25. The Betrayal
CHAPTER 25
The Betrayal
ALIA & SHEN
Alia
A scream tore me from the nightmares of my tortured sleep. My hand closed around the blades under my pillow and I rose in a crouch. This would be a good distraction from my worry and fears about Shen and Ran. Whatever or whoever dared to attack my family would feel my wrath.
I leapt from the loft, only to see it was enforcers .
“Stand down by order of the matriarch of the Reds and come peaceably,” Head Enforcer Markus said.
Jess was screaming, holding tight to her mother’s leg. Fina was crying with big tears racing down her little chubby face as Anna cradled her in shaking, shivering arms. Jacob was staring in open-mouthed horror, his hair going every which way from sleep. Dad was holding a sword before him, and Mom had an arrow trained on the enforcers.
“What’s goin’ on?” Dad asked.
“You’re called before a tribunal. We’ve known each other a very long time, Liam. Please don’t make this harder than it already is.”
Dad nodded. He put down his sword.
They tied our hands.
When they got to Anna and the kids, a noise escaped me. “Please, don’t hurt them,” I said.
They didn’t listen and tried to pry Fina from Anna’s arms. Fina screamed, her shrill voice on the edge of hysteria as Anna had tears racing down her face. She also had a look of determination in her eyes as she fought for her daughter.
The enforcer went down with a high-pitched squeal when Anna kicked the man right between the legs. He fell to his knees with a keening moan.
Another enforcer drew her sword.
“Leave them,” Enforcer Markus said.
The other enforcer immediately sheathed her sword and left Anna and the kids cowering in the corner.
But when Anna met my eyes, they churned with determination. “We’ll be ok,” she mouthed.
I blinked a burn from behind my eyes as another enforcer grabbed my arm and shoved me out the door.
We followed Markus down the same street I had travelled mere hours before. The glances thrown at me couldn’t be different. Last night, these same enforcers and Reds had cheered as I became First Blade. But now? Most wouldn’t even look at me, and those that did spat with disgust. We were trussed like cattle and dragged to the largest center hut where we typically had community meals and celebrations. It had been a long time since we held a trial here.
When we dove into the crowds, the people were not gentle with me. It was as if everyone knew what was going on except for me. One fist caught my lip, splitting it on impact. I hit the ground, rolling with the momentum. I made it to my knees even with my arms tied behind my back. A boot caught me in the chest, sending me back to the ground. I tried to get back upright but another boot clipped my head. I lay, stunned, staring up at the clouds dotting the early morning sky. They looked so peaceful. For a moment, it took me from the pain in my body and the betrayal pounding in my heart.
“That’s enough now,” Enforcer Markus said, helping me up and glaring at anyone else who attempted to attack me.
A haze settled over my thoughts as shock tried to dampen my emotions.
I came back around as the enforcers shoved me to my knees before the tribunal and our leader, my grandma, Matriarch of the Reds.
I struggled against the bite of rough, spelled rope.
Bitterness replaced all the joy I’d found in completing my tasks as a Red. As Shen had walked away from me last night, I knew. Even as I was toasted as First Blade, I knew. I didn’t belong here. They couldn’t accept me as I was.
And everything I’d believed was a lie.
Humans were no better than any other being out there. Humans were both good and bad, just like everything and everyone else. Our choices lead us to our habits, which lead us to our character, which was who we became.
I’d become the very monster I’d once fought. Ran and Shen forced me to see beyond the black and white of my raising and realize all I’d seen were hints of darker and lighter gray.
Reds liked to think of themselves as pure, but they were hypocrites of the worst order. They used magic against magic users—all to kill said magic.
It was sickening. And I’d never seen it so fully as when I was bound by magic before the tribunal. All senses of needs were cut off.
A white form was trussed to the center of the tent, iron shackles binding her legs. “Don’t hurt her!” I pleaded.
Grandma stood from her chair in the center of the Matriarch’s Tent which was large enough to hold three regular huts. Three elders stood on either side of her with one behind her. The judges who governed the day to day of the people were to the right of them.
Behind the judges were my family, and behind them? So many of my tribe flooded the room they were packed tighter than sardines. The door was left propped open—despite the cold of an early winter blasting through and landing on my sweaty neck—so those outside could hear the trial.
And in the middle of it all, with a snarl on her lips showing her sharp teeth and eyes rolling in her head while she lay bound, was my precious Bond. My best friend. My sister.
Her mane was stuck to her neck with blood and sweat. Her hooves were immobile, tight chains biting into the thin skin around her cannon bones. Her eyes met mine with a finality I found terrifying.
My blood ran cold. I still couldn’t contact her over the bond, and that was when I noticed the rope around her neck. A wolfsbane rope. It must be dampening the bond.
“Not only have you been consorting with a magical animal, going so far as to bond with it and break sacred laws, but you have brought dishonor to your family, to your tribe, and to the Reds. You have betrayed us all.” Grandma’s face held nothing but contempt. Her eyes were cold as ice and sliced through me worse than my favorite black stiletto.
The crowd roared. I chanced a glance over to see only hatred. A few had confusion pinching their brows, such as Brandt and a few other Reds who knew me and fought with me. But the rest? They were calling for my head. For the unicorn’s head.
I deflated in surrender. I’d tried.
It wasn’t like I didn’t know this would happen eventually. But I’d always wondered what if . What if I did everything so well and followed the laws to the letter, then wouldn’t they see I wasn’t the enemy? That I wasn’t a betrayer just because I was born with magic?
I should have known the truth. If they admitted I wasn’t a betrayer and that I wasn’t evil, it would ruin the entire law. Everything they stood for and had killed for would be meaningless, and they would realize many innocent beings had been killed merely because they were born different.
The guilt would be too great. Even I found the guilt heavy with what I’d done. And some of these Reds had been killing for twice as long as I’d been alive. How much blood of innocent beings was on their hands?
“It must stop,” I whispered. The killing of so many, just because of an outdated belief—it wasn’t right.
Until that point, I’d hoped the Reds could be saved. Redeemed.
What I hadn’t realized in doing what was right was that I’d become the enemy of my people. The respect I’d strove so hard to achieve. The pride I’d broken myself to hope for. The honor I’d worked so hard to rekindle. All dashed away in a single day.
Grandma wrenched my face up, her eyes now blazing with fury. “You not only condemned yourself, Aurelia, you condemned your entire family,” she hissed. And for the first time, I saw something in her eyes. Something buried beneath rage and disappointment.
Fear.
The night I’d watched a wolf tear apart Grandpa, I didn’t see this fear in Grandma’s eyes.
Graham came to the front, hands behind his back at attention. He wouldn’t look at me. Wouldn’t even move his eyes for a simple glimpse, even as I implored him to look. He said we were friends. Couldn’t he spare me a simple glance? Heck, I’d be fine with a blink of those eyes.
“Report,” Grandma said.
“Red Alia was in the forest with a man who was clearly a werewolf. He did not kill her. She spoke with him. She admitted she has magic.”
A gasp rose from the crowd. Everything was so silent I heard a mouse skitter up the walls.
Then the yells began.
“Outrageous!”
“Black-mouthed jis!”
“Whip and hang the family!”
The last one caught on until nearly everyone in that room, people I’d known my entire life, chanted for my death and the death of my family. I squeezed my eyes shut, preparing for the verdict.
“She has betrayed us,” Grandma said, her voice soft but unyielding. “But I am nothing if not fair. She will have a trial, and then her and her family will be hanged should they be found guilty.”
A ripping came from behind me. I turned to find my Red hood being passed from hand to hand, each ripping the hood straight down the center one inch at a time. Bile rose in my throat.
When it got to Grandma, she took it and with one last glance at the people, tore it in two and let the tatters fall to the ground.
I stared at the limp red fabric laying discarded like refuse on the ground. It felt as if my life had ripped down the center with that hood.
As Grandma opened her mouth to say more, a shadow detached from the ceiling. The shadow pooled at the ground right behind Grandma, then rose as a man. My heart caught in my throat when those burning eyes met mine.
Shen
Trussed like cattle to slaughter.
Snapping down the emotions rolling in my chest was harder than ever. Her eyes were glimmering with tears. A single starlit orb fell from the corner of her eye, tracing the gentle curve of her cheek and dropping from her clenched jaw. Part of her face was discolored, and red dripped a scarlet path from a split in her lip as her very people spat on her.
Lycus howled with displeasure. Kill. Kill all , he demanded.
I swallowed back the urge to shift and rend them limb from limb. Tingles erupted on my arms, the precursor to fur. I managed to keep Lycus in line. Barely.
I let my cold dagger rest at the corner of the matriarch’s neck. She did not flinch.
“You’re dead,” she said, her voice soft.
I shook my head. So this was where Little Red got her strength. “If I am dead, then why do I draw breath?”
Alia’s eyes were about to fall from their sockets. They pleaded with me, but I ignored the silent communication. “I propose a trade,” I said, just loud enough for the people ringing Alia and her bond, watching her humiliation even though she had always been one of them. But this… this had gone too far.
The matriarch cocked her head at that. I wondered if she had studied how to kill werewolves so long she now subconsciously mimicked them. “I am listening,” the matriarch said.
“The girl, her bond, and her family—let them go. No one to follow. No one to know. As if they were dead, yet they live. Just far from here.”
“And what should we expect in return?” the matriarch asked. “It must be something worthy, for while you are a snit with many talents, these have betrayed their own.”
Alia flinched, as if those words struck her. I closed my eyes for a scant second, pushing Lycus back. But his teeth became my teeth and erupted out from between my lips. “My life for theirs,” I said, my voice a low growl since my vocal chords were partially changed to wolf.
I watched Alia carefully. She always gave her feelings away by minute reactions. A twitch of her thumb, a crinkle of her nose, a cock of her brow, a smirk on her lips. But even I was not prepared for the loud gasp that broke through her parted lips. “No!” she hissed, struggling against the ropes.
The matriarch tsked. “Young, foolish love. I shall enjoy taking the burning of my lifelong achievements out on your hide, Wolf.”
My shoulders hunched just a hair. She would take the exchange.
“No. No, you can’t. This is all so wrong,” Alia said, her voice cracking. A tear trailed her cheek. She took a deep breath. With her eyes closed, she rose from where she was half-huddled on the ground.
“No more, Grandma,” she said, her eyes now flashing with the determination of a she-wolf.
My wolf howled with pride, watching her rise from the ashes of the humiliation and rejection of the very people she loved and had bled for.
“I challenge you for rite,” she said, her spine ramrod straight, her voice hard as cold granite, and her eyes twin stars shining in a midnight sky.
My aedus star. My pathway home. My carissimus.
I knew it then. I understood. The bond was why I was drawn to her, but she was the reason I had grown to love her. Her spirit and her grit. Her kindness and her gentleness. She had fought so hard, came so far.
“No, Red. This is a battle you will not win,” I said, hoping against hope she would listen to reason.
But her eyes flashed and her lips pursed in a thin line. She reminded me of a kitten hissing. Cute, but with sharp claws.
“No, you listen, Wolfie. This is my tribe, my people. And I will end this,” she whispered, her voice so low I was the only one in the tent who heard it. My smirk should never have come. I knew it would only encourage her madness.
But I also knew her .
Regardless of what I said, she was more stubborn than any werewolf.