Chapter 24
Chapter
Twenty-Four
Secrets are strange things.
On the surface, they seem so simple. The only thing you have to do to keep them is nothing.
Don’t talk.
Don’t share.
Don’t show any shame.
But what no one likes to admit is that nothing is the hardest thing for a person to do.
Silence feels itchy. Gaps in conversations demand to be filled. Information bubbles and boils inside us, and the pressure from the resulting steam threatens to blow us apart.
And don’t get me started on the guilt. That’s the truly unbearable part.
All week long, it gnawed at me. Every time I shared a laugh with Calindra or Akela, I was pierced with a fresh stab of shame.
Every time Hektor or Kyre tossed a smile my way, the blade sank a little deeper.
And every night when I dozed off, spent and sated in Tauren’s arms, I thought that I might die from the pain.
And it wasn’t as if I found any respite when I fell asleep. Because, just like always, the nightmare was there, waiting for me.
The same fear. The same agony. The same death.
Would it still be there after the full moon? Or would it disappear once I was back in my apartment, and its purpose had run out?
Somehow, I doubted it. There was no way the Fates were going to let me off the hook that easily. Not after I screwed up their carefully crafted plans.
No, they’d continue to torment me with night terrors as punishment for my audacity. They’d never give up their torture. The weight of their disdain would always be hanging over my shoulders.
And that weight only grew more leaden with every one of Tauren’s looks and smiles.
Especially now, as he leaned against the wall of his cabin, watching me dress.
He didn’t know I was getting ready for my last night in the Wilds.
“You’ve been quiet today,” Tauren noted as I slipped into the red dress I’d decided to wear to the bonfire tonight. It was my favorite, and I wanted to look good. These would be his last memories of me, after all.
“Have I?” I shook my head, trying to quickly clear away all the darker thoughts in my head. “I’ve just been…thinking.”
He cocked a brow as I pulled my hair back into a simple bun. “What about?”
“The future.”
“You’re worried about my father’s judgment.” It wasn’t a question. “I understand. But you don’t have to worry. No matter what happens, we’re going to be fine. I will always take care of you.”
“Not if you’re dead.”
Part of me couldn’t believe I’d said the words out loud. But there was no point trying to hide my fear. One look into my eyes, and Tauren would see it anyway.
He always did.
“Hannah, we’ve been over this.” Pushing him back off the wall, he cupped his hands over my shoulders. Then tenderly, he traced them down the length of my arms…all the way to the tips of my fingers. “My father is not going to call for our execution. Grober already assured us of that.”
Grober was one of Drogan’s closest advisors. One that also happened to be on friendly terms with Calindra.
It had only taken her a few jokes, a handful of compliments, and nearly half a barrel of huckleberry wine to squeeze the story from him a few days ago.
According to Grober, Drogan had been livid right after the fight, his temper as fiery as always. But that anger didn’t last. Soon, cooler heads had prevailed.
He said that, deep down, Drogan understood that punishing Tauren might lead to civil war. The last thing he wanted was for the pack to splinter, but he’d let his pride back him into a corner.
Apparently, Drogan’s advisors had been pushing for him to make amends with Tauren for years. Still, something always seemed to hold him back.
But now Drogan had finally decided to bury the hatchet. There would be no banishment. No execution. It was time for him to start healing the old wounds between him and his son.
It was a good story. One that had filled Tauren and all our friends with hope.
There was only one problem.
Cenric confided to me in private that it was all a lie.
Just a clever ruse Drogan was using to temporarily appease his advisors, before secretly passing judgment on Tauren in private and surprising everyone at the bonfire with his execution.
He wants to meet with Tauren alone in the family home first. That’s where he’ll pass his sentence. Then Drogan will take Tauren to the bonfire and shock everyone by chopping his head off. He’s convinced that after that show of brutality, no one would dare rise against him.
Yeah, that sounded more like the Drogan I knew.
I looked up into Tauren’s eyes.
“But what if your father’s changed his mind?”
My face must have paled, because Tauren raised his hand and swept the back of one of his fingers down my cheek.
“Then we will fight,” he said. “Me and Kyre and Hektor, along with half the pack. We’ll start our own pack if we have to—one where the balance between our world and the kirre one can be restored.”
I shook my head, my stomach twisting into knots.
“I just can’t stand the thought of anyone getting hurt,” I said for what felt like the thousandth time. “Especially not you.”
“I’ll be fine. And so will you,” Tauren said. “Cenric will keep you hidden and protected.”
That was the plan...the one his cousin had so selflessly helped us come up with.
The three of us would head to the bonfire together. But when Tauren split off to talk to his father in private, Cenric would take me to Kyre’s cabin at the edge of the village.
It was the perfect place for me to hide. No one would think to look for me there. Not with Kyre already at the celebration. But even if they did, the house was small enough for Cenric to protect on his own if someone started sniffing around.
We all agreed I’d stay in the cabin while tensions were still running high in the village. Then, if all ended peacefully like Tauren hoped, Cenric would escort me back to his side. But if the situation turned violent, I was already in a good position to slip back into the safety of the forest.
It was a solid plan.
But it wasn’t the real one.
The actual plan was for us to wait until Tauren was out of sight. Then Centric would lead me back to the Wall, slip me into one of the tunnels that snaked underneath, and then rush back to the village and quickly douse any chance of violence.
I only prayed it worked.
Because if it didn’t, then I wouldn’t be the only one dying tonight.
“I’ll be back for you before you know it.”
Standing just outside the ring of empty alpha cabins, Tauren wrapped an arm around my waist and pulled me in tight.
Oh God. This was it.
The moment I’d been dreading.
This was goodbye.
My heart hammered. My chest felt so tight I feared my ribs might shatter.
Our whole walk to the village, I’d been pleading with God, with the Fates, with anyone up there that would listen to slow down time. To let these last few moments last. For them to somehow go on forever.
But the seconds kept ticking by like they always did, minutes slipping through my fingers no matter how desperately I tried to hold on to them.
And now it was over.
I threw my arms around Tauren’s neck as he pulled me in for a kiss and held on tight.
Just one more taste.
Just one more touch.
But just a second later, Cenric was clearing his throat loudly at our side, and Tauren pulled back.
“It’s all right, Hannah,” he assured me. “We’ll have the rest of our lives to finish that kiss.”
His words hit like a punch to the stomach, and for a second, I feared I was actually going to be sick.
But I swallowed down the bile and forced myself to smile.
This is going to be the last time he ever sees you, I thought. Don’t let him remember you miserable.
Then Tauren turned to Cenric. “Take care of her.”
“Of course,” his cousin said with a solemn nod.
And then he was gone, disappearing through the trees in a flash and leaving me more alone than I’d ever felt in my life.
“Sorry about that,” Cenric said once he’d deemed Tauren out of earshot. “But we need to get moving, and that goodbye wasn’t going to get any easier with time.”
He was right, of course...which was why I was surprised to see Cenric actually moving toward Kyre’s cabin.
“Why are we going into the village?” I asked, scurrying to catch up. “You said we needed to get moving.”
“We do. But there’s something we need to take care of first.”
There was?
Whatever it was, it wasn’t something we’d planned.
Cenric flew up the two tall steps that led to Kyre’s cabin and held the door open for me.
“Go on inside,” he said when I hesitated. “This won’t take long. I promise.”
It better not.
All week, Cenric had promised that it wouldn’t take him more than ten minutes to get me out to the tunnel under the wall and ten minutes to get back. Plenty of time to catch up with Drogan before he started playing executioner, he assured me.
Twenty minutes might not seem like a lot of time to him, but to me, every second counted. Which meant we didn’t have time to waste.
We needed to get going.
I glanced over my shoulder at the woods. The blue light of the full moon shone down bright and clear through the canopy, casting familiar shadows across the forest floor.
“Cenric, I don’t think—“
“Oh, just come in already,” a feminine voice huffed from inside the darkened cabin.
“Nelissa?”
What the hell was she doing here?
I rushed through the door to find out. But before I could even open my mouth, she started giving orders.
“Take off that dress,” she said imperiously.
“Why?”
“Why do you think?” Even in the dark of the unlit cabin, I swore I could see her roll her eyes. “Because you need to change your clothes. The dresses the other ladies made for you are too bright. Everyone will see you making your escape.”
How would they do that when they were all in the center of the village at the bonfire?
But I wasn’t about to waste any more time on questions. Especially not when I knew all I was bound to get back from Nelissa was another snippy reply.
So I pulled the dress over my head and tossed it down on Kyre’s bed. “Where are the other clothes?”
“Here.”
“Oof.” Air puffed out of my lungs as she shoved a canvas drawstring sack straight into my chest.
“Now, hurry up.” Scooping up my dress, she headed straight for the door. “There’s no time to waste.”
Yeah, I knew. Which was why I didn’t understand why in the world we were messing around with an outfit change.
I jumped a little as she slammed the door shut behind her…so hard that the latch ricocheted right out of the catch and swung open an inch. Just wide enough for me to hear what she and Cenric were whispering to each other outside.
“Did you do it?”
“Of course. I’m here, aren’t I?”
“How did it go?”
“Easier than I thought.” Nelissa gave a quiet laugh. Damn, the woman somehow managed to make joy sound mean. “The poor bastard never saw it coming.”
Poor bastard? Who was she talking about?
I kept one ear to the door as I opened the drawstring sack and thrust my hand inside.
“And you left him just the way I told you.”
“Yes.”
“Just exactly the way I told you?”
“I said yes, didn’t I?” Nelissa hissed. “I can’t stand it when you talk to me like I’m one of those idiots you manipulate all day.”
Excuse me?
I was too distracted by the bizarre conversation outside to notice anything strange about the clothes my hands had wrapped around inside the bag—heavy denim and jersey cotton.
“I’m sorry, darling,” Cenric cooed. “It’s just that everything needs to be perfect for this plan to work.”
“I don’t see why,” Nelissa huffed. “You spent years poisoning your uncle’s and cousin’s minds against each other. Everyone knows how much they hate each other.”
“Yes, but hate isn’t evidence. Drogan needs to be found in a sea of blood for people to believe that Tauren was the one who killed him.”
My eyes went wide. My jaw fell open.
They’d killed Drogan? And now they were framing Tauren for it? This couldn’t be right. It couldn’t be happening.
But in an instant, I knew it was.
“Oh, don’t worry,” Nelissa said. “Your uncle passed out just minutes after I spiked his drink. And get this—the poor fool was talking about mending his relationship with his idiot son until his last breath. You were right. The pair probably would have reconciled a dozen times over the years if it wasn’t for you. ”
“But he didn’t give you any trouble, did he?”
“Of course not. Drogan wasn’t awake to fight back when I started to tear into him. And the blood went everywhere. No one will doubt Tauren flew into a rage and killed his father.”
Oh God.
“Good.” Cenric’s voice was as cold and detached as any psychopath. “Then I suppose it’s my turn to get to work.”
“It’s not fair. You made me kill Drogan while he was drugged and unconscious,” Nelissa complained. “Now, you get to have all the fun, hunting that bitch through the forest. I’m the one who can’t stand her; I should be the one who gets to kill her.”
“You can’t, darling.” Cenric’s tone was tight and thin, his patience wearing thin. “Hannah needs to die deep in the forest, and she’ll only go there with someone she trusts.”
And like a fool, I’d let down my guard and allowed myself to trust Tauren’s cousin.
Now that trust was going to get me killed.
I looked down at the clothes in my shaking hands.
Jeans and a T-shirt.
Even though deep down I already knew, I inched closer to the pale moonlight filtering in through the crack in the door. Unfolding the shirt, I looked down at the logo on the front.
Deke’s Goldwood Tavern.
I’d thought it had been dragged off by wild animals at the waterfall. But it was Cenric who’d taken my clothes.
My stomach twisted at the thought that he’d been there that day.
Watching us.
Spying.
Scheming.
Putting together a horrible plan.
“What do you want me to do with this dress?” Nelissa asked off-handedly.
“Burn it. Bury it. Shred it for rags. I don’t care,” Cenric hissed. “All that matters is that the little sheep is in her kirre clothes when they find her body. That way, there will be no doubt that she was trying to escape back to her world when Tauren killed her.”
After hearing this last bit, I slowly reached out and quietly pulled the door closed, making sure that the latch caught this time. The last thing I needed was for Cenric to guess that I knew his plan.
And what a plan it was.
Like a chess grandmaster, he had plotted out every possible angle, thought out every scenario, then carefully moved all his pieces into place. And now he was ready to attack.
Meanwhile, the only thing I was ready for was surrender. Like the pawn I was, I’d spent the last week in my dreams practicing how to sacrifice myself for the greater good. But that wasn’t going to save Tauren now.
Honestly, I wasn’t sure anything was.
But that didn’t mean I wasn’t going to try.