Chapter 36 #2
“Afraid? No. I definitely upset him. Or, at least, disappointed him and made his life hellish with Cassius.” His features edged into a scowl before softening again. “But he’ll understand that I’m here for our family. At the end of the day, after all the politics and bullshit, that’s what matters.”
Something deeper lay within the words, something raw, but Isla was too distracted to pick it apart.
Family.
Tell him. All of it. Right now. Don’t be selfish.
Isla opened her mouth, closed it, and opened it again. “Do you want to take a walk?”
Sebastian laughed. “I just ran twelve miles worth of hills, but sure.”
Isla slid down from her rocky perch, her legs shockingly unsteady. She crossed her arms over her chest, leading them down an easy path so she wouldn’t have to brace as many inclines.
“Do you think I was out of line on the Equinox? Accusing Dad of—what I did.” She wrung her hands together and took a few moments to survey the brush. “I just… need someone to be honest with me. Kai would, I’m sure, but he's also horribly biased in my favor.”
Sebastian rubbed his neck. “Well, maybe you were harsh.”
“Great.” A pit formed in Isla’s stomach. She snatched a twig off the ground to at least have something to do with her hands.
Sebastian ran a hand through the tree they passed by, ripping down a russet-orange leaf and pulling it apart at its stemmy veins. “What made you think he could? I mean, Dad and Eli weren’t getting along, but I don't think he'd murder him. Let alone claw him to bits like that.”
She hadn’t really taken that part into account that night—the brutality of the killing. Eli had been eviscerated.
She wondered exactly how much her brother knew already, but she didn’t hesitate to confide, “Eli mentioned trying to talk to Dad about Cassius covering some things up that Eli wanted no part of, and Dad shut him down. Told him he needed to drop it before he got hurt.”
She paused, allowing the words to sink in, and where Isla had expected shock, Sebastian’s features didn’t waver. For a moment, deep down, some fractured part of her feared he had been some kind of double agent, but then his face pinched into a scowl.
He said nothing, so she asked, “Do you know anything?”
Sebastian tossed the skeletal remains of his leaf on the ground. “Most of what I’ve been told lately was only related to Deimos, Kyran, and how little we trusted them. Basically, everything I told you that night in your apartment. I haven’t been told much of anything since the Hunt.”
Of course not. Cassius likely suspected Isla and Kai were mates by then.
“But Dad did mention rogues and rebellions to Adrien and me before Eli showed up. He also said the continent wouldn’t like seeing us play favorites for being at your coronation.
Even though you’re my Goddess-damn sister, you may as well be Adrien’s, and you’re his daughter.
Cassius wants to prevent everything from collapsing. ”
Isla growled under her breath. “Cassius’s definition of ‘collapse’ is everything no longer working in his favor.”
When Sebastian didn’t immediately respond, Isla feared she’d stepped too far. But he began, just as they reached the gurgling creek’s edge, “I know he's technically my Alpha—well, until he banishes me—and I know he's Adrien’s dad, but I hate that guy.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever agreed with you more.”
“Dad’s his Beta and has been his best friend for twice as long as we’ve been alive. He’s loyal to him to a fault, and I can’t blame him. I’d follow Adrien to war.” His face curled at the last word. Not the best choice. “Sometimes, I think about whether he’d choose him or us.”
Isla snapped her head towards him. “You do?”
“Sometimes,” he repeated and didn’t elaborate. Instead, he kicked a rock into the water and asked, “Do you know where Callan is?”
Isla’s heart sank, and she looked away, trailing the water’s flow and watching tadpoles mill about in the murk.
“I have a suspicion, and I hope I'm wrong.” She trailed off, and Sebastian eyed her expectantly.
She kicked her own rock, her heart thundering.
“I need… I need you to listen to me before you start freaking out, okay?
Please. Listen to everything I say, and don't do anything rash.”
Sebastian’s brows drew inwards. “Anything that starts like this can’t be good.”
It’s not.
Isla steeled herself. “I think Callan was taken by a witch.”
Sebastian’s expression didn’t falter much to her surprise. “The one you’ve been hunting?”
“Yes.” She felt her lungs squeeze, and she coughed. Not again. “She escaped a prison in Io where Cassius is holding witches, hoping to use them, I assume, against us.”
Sebastian jerked back. “He what? How do you know that?”
“Kai.” Or Ezekiel.
Sebastian blinked. “Does Adrien know?”
Isla rubbed a hand along her arm to warm herself. “He, uh, confirmed it.”
Hurt and confusion crossed her brother’s face. “Why didn’t he tell me?”
“I don’t know, but there’s more. When the witch first escaped, Cassius needed to catch her before anyone found out.
So, he…” Goddess, spit it out. “That was where he sent Mom and her team years ago. Their trip to the southern territories was to track her down for Cassius, and the witch ended up killing or capturing them all.”
A weight simultaneously lifted and pulverized her chest.
Sebastian’s eyes had gone so wide that Isla could find flecks of brown in the pine green as if he’d truly been crafted for the forest. “And how do you know that?”
“The witch told me, more or less, when she took me. Mom was captured.”
Isla swore she could see Sebastian’s heart pounding through his bare chest, beating straight through his rib cage. He paced a few steps back from her, his eyes glossing.
“Seb—” Isla started, but he cut her off.
“She’s alive, isn’t she?” A broken and hopeful smile slid across his face. “She’s alive.”
Isla went rigid. There was understanding in his voice.
But still, he said, “Say it,” like he needed her to confirm the impossible. To make it real.
Isla swallowed a sob, her eyes stinging as she nodded. For a moment, she couldn’t get the words out. “She’s alive.”
And just like that, the ghost that stood between them vanished.
A single tear slid down his cheek, and he didn’t wipe it away until it reached the stubble of his jaw. His body shook as he laughed and cried in disbelief. She couldn’t think of the last time she’d seen him like this… if ever.
Isla wiped the tears from her eyes, remembering her mother in that cave when they were finally, truly face-to-face again. How broken she had been, how much she’d gone through.
“Fucking hell.” He paced a few steps away, rubbing the bridge of his nose. “I knew it.”
The words struck her like a lash. “You knew?”
“I figured,” he corrected, closing the distance between them again.
“That's another reason why I stayed: to track her.
I felt her in Abalys that night. I didn't know what to do. I thought I was going crazy and wanted to make sure before I talked to you or Dad… Dad.” Sebastian took a few steps towards the hall. “We have to tell him.”
Isla’s stomach pitted when his face lit up at that.
“Wait, slow down. You have to let me finish.”
“Finish once we get Mom.” He ran a hand over his hair, shaking his head at himself. “Goddess, I’m not even asking the most important question. Where is she? Are you hiding her somewhere? How—how long have you known? Where did you find her?”
“Let me finish,” was all Isla could say, and the softness of her tone spawned another frown on her brother’s face. Nausea bubbled in her stomach. “She’s been through a lot, Seb. The witch held her for years, torturing her.”
Sebastian blanched, his fists clenching at his sides. She could’ve sworn she felt his wolf rising to the surface.
Isla couldn’t pause. “She made her into—” Monsters are made. “She went through hell, and now, she’s not the same. She did something really, really bad.” That felt like downplaying it. Isla swallowed, bracing for another truth. “She killed the Alpha and Heir of Deimos.”
Sebastian’s body locked up, his eyes wide. His mouth opened to speak, but nothing came out.
Isla continued, “The witch uses her like a weapon, like she used the rogues. She basically stripped her sense of self and used her to kill Kai’s family. She almost killed Kai.”
“You're lying.” Not an accusation but a plea.
“I wish I was," Isla said. “I haven’t seen or heard from her since the night of the challenge.”
“You saw her?” Sebastian’s voice broke.
Isla nodded, her lower lip trembling. “She saved me, has saved me, more times than I ever realized. She saved you, too, that night.” Apolla’s face flashed through her mind again, and she winced.
Isla’s expression and fracturing of words seemed enough for Sebastian to gather just how bad she’d looked. The fact that he’d felt their mother’s touch that night she’d rescued him visibly rocked him. His features curled in anger. “Where is she now?”
“I don’t know. She’s skilled at remaining hidden… and I’m not sure she wants to be found.” She didn’t want to believe that.
Sebastian went quiet as he pondered the words, breaking them down. “Does Kai know it was her?"
She caught the unease on his face. “Yes.”
“And how does he feel about all of it?” Careful, cautious words.
“I won’t lie and say he’s fine, or that he’s forgiven her. But he understands she isn’t the enemy. Honestly, we don’t talk about it much,” Isla said.
“How could you not?”
A defensiveness slipped into her voice. “Because everyone processes things differently, and that’s how he is.” She let out a long breath, Jonah’s previously proclaimed desires ringing in her head. “I want to find her, I want to bring her home, but I don’t think it’s the best idea right now.”
Sebastian reeled back like she’d punched him in the face. “Not the best idea?”