Page 85 of The Hidden Falling
I feel Josh’s gray eyes on me. I feel his hesitation at answering when he knows it’s downhill for me, but there is no stopping it with or without his words. I turn my head, my eyes speaking for me. This is the way it has to be. The only way I could get them out of here is if I take the blame for it all.
He swallows, his voice rough when he finally speaks. “It’s true. Everything I said and Alpha Darius has said is true.”
More murmurs and looks of disgust head my way. “You really are a vile woman,” a Higher says, waving a hand toward me as his scraggy, dark hair falls to his chin.
A barrier is put around me again, and I see it glow before pain wracks my body. My wrists strain against the cuffs as I try to move away from the burning within me. I grit my teeth, leaning against the barrier at my back as I growl through the current and the pain lashing up my torn flesh. I feel blood trickle from my ears, adding to my already bloodied body. Sweat gathers at the back of my neck as I hold in a scream that wants to be released, turning to look toward Josh for strength. His eyes hold mine through it, the anguish in them worse than the lightning racking my body. I know it kills him seeing me like this, but it will kill him more if he doesn’t get to Sarah.
The current fades to a low buzz, and I breathe out shakily, wiggling my fingers to stop the tingles there. I stand straight from the barrier as it feels like tiny needles stabbing into me and take a step to the middle, ready for what’s next. I have to be. I don’t look at Kade or at my pack again as my eyes find Charles, that fucking grin on his face at seeing me hurt before he drops it, sitting up straighter in his seat.
“It’s unfathomable how this female is of our kind. She is no wolf, no race of ours,” Charles spits, and the crowd shouts their agreement, calling for my death. “I will accept what Joshua has said as truth. I believe this woman has done unspeakable things to her pack to keep them from leaving and reaching out to any sort of authority. Through no fault of their own, they have been taken and abused by this woman. Sarah Woodly has confirmed that, as have the wounds on her body.” I don’t move, I just keep my eyes on him as he throws out false statements. “A strong, lengthy punishment is to be served, as well as removing the curse on Vrohkaria to rid us of the Rogures. Are you now going to tell us how to remove it?”
I stay silent, breathing evenly. They don’t believe I’m not to blame for the curse, I can’t persuade the room otherwise. I’m the bad guy, the person they are going to use to blame for all the suffering the Rogures have dealt out throughout the land, when instead they should still be looking for a way to stop them.
I can’t win in this situation. They won’t listen to me, and I haven’t helped myself with lying to Darius. All my words are just lies and manipulations according to them all. All I can do now is just endure. The barrier glows again, and my eyes connect to Darius as I’m brought to my knees, the current more intense this time, rattling my teeth as a whimpered breath comes from me.
His green eyes bore into mine, and I see them tighten around the edges, his shoulders tensing as he watches.
“Tell us how to stop the Rogures!” Charles’ voice booms inside the barrier as blood spills from my nose and over my lips as I cough. I squeeze my eyes shut, breathing through it as Runa whimpers inside of me, too exhausted to help share some pain. All she can do is feel it through me.
Charles knows I didn’t cause the curse, so why is he going along with this? I was locked inside a cage and tormented by them. How could I have performed a ritual at seven years old? If for one second, one person would think clearly, they would know the time frame doesn’t add up. The people are too blinded in their anger to see it, the Elites too blinded by what this crystal showed them. They all have fucking wool over their eyes, and they refuse to clear the fog.
The pain eases, and I rest my cuffed hands on the barrier in front of me, blood still dripping from my nose and ears, dribbling down my chin. My body aches, my muscles sore from tensing up so much and my back feels like lava. My eyes open and they lock with Darius’ once again. Through the haze of my vision, I watch as his head tilts, his eyes roaming over my body and watching fresh blood flow from me. His hand twitches at his side before he crosses his arms, looking toward the Highers with a clenched jaw as they speak, breaking our connection.
“She will not tell us Lord Higher,” Higher Frederick tsks. “She cares none for Vrohkaria or our people getting slaughtered by the Rogures.”
“It seems she will not,” Charles muses. “Kaden, say what you have to say to the traitor. Maybe you can persuade her.”
I look over at Kade as he speaks, his voice cold and without any emotion as my breathing becomes labored. “I’ve had my memories blocked, you stole me from my home, and I lost many years with my family. That can never be given back to me. I unknowingly helped you bring people to Eridian under the guise that we were helping them, when you were really just stealing them and making them work in fear around us. I was blind to it all, but no more. The highest punishment should be given, even though I will never get any justice for what you have done to me. I will never get back the time I have lost,” he growls, eyes full of animosity. “Nothing I say will make you tell the truth. You’re sick and twisted, and I’m ashamed I spent so many years looking up to you as a mother when you stole me from mine.” he spits at the barrier. “I want no connection to you. You mean nothing to me.”
If you could see my heart, it would be bleeding from the wounds he had just caused. It would be on the floor beneath his foot as he stomped on it repeatedly, slowly fading into ash. I suck in a shaky breath as I try to remember that his memories are not what he thinks they are. Try to remember that something had been done to him to make him act like this. If he knew, he would be the first in line to remove their heads, I know he would. This is not my Kade standing in front of me.
It’s probably for the best he doesn’t know. It will keep him somewhat safe for now. But that didn’t stop the pain in my chest that he thought I was capable of doing this. That I could steal someone from their home when all I have done is try to help those that need it after mine was tainted. I’ve been there through so many milestones in Kade’s life, been there through nightmares and heartbreak. I’ve been there through his achievements and creations, through our sacred ritual of getting his tattoo and getting his wolf. It’s me that has given him a life, gave him his laughter, taught him to read and write, and taught him how to be kind.
Not them. Me.
“Can I have a blade?” Kade asks suddenly, and my body stills, my bruised heart pounding against my chest.
“What are you doing?” I rush out, watching as Darius lifts a small blade and holds it out to him. Kade walks up the steps as his chains are taken away, and I track him until he’s standing beside Darius.
“Undoing something I should have never let happen in the first place,” Kade says as he grips the hilt of the blade tightly in his grasp.
I watch everything in slow motion as he brings the blade up to his marked forearm, and he presses the tip to his skin just below the inside of his elbow. Blood wells to the surface. Then in one quick move he slices down his skin, effectively slicing through the design Josh and I lovingly put there and severing our blood link. Destroying what we etched there in the name of the Gods. In the name of our bond, our family.
I fall as my knees give out, and I hit the floor hard, a whimper leaving me as I watch blood drip from his forearm, splashing against the floor. Then, a sharp, stabbing pain slices through my head.
I scream.
Scream and scream and scream as it feels like I’m being ripped in two as the link between us pulls taut. The strand of his link intertwining with mine stretches, pulling as far as it can until it starts to fray. I grip my head, still screaming in pain as tears stream down my face. “Carzan,” I whimper. Then, the strands snap, his link disappearing into the darkness, and all that’s left is a void where his link once was. An endless pit of black as I try to search for his link. Try to reach out and grab a hold of it and never let go, but it’s not there. It’s gone.
Sobs escape me, my body trembling at the loss. I don’t want to feel it, I want it to stop. All of it to stop. It’s too much. I can’t take it. Kade falls to the floor beside Darius, screaming as he holds his head in his hands. Feeling what I’m feeling. They’re going to destroy him. They’re going to destroy everything he is to get to me. Breaking a blood link takes time to gently unravel the strings that connect us together. Shattering it like that is dangerous. A link is sacred, and he’s just destroyed it because of what they have done to him. Broken the vows he made. What else would they make him do in the name of getting to me? He will be a shell of a person when they are through with him.
“Now tell us how to break the curse!” Charles demands of me as again as I sob on the floor, my body shaking with tremors as pain flares up at the sudden loss of Kade’s blood link. I drag my blurry vision to Josh, who is on his knees holding his head in his hands, feeling the same effects of the broken link like Kade and I. “I think it’s time to show her more consequences of refusing us.”
I get to my hands and knees, coughing, barely taking in any air through my cries. I lift my head and see Darius looking at Kade on the floor, his brows scrunched up as he bends and picks up his blade. He looks at me, and the look in his eyes almost seems remorseful, but that can’t possibly be true.
I see two cloaked figures appearing behind Josie and Danny, and my eyes go wide. The cloaked figures bring a knife up to their throats, and I scramble to my feet, my body slamming against the barrier as I bang on it, ignoring the needle-like stabs I get for touching it. My guys behind them start shouting behind the cloths covering their mouths as they try to get to them.
“No, don’t, please. I don’t know how to break the curse,” I cry, still banging my chained hands on the shimmering violet barrier as the guys behind them try to get to them. I look at Darius. “I’m telling the truth. Please, believe me!” He puts his blade back in a holder and takes a step toward me from the top of the steps.
