Chapter 412

Gabriel pulls me through the halls behind him, heading for my rooms. A myriad of emotions fly through me as we go – fear, of course, at this man’s unpredictability and cruelness. But quickly chasing that comes anger, and rage, and the sheer determination not to follow the Prince’s fate.

This jackass – he thinks he has everything figured out. And he might be in control of me for now, but I’ve got my own weapons up my sleeve.

As we approach my room, I begin to pull back on my wrist, determined to be free. “Let go of me, you idiot,” I snarl, putting my weight back into my heels.

“Come on, mate,” Gabriel bites out, glaring at me over his shoulder and tightening his grip on me. “I’m done with you now and putting you back in your cage.”

“Great man indeed,” I say, my voice deep with doubt, “that needs to cage his mate.”

“Only when she’s a wild bitch,” Gabriel snarls, hauling me forward. “Who needs to be schooled in the ways of proper femininity.”

I snarl in turn and twist my wrist in the way that Blaze taught me, breaking Gabriel’s grip and stepping back in the hall. When Gabriel roars and turns, reaching for me, I’m ready for him – my fingernails extended into claws that I rake first over his extended hand and then stepping close so that my second blow scrapes across the soft skin of his neck.

Not deep enough to kill – no, I’m not ready for that yet. But deep enough to let him know that I can.

“Properly feminine enough for you?” I coo, my eyes narrowed as I step back, watching his body language for sighs of how he’ll strike next. “After all, cutting a man’s throat does seem more of a woman’s method of killing than an Alpha’s.”

“You damned bitch,” my mate snarls, stepping forward towards me, his eyes watching my claws as blood blooms in dots across his neck.

“Gabriel!”

Elias’s voice booms out in the hallway as Elias and Pippa come racing down the hall. Their sudden arrival breaks our tension and I skitter quickly out of the way, pressing myself against the wall as Elias storms past me and shoves Gabriel, hard, so that he stumbles back.

“Don’t you dare –“ Gabriel growls, catching his feet.

“Did you do it!?” Elias cries out, advancing again on the taller Alpha, not an ounce of fear in his voice. “Did you – did you fucking kill our cousin!?”

Gabriel snarls, looking around the hall, aware that others could be listening. And though it’s quite obvious to me that Gabriel did indeed plan the assassination that advanced him one step along the line to the throne, he does not want to make a public admission that will put him in jail. I mean, it’s pretty obvious to me that he wants everyone to know that he did it – but not to the point where he can be prosecuted. No, my mate will not have left any trail behind except for rumor.

“What happened,” Gabriel snarls, advancing one step towards Elias now, threat in his voice. “Was the God of Darkness’s plan. It is his decided fate.”

“He’s our fucking cousin, Gabe!” Elias shouts, his voice cracking. Pippa bursts into tears, ducking her face into her hands. I slip my arms around her shoulders, tugging her close.

“You fool,” Gabriel grumbles, grabbing Elias by the arm and hauling him to my room, shoving the door open and forcing him inside. “To speak of such things in public –“

Anger roils at me as I consider what Gabriel just did in public, but I keep my mouth shut, instead guiding the sobbing Pippa towards the bedroom and bringing us inside as well. As soon as we get in, Elias shuts the door behind us.

“I don’t even know you anymore, Gabe,” Elias says, taking Pippa from my arms and gathering her to his chest. “A murderer? I knew Darkness had his grip on you, but to cold bloodedly murder our family –“

“I am meant to be King, Elias,” Gabriel snarls, leaning aggressively forward towards his brother. “It is my fate. It is the will of Darkness.”

“Oh, you’re nothing but his pawn,” Elias snarls, leaning forward towards him in turn. “The King still has some vestige of morals, and the Crown Prince did too, even if his wolf is as ruined as yours. Darkness is only choosing you because you’re the most desperate for his approval –“

“Shut up,” Gabriel snarls, advancing now. “You shut your filthy mouth.”

A fist pounds on the door.

“The inquest, I’m sure?” Elias says, gesturing towards it. “Though I’m sure you’ve got that sewn up already, don’t you, Gabe?”

“I am no fool,” Gabriel snaps, storming for the door. “I will be on a throne within days, not in a cell.” Gabriel spins to me, his hand on the door handle. “Consider your place, Princess,” he snarls, gesturing towards his neck, where blood lightly drips. “For you will either be docile by my side or dead. I will not accept any further trials of my patience.”

Gabriel yanks the doors open and begins to speak quickly to the guards standing there, informing them that the Princess – me – is now safe and he can turn his mind to the investigation. When the door slams shut I just stare at it, as do Elias and Pippa.

We all stand quietly for a long few moments before Elias turns to me.

“Ariel,” he says, his eyes meeting mine. “You need to run.”

My eyes widen as I turn them to him. “What?”

He shakes his head. “He wants your power, badly, and he’s making moves to take the throne, which means he thinks he can get it. If you gleaned any information from your ambassadors about how to get out of here, you need to use it. And go.”

My teeth clench and I step towards the pair. “I’m not leaving without you.”

“You have to,” Pippa says, shaking her head. “There’s no time to consider –“

“No,” I say, my voice firm. “I’ll find a way.”

“You need to consider what is possible, highness,” Elias says, falling back on formality I think to stress to me how important this is. “Not what you want. Pippa and I,” he looks down at her, giving a steady nod. “We’ll find our own way.”

She looks up at her Alpha with a great deal of faith.

But no, in this horrible world that’s just getting more and more unpredictable? I can’t leave them here – not with Gabriel in charge. Not…considering what Gabriel very likely knows about these two and their relationship.

Elias and Pippa leave my room soon after that, Elias wanting to know the details of the sham investigation into the Prince’s death, Pippa wanting a quiet moment to herself to process her grief. Because even if I never got the impression that Pippa was close to the Crown Prince in the same way that she was to Elias and Gabriel growing up, it was still a shocking death in the family.

I watch her go with worried eyes that drift to her stomach, knowing that she doesn’t need any more stress in her pregnancy. My heart aches for Pippa even as she shuts the door behind her.

When I’m alone I don’t bother to light any candles, instead preferring the dark. I move to my bed and flop down into the pillows and blankets, staring at the ceiling, wondering what the hell I’m going to do. Because it’s becoming increasingly clear that my mate is lost to Darkness and that he’s determined to take me with them.

Is there a way to navigate this, to trust my grandmother’s intuition - as well as my professor’s instructions - and access Gabriel’s magic without becoming corrupted by his bond with Darkness?

Or…would it be better to just cut and run?

I bite my lip, trying to decide, all the time terribly worried that the wrong choice here will spell destruction for us all.

Jackson dreams, the images moving slow through his mind, churning with his worry. And all of it – the worry, the dreams – revolves around Ariel. Ariel’s face, her sweet laugh – they echo in his mind even as he tosses against the shirt he’s rolled beneath his head as a makeshift pillow.

But – is that her laugh?

Jackson’s eyes fly open and he’s immediately up, glaring around his tent, the sound still echoing in his ears. He wasn’t fully asleep – not really – just resting his eyes, all of his senses alert and aware for any change. His magic allows for such a state – resting so as not to burn through his magic in the effort to keep awake, but not sinking so deeply that he might be vulnerable.

Which is how he knows that that laugh…it had echoed in his mind like a dream, mixing with his memories of Ariel’s voice but…it wasn’t. It had been in this world.

So then who the hell was it?

Jackson snarls, sniffing the air, able to sense…something. But not even a true scent, more like…the sense of hot metal, or frozen air, which affect the nose and sinuses but don’t have a smell. He sniffs again, quite sure that no person was physically here, but still, there’s an…impression.

Frowning, Jackson looks around the tent carefully and sends his senses without, searching the vicinity for any movement. And as he turns to ensure his hearing catches all angles, Jackson’s hand falls across something new.

He snaps his gaze down, picking up the little rectangular stone, grey and carved delicately with geometrical symbols. What…what the hell is this?

He lifts it in his palm to get a closer look and a voice softly echoes in his mind, making his wolf’s hair stand on end.

I have not done much for you, it says, tender and gentle – a woman’s voice. But this, I can do.

Jackson’s eyes fly wide as he stares at the item and his wolf whines, frightened and confused. Because he’s quite sure – quite sure in this moment – that he’s not just going insane with lack of sleep and hunger and stress. No, he’s been in worse stakeouts than this and survived just fine.

No, that voice – and this stone – they’re quite real.

But who the hell did it?