Page 256 of The Lands Defying
The others watch on, eyes wide and wary, but they don’t look as fearful anymore.
“Thank you,” the female whispers and I pull back, wiping my face as she holds onto my hands tightly.
“Let us help you, let us take you to safety.” They look behind me and I hold out a hand. I hear the footsteps, see the fear climbing in their eyes once more. “He will not hurt you. He is the greatest protector I know.”
A strong hand curls in mine, and I pull it, urging him to crouch.“Getting to their level will make them feel better.”I tell him.
He looks at me for a moment, a little uncomfortable, but then he looks at the woman whose eyes are so wide on her drawn face. Darius clears his throat.
“I am Darius Rikoth, Alpha of the Elites and the Higher’s enemy.” The breath releases from her and the others. “I am also Heir of Cazier, Vihnarn to the Heir of Zahariss, who you will not harm in her attempt to help you..” He looks at me and I blink. They didn’t need to know that. “That is our truth. There are only two Highers left, the rest we have killed.”
Shocked voices echo throughout the room. “The higher behind you, Higher Warden as you may know him,” I say, “he is an ally, not an enemy. He will help you…just as he helped me a long time ago. I vow it.”
No one says a word, no one moves or barely breaths.
But the woman I just healed speaks up, then we are porting everyone out of there and into Eridian with sighs of relief.
Seventy Two
Darius
“If we enter here, is there another entrance?”
Edward shakes his head. “No, they blocked it off a long time ago so the servants wouldn’t accidentally stumble upon it.” He points to the side of the castle where a river seems to run near it. “There are tunnels underground through here.”
“But they go to the courtyard,” Darius says. “It’s to give water to the castle there, access to it whenever they need.”
“Yes,” he agrees. “But further in, there is a tunnel that leads down into the cellar where Charles stores all the food he has stolen.”
And that’s what we want— no, what we need.
After going around to villages in the lands, then taking in those who were stolen from packs…our food sources are dangerously low, and this is the only solution.
Steal back what was stolen, or we will all starve.
“That basement has another entrance?” I ask, leaning down to inspect the drawings of Wolvorn Castle.
“Yes, only he, the other Highers and a select few know of that route.”
“Then why didn’t I?” I ask suspiciously.
I know Edward is Rhea’s guardian and he’s helped her, but he is also Higher Warden, one ofthem, no matter how many times he tells me he isn’t.
I can’t trust anything right now.
Not when it comes to Rhea’s safety.
“I don’t know, Charles once said he will let you know once you take your seat, that way...”
“I would be in on all of his plans and I wouldn’t betray him.”
“Yes,” Edward sighs, a grimace on his face.
“So even after all I had done for him blindly, he still didn’t trust me fully.”
“Your father went against his words before the end of him. He was too wrapped up in his experiments to see sense. Charles saw that as a betrayal.”
I shrug. “My father can rot in the below.”
