Page 35 of The Dark Rising
Because that’s comforting, being all alone here with just these guys. Runa bristles inside of me and I don’t feel the need to calm her. I’m not calm myself.
Darius opens a door at the end, not saying a word, the hinges creaking as he does. We follow through, entering a spacious room with a large table at the center. A lit fireplace adds warmth to the room with three sofas surrounding it. Large, red rugs with patterns are placed on the floor, and paintings of what looks like Elites are hung on the walls, making my lips curl at the sight. I move closer to one of them, scanning their faces as I feel the weight of others on me. Landing on a male I recognize, my face instantly pales. I suck in a sharp breath, my body tensing as I stare into dark eyes.
Memories threaten to rise, then swallow me whole. Seeing his face up on the wall like he’s something to be revered when he did nothing, makes my stomach turn.
I turn away from it, turn away from the memories and halt in my step as I connect with light, green eyes. Darius looks between me and the painting, his brows furrowing, trying to work out what my issue is. I walk by him and take a seat at the large table in here, following the rest of my pack. Taking the pack from my shoulder, I place it down next to me, shuffling forward in my chair and resting my hands on my thighs.
The Elites sit on the other side, Darius taking a seat directly across from me, a mirror image of the last time we sat down together in Eridian. My pack on one side, the Elites on the others.
“Speak,” Darius says. One word. One command.
I try to get comfortable in my seat. “What do you want to know first?”
“Everything.” Asshole.
“Eridian,” Leo finally says. “Let’s start there.”
“No.” Not happening, not yet.
“Then start somewhere,” Darius demands, his fists clenching on top of the table as he rolls his shoulders.
“What do you know about The Elites and the Highers?” I eventually ask after a tense silence. I feel like I’m about to come out of my skin, eyeing the room like something will jump out at any moment. I don’t feel safe here, but then, I haven’t ever really felt truly safe, for even a moment.
My mind wanders back to how it felt to wake up next to Darius, and I quickly put a stop to that thought.
“What does this have anything to do with us?” Damian’s brows furrow, slumping back in his seat. “We were created by the Highers to protect Vrohkaria.”
I shake my head. “The Elites were created to capture Heirs,” I tell them.
“That’s bullshit,” Leo shouts, and I barely suppress a flinch. I’m too on-edge, too mottled-up inside with today’s events.
I stare at him. “Is it?”
“Talk. Now,” Darius grits out, his body tense.
I take a deep breath. “We had one king of Vrohkaria at one time, as I’m sure you all know. My mother used to tell me stories of our Heir history, how we came to be. It’s how the Canaric wolves were made, us Heirs.” I look at Darius. “When the king died, no not died, was murdered, that’s when the Highers came into power. It was the Highers that killed the king and his mate.”
“The Highers at that time came to power because Vrohkaria was in chaos over their deaths, not because they killed them,” Darius says. “The lands needed balance, an authority to help people stabilize and to keep them safe.”
Yeah? And look where that bullshit got us.
“No, they became Highers because a small group of people decided to murder them in cold blood, to become the authority over Vrohkaria, acting like saviors,” I explain. “They were jealous, they wanted what the king and his mate had, the power, the control, but more specifically, they wanted their child, an Heir. They felt injustice that some received special treatment, while others did not. They thought it unfair. So they plotted, bribed, and threatened anyone they could to get close to the king and his mate, to where they stayed for years with them in Wolvorn Castle. They spent all that time earning their trust, only for them to kill them one night and say it was an assassination attempt by their child, an Heir of Zahariss. They made up some bullshit about their child wanting to become sole ruler of the lands and becoming crazed before she killed her parents. That made their child a target, but more importantly, made the Heir of Zahariss a target.” I look between them as I make sure they are listening to the truth, to what has been passed down along the Zahariss line for as long as anyone can recall.
“The lands were shocked, they loved their king and his mate, but also their Heir to Vrohkaria and Zahariss. But that soon turned into a hunt when she escaped, and the Highers formed the Elites when they couldn’t capture her, and she was nowhere to be found. Years later, after coming out of hiding and being chased across the lands, she’d had enough, she couldn’t hold her anger and grief anymore at what they had done. She returned to Wolvorn Castle to take her revenge on them all, all that hunted her and believed the lies that were told. She went on a rampage to avenge her parents, and innocent lives were lost in her attempt. With killing many innocents who were not guilty, the lands believed what was told of her, of an unstable and dangerous Heir to everyone.”
“Or she went mad with power as it’s said with Heirs.” I give Damian a flat look at his words.
“Be careful with your words, you’re in the presence of two Heirs and if we are so unstable, you might find a knife in your throat.” Damian says nothing to that, but I catch Darius’s small smirk before his shoulders stiffen. I continue. “The daughter managed to kill three Highers in her rage at the time, but ultimately she was captured and taken. Where? No one knew. Cazier’s Heir had already been hunted and subdued. It wasn’t until forty-three years later that the next Heir of Zahariss arrived. In a small village, a female gave birth to a pup, and the Elites tried to drag them away, but she managed to escape them with her child. A few years later, Cazier’s Heir was born to an Alpha’s mate. The Alpha helped them escape and he was killed for his refusal to cooperate as to where his mate and son were. The Elites were growing in numbers, and at the Highers’ decree, continued to hunt them down whenever a new Heir appeared. Heirs had no choice but to hide.”
“How did they capture them if they are so powerful?” Jerrod asks. He leans forward on his arms on the table, his focus solely on me as Zaide sits silently next to him.
“Terbium.”
“It’s just a metal,” Damian scoffs.
“It’s a metal that affects Heirs, no one knows why though. They were forbidden to be used by the king and his mate. But when the Highers took over, they allowed it.”
“And this metal is the only thing that can hold an Heir?” That was from Leo.
