
Elder Timone’s smile dropped. He wouldn’t meet my eyes. I leaned back in my chair, staring at him. I couldn’t believe it.
“If she were in danger, she should have come out about it. She should have left. That was her freedom, you know.”
I leaned forward, biting my tongue before I spewed a mouthful of curses. “And what if he had something over her? Something which kept her from leaving? Whether it be the children, a secret, a threat? What then? All you did was ask them both if there was abuse. They said no, and you left?”
Elder Timone shook his head. “It was not so simple, Matriarch. We asked questions. They were happy with each other. There was no need to embarrass anyone further.”
“You mean embarrass Rey. Because my sister needed you, and you failed her. Leave,” I hissed.
His jaw ticked and his eyes sparked with a hint of anger, but he bowed and walked out.
My shoulders hunched. I rubbed my eyes as a headache built behind them.
How could he?
This—from Anna’s sickness to the kidnapped children—could’ve been prevented if those in power were a bit more competent.
A need crashed over me. It was sharp with longing for freedom. I knew that need well.
I glanced up with a hint of a smile. “Shen,” I whispered, my heart leaping with happiness. I spotted him hiding in the shadows a mere ten feet from me.
The smile fell from my face as I met his eyes.
“Run,” he whispered with a guttural groan.