The mother’s cries had caused a building to collapse. It fell on a mother and daughter, and it was only thanks to thewerewolves’ strength that we got them out. The mother’s leg couldn’t be saved.
Guilt made my heart squeeze in my chest. Many blamed me.
Unrest gathered, and I wasn’t sure if my people were going to follow me much longer.
CHAPTER 34
A Broken Glass
ALIA
Why does something so simple feel so hard?
The door leading into the Matriarch’s Palace seemed to tower above me. The door was a plain, simple wood grain, but was higher than two of me put together. There were carvings of figures in cloaks fighting werewolves, dragons, unicorns—you name nearly any magical being, and they were there. Around the outer edges of the doorframe was a twisting vine with Ambrose flowers interspersed throughout.
Brandt stood at my back, frowning up at the massive home with brown pillars of support for the upper stories and guards stationed around the upper balconies.
The quiet unsettled me the most. Even deep in the woods, there were sounds of critters, whistling breezes through the trees, and howls of wolves and other predators in the distance. There was none of that here. Instead, there was a stillness, a calm before a storm.
Before I lost my nerve, I counted to five and then opened the door. The two enforcers stationed there bowed their heads as I walked inside. Before me spread a massive red runner that lead to a throne—the matriarch’s throne. Twin spirals of light-grain wooden stairs on either side of the massive entry hall led to abalcony that spanned most of the second floor. High above was a ceiling made of intertwining branches with entire trees as pillars of support. It was a mixture of dark and dreary and warm and welcoming depending on if you looked at the massive ceiling or the red runner leading to the throne.
There were multiple doors leading from this room to other wings of the house, wings that I never much cared to explore. Mom moved us out of here at the first opportunity, and we’ve lived by our own means since. I still remembered what I supposed was a nursery of sorts, where I’d first been wounded by Grandma’s hand when she found I’d climbed onto a table and knocked off a precious vase.
“Granddaughter, how lovely it is for you to visit your dear old grandmother at long last.” Grandma stared down from the second-floor balcony, and I couldfeelthe way her eyes judged me although I couldn’t see the pinch in her brow nor see the weight of her gaze.
She strode down the stairs wearing a crown on her head much larger than the one she wore when she was actually matriarch and a dazzling red gown with swirling hints of gold. Her gray hair was tied into a severe bun on top of her head, making the large crown with sparkling jewels much more pronounced. Her eyes glittered with something I couldn’t name but thoroughly disliked.
I stared at her, hiding my trembling fingers in my cloak. “Grandma, you look well,” I said.
“You do not. Is the weight too much to bear? I can always relieve you if you find it too burdensome.”
I snorted. “And let you continue killing innocent creatures?”
Her smile didn’t reach her eyes. “More’s the pity. You cannot blame me for trying. Brandt, are you her mere bodyguard now? I had such high hopes for you.”
Brandt remained silent, but his eyes went hard as flinted steel; it was a look I had seen very few times.
“Did you know about the original book?” I asked at last. If she did, if generations of Red matriarchs had just looked the other way while thousands of innocent creatures died… I didn’t know what to make of that.
She stopped feet from me and stared at who I’d become—and found me lacking. “That is not the right question,Matriarch.”
“Then what is?” I asked, frustration seeping through my words.
She turned from me, her gown gently brushing the ground as she walked down the red rug to the throne. She caressed the brown arm with her hand. The wood there was worn smooth, as if she had done so many times.
“You should ask why Reds would need to kill magical beings at all.” She turned to stare at me.
I met her gaze, knowing she was going to make me ask. “Why would Reds need to kill magical beings?”
“There is an imbalance in this world. Magical creatures came through a portal opened by a young man who did not understand what he was doing. The portal was not closed for over one hundred years. This created an unbalanced ecosystem where the magical creatures slowly killed off many animals vital to the livelihood of humans. Then many began hunting humans themselves.”
“Which is why we were taught all magical beings are evil…”
Grandma shook her head. “Not evil. Just wrong for this place. Wrong for this world. They belong where they belong, which is not here. And this is why I took it upon myself to create a more balanced world. A world of goodness, where everyone’s needs were met. One where humans can flourish and the invasive species are kept in check by predators.”
I stared at her. “These are living creatures.”
“When the massive snakes from across the seas came, you did not object when the werewolves naturally moved in to eat them, correct? It was a natural process. Imagine if no werewolves were here to keep them in balance? It would have toppled our ecosystem.” She paused, staring into the distance before jerking her eyes back to me. “We are the werewolves. We ensure balance is kept. And without us, the human kingdoms would have long ago fallen to the whims of the magical invasion.”