Page 8 of Fighting the Lies

The American bear dipped his fingers into a, now, virtually empty jar. He scraped a tiny bit of honey from the bottom and placed it into his mouth. Scott always found his friend’s way of thinking about a task rather frustrating. He wanted to hurry him up, get the answer out, but Zain did things in his own time.

"Jessica will have to send me in."

"Ethern will bring you to him when he is ready. He needs to ensure that nobody is around when you see it."

The American bear frowned.

"Do we trust him?"

"He created Selene." Kas answered as if that was a justifiable reason.

"That doesn't give me grounds to trust anyone. No offence Selene." He waved his hand in apology at the multi shifter who was still awaiting further orders.

"None taken. May I answer this Kas?" Selene replied.

"Of course."

"Zain, I wasn't sure who to trust, when I first came here. It was hard to understand what was happening to me. I made mistakes, a pretty big one in believing Nuka over Kas when the former told me our Alpha had betrayed me. Gradually, I developed a sense of trust. Ethern gave me life to save the sorrow of my parents." Scott recalled the story Selene had told the pack. She'd been a baby, but Death had chosen to take her. Ethern had bartered his own soul in exchange for hers. Eventually, the Reaper had agreed, and Ethern gave life to Selene as the first female multi-shifter. "He has given his soul for me. We can trust him. I know we can."

"If you say we can then I will. But if he kills me, I'm coming back to haunt you and Brayden. Every time he does that thing that makes you squeal so much. I'm swooping down as a ghost." Selene went bright red and hid behind the sleeve of her long jumper. "I'll go get ready as well. Won't take long, just grab a little snack to eat on the way."

Zain placed Jessica onto his chair and tucked a blanket around her. The witch was emotionally drained and had drifted into a sleep from the warmth of the bear's arms. Zain passed Brayden re-entering the room, when he left. The snow leopard went straight to his wife's side.

"What about me?" He'd sat and watched everyone else being given something to do. Now he wanted to help.

"How injured are you?" Kas motioned towards his side. He hadn't changed clothes when he'd redressed after shifting. He simply put the bloody T-shirt on. Emma would have normally gotten him a change of clothes. It was the dynamic in their relationship. Normally as the better fighter, she'd been the one to get them dirty.

"I can fight if I need to." His reply was adamant.

"No fighting. But your task is the most important. Selene will take you to Emma. I want you to watch over her. Don't interfere in her captivity at all. Stay the other side of the bars from her. Reassure her. Ask her what she remembers about her childhood. Ciaran's magic will know you are there. Be prepared for him." He had to go and see Emma in her prison. Had Kas gone mad?

"Are we supposed to visit her?"

“What do you think?”

“Will he do any harm to her?” That was his major worry. He didn’t care if the druid burnt every last hair from his body, as long as Emma was safe. Wait, did he really just say that?

“Nuka is not a fool. He’ll not allow Ciaran to touch Emma. He needs the spectacleof the Courtroom show to get his point across. As long as you stayon the other side of the bars, you may well just be the distraction we need to find the evidence to clear her.”

“He doesn’t know you have these papers?”

"No. He believes that we have basic evidence. Not enough for us to find a way to clear her in any way, shape, or form." Kas winked at him. "See why I trust Ethern."

“When this is over, I’ll have to thank him myself.”

“I think we all will, but we need to get Emma off first.” Scott nodded at his Alpha. Kas lumbered over to his chair and took a seat on it. He didn’t gracefully lower himself into the chair but flopped down. The weight of the world on his shoulders.

"I'm not sure about Selene going into the Dungeon. What if it’s another trap?" Brayden had been standing quietly, listening to the conversation but now voiced his concern.

"My brother is no longer interested in Selene." The reply was short. Scott thought that Kas ended his response rather too quickly. There was something that had not been added to that sentence. What was it?

"Can you be a hundred percent certain on that?" Brayden was worried about his mate. He wasn't going to let her go until she was safe.

Selene walked over to Kas and kneeled before him. She placed both her hands on his lap and shut her eyes. When she opened them again, her pupils had disappeared to be replaced by only the whites of her eyes and patterns of swirls covered her smooth skin. She had transformed into a witch.

“Selene.” The words were barely distinguishable on Kas’ breath.

The patterns disappeared, and Selene bowed her head. Her pupils returned, and a few tears tumbled down her cheeks.

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