Page 87 of Moon Cursed

“How do you know that?” Tears stung my eyes seeing visions of Edric and Paxton broken and bleeding. “Did you check on them?”

“Next best thing.”

Nyx tapped something on his phone and turned it to me.

“—arrest them!” Nia’s voice echoed loud and clear. “These bastards used us! They turned us against our friends and forced us to hurt and kill p-people.” Her voice cracked in distress, although I couldn’t see her. Her camera was too busy panning over the full and bursting infirmary.

Groaning lumps were on every bed, and in the last shot before she spun away, were my lumps—Edric and Paxton.

I sat upright, leaning in to see, but Nyx was right. Even in that split second, I could see they were healing and being attended by the infirmary nurse. They were in the best place they could be right then—

—and so was Nia.

“They did this all because they couldn’t stand losing beignet breakfasts and dorms with an en suite! Isn’t that right, Megan?” The camera whirled on the bruised and battered girl straining to cover her face with her thin, flimsy white sheet. “Daciana wanted all of us to come together for a better, equal future, but you couldn’t have that.”

“Leave me alone!”

“Tell me, Megan. Tell us all! What about equality and harmony among the wolves was so offensive to you? Huh!? What about it made you need to put Sara through a concrete wall!”

Megan whipped off the sheet and growled, her jaw elongating and eyes yellowing.

It would’ve been intimidating if she didn’t collapse in on herself—hacking and wheezing.

“That is enough, Nia!” The camera spun and wobbled as a familiar voice tried to wrestle it out of her hand. “This is an infirmary, not a circus. These people need quiet and rest to—”

“—get well enough to pack their fucking bags!” Nia twisted the phone up and around, angling it for an unfortunate view up Ash’s nostrils. “That’s what you were going to say, right, Vice Headmistress? That you’re waiting for them to heal up enough to take their expulsion letters and walk it and themselves out the damn door!”

Ash flushed red. “This is hardly the time— I didn’t witness— When the time is right, I will interview everyone who was in the mess hall this morning and ascertain the truth—”

“The truth? Ha!” Nia barked, making Ash jerk back. “Of course you’re still waiting to see thetruth.Because you’ve already decided what I and every omega here say isn’t the truth, so you’ve got to wait for whatever bullshit lie the alphas spin to justify keeping them here to get another shot at killing us for good.”

“How dare you! I will not be accused of—”

Nia spun away again—already done with her. “And what about you all?” Nia ran at the silent line of secret police officers posted up against the back wall. “Isn’t this what you’re here for? To catch killers? Well, there’s about thirty of them right the fuck over there, so when do you all get off your fucking asses and do something about it!”

My brows were as high as the officers’ twitching brows were getting, fighting to stay silent and stoic as Nia swept her camera over their faces.

“Nothing to say, huh? Not even going to make a show of handcuffing the murder and assault suspects to their bed? Well, if that’s not why you’re here, tell everyone the real reason. Because it damn sure isn’t to investigate the murder of former Headmistress Dagem.”

“That is enough, Nia,” I heard Ash cry. “Turn off that phone!”

“You can’t silence us anymore! You can’t deny us justice anymore! We’ll have justice or you’ll have war! Justice or war! Justice or war!”

I didn’t think my jaw could drop any further... until more voices joined in.

“Justice or war! Justice or war! Justice or—”

The picture suddenly spun. Nia’s voice got smaller as the wall got larger and closer, then everything went black.

Shaking my head, I slowly sank back on my leafy, frond bed. “I assume we owe that abrupt ending to Ash smashing her cell against the wall.”

“That would be my assumption as well, but it didn’t matter. Nia was live, and the video on Loop Garou has already been watched... ten million times.”

There went my dropping jaw. “Ten million!? With a ten? And a million!”

He nodded. “Loop Garou is blowing up, Daze. Everyone is demanding answers. Thousands are demanding arrests, and even more are reposting their chant—justice or war.”

“My gods,” I breathed, wishing I could do more than flop around uselessly in a bed of leaves.

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