Page 76 of The Dark Rising
“We have. How have we not noticed that it has gotten this bad?” Damian asks.
“We have been blinded, but no more,” I tell them, and the others nod. Rhea is right about a lot of things, and the one thing she is right about, above all else, is that we have no honor to speak of. Especially if I can’t even go up to a child and not have her be terrified of me. “No more. I won’t be an Alpha, an Elite that they fear unless they give me a reason to.”
“It’s time for change,” Leo says, gripping the strap of his armor going across his chest. “And I think it’s time to clean house. Find those who are loyal to you or the Highers. Rhea said some went to the Elites about their abuse and they turned their backs. I’m sure you don’t want members like that under you.”
“I don’t.” I grunt, watching as a brawl breaks out, the people of Vrohkaria going up against the guards. “This will start a war between the Highers and the Elites, and we don’t know how the people will react. We can’t let whatever Charles is doing continue. It’s time for a new authority and it is not the Highers.” No matter the cost in the end. “We have to tread carefully and hide that we are opposing them for as long as we can, as well as weed out the Elites that are not loyal to me. A war isn’t what we need right now with the rogures increasing, and the lands are already in disarray. We need to set up a place where people can go and be safe from the rogures. The Highers won’t let them in Wolvorn Castle unless they are no longer there.”
“It will take time to find a place. I’ll look into it,” Leo says, and I clap his shoulder. “We need to find where the people on that list are first.”
“We also need to find the memory crystal. I hope Rhea can shed some light on it.”
“I’ll stay behind,” Zaide says, and I look over at him. “Charles has a female on the regular who meets him in his office at certain times, she always gets there early when he leaves the door unlocked. I may be able to get some information from her.”
“Charles fucks females in his office?” I ask in disgust. He shrugs, and I hope to fuck they don’t use the chair I always sit in. “Be careful and don’t get caught,” I tell him.
“Always.”
A shout comes from the battlements, and the male with the tattered clothes struggles against a guard as he’s dragged forward. Another comes to them, a loop of rope in his hand, and he starts winding it around his neck. My eyes flick to the hanging bodies. The male shouts, and a woman screams below, looking up at him, begging for him to let go. I take a step forward, but it’s too late. The male is pushed over the wall, the drop and sudden pull as the rope tightening snaps his neck. Dead. I swallow.
The woman collapses as the others look upon the male in horror. The brawl starts to disperse, and I watch as the girl with her baby brother cling to a woman who holds them protectively, as another now goes to the sobbing woman.
They just killed a man for seeking sanctuary. That’s why there are so many bodies hanging from the wall.
“We need to find a place, quickly,” I order.
“Top fucking priority,” Leo growls.
We move through the halls, heading for the records room at Wolvorn Castle. Our presence hasn’t been noted yet, but I would be a fool to think the Highers currently in residence aren’t aware.
“Do you think we will have time to grab the documents showing where Rhea’s pack members have been assigned?” Jerrod asks, and I look over my shoulder at him. His body tenses when he meets my stare, but he doesn’t look away.
“I’m not sure, I don’t want to stay longer than needed, but it would be a good opportunity to look.” I see his shoulders slump before I turn and walk down another hallway.
We would have just ported here, but the Highers banned the use of them in the castle. Wards are placed on every wall that will activate when a port stone is used, denying the magic within that enables us to port. Rhea and I are the only exceptions to using port stones; the magic within not depleting. It must be an Heir thing.
“Does this have anything to do with the pup I have seen you with a few times back in Eridian?” Damian asks Jerrod. “You’ve been quiet since we came back, quieter than Zaide.”
“Which means you have been real fucking quiet,” Leo adds.
“I just want to check on him,” Jerrod mutters. He was close with the kid in Eridian for the time we spent there. Oscar, I think the kid was called.
Elites don’t generally settle down with mates, a family. Our life isn’t easy. Being away for long periods of time or being called away at a moment’s notice, not many can stick that out. So having pups is also not a common thing with an Elite.
Which pisses me off more for Charles’s demand of it.
“I’m sure he’s fine,” Damian lies. We all know the pups were taken from their mothers when we arrived, going under health checks before finding their fathers. After everything we know now, we have no idea if that was true. All this could have been avoided if we had just taken Rhea alone. With Aldus at Eridian, we couldn’t have done much since he broke the barrier and Maize summoned the Elites on his order. I couldn’t keep them hidden.
I broke my vow.
“It’s been months,” Zaide grumbles. “Why haven’t they been brought back to their mothers and in a pack?”
“That’s the question, isn’t it? Why hasn’t Charles returned them to their old packs or a new one?” Leo asks. “This whole situation is fucked.”
I couldn’t agree more. Everything is fucked, and what I’ve seen over the past few months with Charles’s obsession in finding Rhea, and all that Rhea has told us… Regret threatens to bring these castle walls down with all that I have done, or didn’t do. We’ve all been so fucking blind,I’vebeen so fucking blind. We all became Elites to protect Vrohkaria and with what we know now, we have all been helping it toward its ruin.
Unknowingly or knowingly so, we helped.
I open the large door and we enter the records room. Shelves upon shelves hold scrolls and books of Vrohkaria in alphabetical order on every single being in the lands. From pack names, our history and the Elite members and families, everything is held here.
