Chapter 12
Taller, stronger, and faster, yet apparently not smarter, my brother stood about ten feet away from me and Ace, blocking our exit from the narrow path between the cabins. With Darius on the other side of us, we were trapped with only kitchen knives as weapons. I waved the knife between us.
“Make this make sense,” I demanded.
Paul sighed as if I’d asked him to help clean up after a party instead of explaining why he was working with the very people who’d abducted me and had previously tried to kill me.
“Why don’t you come back inside?” he asked.
I crossed my arms over my chest, careful not to slice myself with the knife. “And if I refuse? If I run? Are you going to stab me or will you get your lackey to do it for you?”
Darius grunted behind me.
“Of course not,” Paul said. “I’ll tell them to shoot you and aim for your shoulder. I can’t have you running off to give away our position.”
I clamped my mouth shut. I didn’t know who this person was anymore. Did I ever? He certainly didn’t act like the boy I grew up with, like the boy who stole a bun from the market and risked getting beaten, only to tear the meager food in half because I didn’t have anything to eat.
“Come on, Em,” Paul said, his voice too calm, like the eye of a storm I hadn’t yet begun to understand. “Come inside.”
His words held no force, or threat. But they didn’t need to. He was my brother. I wouldn’t hurt him. I couldn’t.
To my greatest shame, I obeyed. My feet moved before my heart could scream no, each reluctant step dragging me back across the threshold of the cabin I’d fought so hard to flee.
More hunters had joined us and followed us inside.
The door creaked closed behind us with a finality that stole the breath from my lungs.
Trapped again, not by ropes or chains, but by something far more insidious—love.
Late afternoon sun bled through the curtains, illuminating the living room we’d hurried through moments ago.
Paul waved at the table. I hesitated, then sank into the rickety chair at the scarred dining table.
Its legs wobbled beneath me, but I barely noticed.
My attention was fixed on the man across from me. My brother. My own twin.
Paul met my eyes without a flicker of remorse, his fingers steepled beneath his chin. He looked the same as he always had.
The new hunters stepped in behind me, their presence and position a silent threat.
Why was I here? Why hadn’t I run?
Beside me, Ace remained silent. His presence was grounding, yet the tension rolling off him was palpable. He sat still, but his hand brushed lightly against mine beneath the table, just once. A quiet reminder that I wasn’t alone.
I wanted to grab his hand and hold on, but that wouldn’t save me from this moment.
I turned my attention back to Paul, fury simmering beneath my skin. “What’s going on?” I asked. My voice shook a little, but it wasn’t from fear. Oh no. It was barely contained rage.
I couldn’t deny the truth now, as it was so much worse than I initially thought. Paul wasn’t just involved with these hunters. Not just complicit. He was leading them. Or close enough to it.
The man who’d sworn to always have my back since childhood was the reason I’d been captured and chained.
And now he sat calmly at the dinner table as if he hadn’t just tried to steal my freedom.
The audacity of it made my blood boil.
“Explain,” I said, my voice sharper this time. “Start talking before I decide I’d rather take my chances outside against your men.”
“I’d advise against that. There’s only so many poisoned arrows you can take, and Ace here doesn’t have the same shield of immortality as you.”
“Neither do your hunters. How many more can I take down with me before I’m incapacitated?” I asked. “How many more can you afford to lose?”
He hesitated and the softness around the corners of his eyes faded.
Touched a nerve there. Good.
“Why?” I asked again.
Paul shook his head and glanced toward the door. “Isn’t it obvious?”
“Not to me.”
“I’m trying to rid this world, our world, of the galeons.”
“But…but why?”
He pressed his lips together and looked down at the table.
I knew this look—the one with the furrowed brow. He was deciding how much to tell me.
He spoke to the tabletop instead of meeting my gaze. “Aren’t you tired of taking crap from the galeons? Why them and not us?”
Us? Did he know we were phaanon? Did he suspect? Surely, he would’ve said something if he knew.
No, he meant us as in peasants. He either thought we were pureblood galeons or at least partly galeon, and it was lack of money holding us back. “So, you have issues with the royals, and you’ve decided to recruit hunters and make your own army to kill the unkillable?”
“I didn’t expect you to catch on,” he said. “You weren’t supposed to be a part of that.”
I clamped my mouth shut. Did my own brother just call me stupid?
“It’s why I pushed for the queen to pair you with Ace.
” His gaze slid over to my partner. “I assumed you would both be too caught up competing with each other and focusing on the murders, you wouldn’t pay attention to where I was, who I was with or what I was doing.
I hid everything in plain sight.” He paused and tilted his head at me.
“It helped that you thought so little of my aspirations.”
“Now, it’s obvious you think very little about my intelligence. I’m pretty sure you just called me stupid for the second time,” I said. “And how can you blame me for calling out your partying? Was that an act this entire time?”
He shrugged and looked away. “You always claimed I was more about the party than being a part of something. And that’s what I wanted. I wanted you to think of me that way.” Paul swallowed. “But this isn’t about you at all. You weren’t supposed to be involved.”
“You said that already, but did you tell that to the hunters who shot at me?” I snapped.
He squinted at me and pressed his lips together.
Whatever. “Well, I’m involved now. Where’s Nala?”
“Nala is safe. Despite what you might think, I would never hurt her. I had her returned to Perga. Once Ryan finds her, he’ll take good care of her. He always does.”
I released a long breath. Nala was safe. And better yet, she wasn’t here at the camp. “What about us? What do you plan to do with me?”
“You’re going to have to stay here for the unforeseen future,” he said. “I can’t have you ruining things. The royals will pay for everything they’ve done. A new order will rise and then you will be free to benefit from what I have created.”
“Excuse me?” Exactly what gave him the authority or audacity to determine my fate like this?
“This is what I’m meant to do. This is my power, Em, not yours.” Paul nodded at one of the guards behind me. “Lock her up again but do a better job searching her this time.”
“You can't just lock us up indefinitely.”
“You’re right.” He stood up and straightened his shirt before stepping to the side to push his chair in. “Ace will be executed tomorrow. He’s become more trouble than what he’s worth.”
“What?” I choked out. “No.”
Paul walked around the table to approach me.
He gently reached down to cup my face, “I was not responsible for the previous attacks on you. There was a…miscommunication. But while I can’t stomach the idea of hurting or killing you to ensure your silence, I have no such qualms about silencing Ace.
He burned whatever friendship we had when he left without word all those years ago.
I never forgave him, but I know what he means to you, even if you don’t.
I’ll give you tonight to say your goodbyes, but come morning, whether you’ve made peace with it or not, l will tie up this loose thread. ”
He dropped his hand and walked away without looking back.