Page 74 of Empowering the Wolf's Heart

When we dove into the crowds, the people were not gentle with me. It was as if everyone knew what was going on except for me. One fist caught my lip, splitting it on impact. I hit the ground, rolling with the momentum. I made it to my knees even with my arms tied behind my back. A boot caught me in the chest, sending me back to the ground. I tried to get back upright but another boot clipped my head. I lay, stunned, staringup at the clouds dotting the early morning sky. They looked so peaceful. For a moment, it took me from the pain in my body and the betrayal pounding in my heart.

“That’s enough now,” Enforcer Markus said, helping me up and glaring at anyone else who attempted to attack me.

A haze settled over my thoughts as shock tried to dampen my emotions.

I came back around as the enforcers shoved me to my knees before the tribunal and our leader, my grandma, Matriarch of the Reds.

I struggled against the bite of rough, spelled rope.

Bitterness replaced all the joy I’d found in completing my tasks as a Red. As Shen had walked away from me last night, I knew. Even as I was toasted as First Blade, I knew. I didn’t belong here. They couldn’t accept me as I was.

And everything I’d believed was a lie.

Humans were no better than any other being out there. Humans were both good and bad, just like everything and everyone else. Our choices lead us to our habits, which lead us to our character, which was who we became.

I’d become the very monster I’d once fought. Ran and Shen forced me to see beyond the black and white of my raising and realize all I’d seen were hints of darker and lighter gray.

Reds liked to think of themselves as pure, but they were hypocrites of the worst order. They used magic against magic users—all to kill said magic.

It was sickening. And I’d never seen it so fully as when I was bound by magic before the tribunal. All senses ofneedswere cut off.

A white form was trussed to the center of the tent, iron shackles binding her legs. “Don’t hurt her!” I pleaded.

Grandma stood from her chair in the center of the Matriarch’s Tent which was large enough to hold three regularhuts. Three elders stood on either side of her with one behind her. The judges who governed the day to day of the people were to the right of them.

Behind the judges were my family, and behind them? So many of my tribe flooded the room they were packed tighter than sardines. The door was left propped open—despite the cold of an early winter blasting through and landing on my sweaty neck—so those outside could hear the trial.

And in the middle of it all, with a snarl on her lips showing her sharp teeth and eyes rolling in her head while she lay bound, was my precious Bond. My best friend. My sister.

Her mane was stuck to her neck with blood and sweat. Her hooves were immobile, tight chains biting into the thin skin around her cannon bones. Her eyes met mine with a finality I found terrifying.

My blood ran cold. I still couldn’t contact her over the bond, and that was when I noticed the rope around her neck. A wolfsbane rope. It must be dampening the bond.

“Not only have you been consorting with a magical animal, going so far as tobondwith it and break sacred laws, but you have brought dishonor to your family, to your tribe, and to the Reds. You have betrayed us all.” Grandma’s face held nothing but contempt. Her eyes were cold as ice and sliced through me worse than my favorite black stiletto.

The crowd roared. I chanced a glance over to see only hatred. A few had confusion pinching their brows, such as Brandt and a few other Reds who knew me and fought with me. But the rest? They were calling for my head. For the unicorn’s head.

I deflated in surrender. I’d tried.

It wasn’t like I didn’t know this would happen eventually. But I’d always wonderedwhat if.What ifI did everything so well and followed the laws to the letter, then wouldn’t theyseeI wasn’tthe enemy? That I wasn’t a betrayer just because I was born with magic?

I should have known the truth. If they admitted I wasn’t a betrayer and that I wasn’t evil, it would ruin the entire law. Everything they stood for and had killed for would be meaningless, and they would realize many innocent beings had been killed merely because they were born different.

The guilt would be too great. Even I found the guilt heavy with what I’d done. And some of these Reds had been killing for twice as long as I’d been alive. How much blood of innocent beings was on their hands?

“It must stop,” I whispered. The killing of so many, just because of an outdated belief—it wasn’t right.

Until that point, I’d hoped the Reds could be saved. Redeemed.

What I hadn’t realized in doing what was right was that I’d become the enemy of my people. The respect I’d strove so hard to achieve. The pride I’d broken myself to hope for. The honor I’d worked so hard to rekindle. All dashed away in a single day.

Grandma wrenched my face up, her eyes now blazing with fury. “You not only condemned yourself, Aurelia, you condemned your entire family,” she hissed. And for the first time, I saw something in her eyes. Something buried beneath rage and disappointment.

Fear.

The night I’d watched a wolf tear apart Grandpa, I didn’t see this fear in Grandma’s eyes.

Graham came to the front, hands behind his back at attention. He wouldn’t look at me. Wouldn’t even move his eyes for a simple glimpse, even as I implored him to look. He said we were friends. Couldn’t he spare me a simple glance? Heck, I’d be fine with a blink of those eyes.

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