Page 107 of Empowering the Wolf's Heart

What Was

ALIA

“What did you do?” I hissed, striding up to Grandmother’s throne.

She sat with thread and a Red hood in her hands, slowly darning a hole in her cloak.

She looked up, her eyes piercing mine. “What do you suppose I’vedonenow, Granddaughter?” she asked.

I crossed my arms and struggled against the urge to put a blade to her throat. “You helped them escape and then they attacked my friends.”

“Who, Aurelia? You must be more specific.”

“Verand and Graham,” I said through gritted teeth.

Her eyes went back to the darning of her cloak. “Oh? How interesting.”

“Tell me why.”

“You were always too straightforward, dear. You must learn the art of subtlety. When conducting an investigation, you do not go to the most likely person and demand they tell you what they have done. It is unseemly. Instead, you find out where the person has been and if any evidence may be in play, and then you convince them you know exactly what they did?—”

“I do know?—”

“But you have not the faintest idea why, now do you?”

I opened my mouth, then shut it. “I know you want the throne back.” I gave a pointed glance to the wooden throne on which she sat.

She chuckled, but something in her eye told me she was disappointed. “I trained you better, Aurelia. Think. You were smart, but you always held back because of your blasted altruism. Stop thinking the best of everyone and actually imagine there are people in this world who are evil for the mere rush it gives them for getting something over on the other. Pain for pain, if you will.”

“Tell me where they are.”

“I do not think I will. You will not harm your dear old grandmother, now will you?” She glanced up, her lips in a thin line. Was she hiding a smile? “No, I think not. Leverage, my dear. Leverage is what you need when interrogating. Not everything can be done through mere threats and stabbing.”

Red flushed my face. I turned and strode from the hall to the sound of her deep chuckle at my back.

“Mom? What’s wrong?”I stood from petting the little sphinx baby.

Mom stared at me for a moment. It was the wee morning hours of the first night of the Blood Moon. “The… the children… when we woke… They’re gone. And no one is helping us get ’em back.”

I ground my teeth.

Mom wrung her hands. “We tried to handle it… tried to get everything together on our own… but we couldn’t. Elder Timone wouldn’t?—”

I set a hand on her shoulder and gave her a gentle smile. “Mom, it’s ok, alright? We’ll get them back. Was it Rey?”

Mom nodded and then shook her head. “We don’t know for sure.”

But it was likely.

I turned to Brandt. “Go find Elder Timone and send him here.”

Brandt saluted and ran off.

“Please go find my nieces and don’t leave their sides. Check Rey’s home first,” I told Enforcer Markus.

Markus hesitated. “You will be alone?—”

“I can care for myself, Enforcer. Those kids can’t. Please,” I said, my heart aching in my chest. After finding out what Rey had done to my sister, he couldn’t be trusted. I needed them safe.

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