Alpha Damon: “What exactly will you tell her when she comes in here?” I asked Gwyddion when he suggested bringing Silver over. He was more excited about divulging the news to Silver than in making any actual plans to do it correctly. “I need to tell her…” he squealed and I cringed at the unnatural sound. “To tell her what? That she's the chosen one? You already did that.” “But now I have actual proof.” “You’re only going to end up scaring her.” “But she has to know,” he said sharply, surprising me. I crossed my arms. “And if you tell her, what happens then? She, who is already terrified of living here will now be told about the huge role she has to play for the same people who want her dead. Do you think she will want to do it? Especially when you have no idea what the role actually is? Think about it.” “Enough,” he barked and my eyes widened. Since when did the soft-spoken Gwyddion ever bark at his Alpha? “I know you think I'm old and that I am not so capable of making good
Alpha Damon:“Our King is dead?” someone whose voice I didn’t recognize screamed in fright. The voice sounded vague, like I was underwater. That didn’t sound right. I tried to stretch my limbs, or get up and tell whoever had said that that I was alive and could hear them, but I seemed to have no control over my body. My eyes remained shut and my limbs remained limp at my sides. If I could feel my heart at that moment, it would have been pounding wildly. What was wrong? I could hear, yet I couldn’t do anything else. What if whoever had said that was right? What if I was really dead? What did it feel like to be dead? Perhaps I was at the last stage between life and death where I could hear but not react. I couldn’t feel anything, not even pain, and I couldn’t remember anything that had happened before now. “I don’t know,” someone else said, sounding equally frantic, although the voice was still vague. "Call the physician immediately. He doesn’t seem to be breathing.”No. Not the phys
Silver:The freezing cold air of the evening blew past me and brought me back to reality once I ran outside the palace building. I had no idea where I was going. In my haste to save Alpha Damon, I had rushed out of the building, forgetting I had no idea where Gwyddion stayed or where I was supposed to begin looking. Unfortunately, after running out so abruptly, finding Gwyddion happened to be the least of my concerns. Outside, a few guards found me and immediately pointed their swords toward me. I stepped backwards, but only hit the pointy tip of another guard’s sword behind me. Alpha Damon had not introduced me to any of the workers in his palace yet. From their perspective, I was nothing but an intruder. I raised my hands above my head in surrender, but that didn't stop them from seeing me as a culprit. None of the guards looked familiar, so I couldn't hope any of them would recognize my face from the last time I was here. The only person who knew my connection with the King was A
Silver: “You’re lying!” I screamed at him, rejecting the news. “He has to be alive.” “Cover her mouth. The rest must not know this yet,” Gwyddion instructed Terah who grabbed me and covered my mouth. I struggled against him to free myself, but his grip only became stronger. He was a guard after all and I was only a grieving human. What could I except? “Calm down,” Terah said to me with a note of annoyance in his voice. “Acting like this won't bring him back, so why bother?” “Silver,” Gwyddion addressed me in a soothing voice. “Your life here is in danger. If people find out the King is dead, all the people who weren't able to get to you because of his protection will finally have a chance to finish you. You have to calm down until I think of something.” My sobs reduced to a whimper as what he said began to make sense to me. I already knew this, but having him repeat the words just made it more concrete. I wasn't even given the chance to mourn the loss of the King. I was thrown ba
Silver: “So what's the plan?” I asked Gwyddion, clearing my throat and standing up. I wasn't supposed to have shown so much excitement at seeing Damon, but it was too late now. I didn't want Gwyddion or even Damon to think too much about my feelings for the King, which I had shamelessly declared when I thought he couldn't hear.Gwyddion and Alpha Damon looked at each other and smiled, and I died a little inside. Now they were making inside jokes about my feelings. Oh, god. “There is not really a plan yet, I'm afraid,” the King said, turning his full attention to me. I swallowed and struggled to maintain his stare. “Gwyddion suspects my near-death experience was as a result of some dark magic and since it intensified when I was with my men, then there's a high chance it's one of them.” “Who do you think it is?” Gwyddion asked. “Rogu,” Alpha Damon and I responded simultaneously. He turned to me but I looked away. When did I become such a mess? “Unfortunately, it's usually the less
Silver:Gwyddion, Alpha Damon and I exchanged looks. Terah was right outside the door and inasmuch as Alpha Damon and I unanimously trusted him, I could easily tell Gwyddion had his doubts about the guard. However, the final decison was up to the King and it wasn’t difficult to tell whose side he was on. “Let him come in,” I whispered after a full minute of no one saying anything and Terah knocking and wondering where we were. “No,” Gwyddion whispered back. “He’s with someone else. If he comes in here with him, the news will be all over the Kingdom in days and the whole plan will come to nothing.”“He’s right,” Alpha Damon said, cupping his chin. “Why did he bring Philippe?” “Terah wants me to identify if he was the guard that brought you in after you passed out,” I muttered. “Yes, he was. That was the last thing I remember,” Alpha Damon waved his hand like the whole thing was just a waste of time. “Silver, go out there and shut the door behind you, then tell him it was Philippe. A
Silver:I watched in horror as Gwyddion desperately pleaded for his life at the Alpha's feet. I couldn't tell if Damon meant to punish him or not, but I had known the Alpha long enough to know he was an impulsive person. He could sentence Gwyddion to death if he remotely suspected him of something and no one would question him. "Why do you have potions that can end my life stacked away in your lair?" Alpha Damon asked with venom dripping from his voice."My Lord. I am a druid and like all other sorcerers, I was taught to mix and create potions. I have every potion known to man, both helpful and dangerous," Gwyddion explained. I cringed inwardly, because he seemed to be making matters worse for himself without knowing. "That's what I want to know. Why do you have dangerous potions randomly lying there? Why don't you just have the helpful ones?" The Alpha seethed. Gwyddion lifted his head, but the rest of his body was still pressed to the ground. This was the first time I had ever se
Silver: I maintained the King's stare, too far gone in my lie to give up now. The last time I lied to him was when Rogu had compelled me to. He had been able to tell and the results ended up dire, yet here I was, making the same mistake again, having forgotten the bond we shared was deeper than the honeymoon faze I constantly daydreamed about. It meant he could feel the same things I felt, including my guilt at having just lied. Fortunately for Gwyddion and me, before Alpha Damon opened his mouth to say anything to condemn me, someone began to knock on the door. He looked among three of us before he asked me to ask who was at the door. "Who is it?" I asked, trying to keep the tremor in my voice unnoticed. "I am here for Gwyddion," a squeaky voice responded. "It's my apprentice, my Lord," Gwyddion said with his head bowed low. "The physician will soon be here," Terah said, letting the silent Implication that Alpha Damon had to hurry up and make a decision before it was too late,