CASSANDRAThe information that Ms. Benn had told me about Lady Helene seemed to spread through the castle like wildfire. The stories from the maids traveled fast, and servants began to gossip and wonder if Helene had died. These rumors spiraled on and turned absurd by the time it was three days before the wedding. People suggested they were going to see a monster at the altar because surely, that was what Helene had turned into.So, when Ronald announced that he and his fiancee were holding a party at his residence two days before the wedding night, everyone was surprised.Before I had received my invitation that day, I was summoned by Kaleb and taken to the same meeting room we’d spoken in before. When Ms. Benn quietly escorted me from my chamber and dropped me off in the corridor, I heard whispers about Lady Helene and did my best to drown them out. I didn’t want to pay these awful stories any mind, especially if something really had happened to my friend. Lila had yet to disclose a
CASSANDRAHelene didn’t utter a word on our way to the ladies’ room but conducted herself very politely. Her pretty face remained smiling, and the expression was so fixed it was as if she had been born smiling. It was unnerving after a while, and I kept waiting for it to falter, but her face never changed.Once the door to the bathroom was shut tightly behind us, I tried to talk with her and attempted to coax her out of her daze.“Are you feeling better?” I asked. “I heard that you were ill with some sort of sickness.”“It was just a cold,” Helene replied nonchalantly. “It was nothing to worry about. I’ve fully recovered now.”I nodded my head and after a moment of pause, I tried again. “I heard about your maid as well-”“It was all just a rumor,” she cut me off before I could finish my sentence. “The maid resigned because her mother passed away. I suppose that someone wanted to use such gossip to demean my fiance, but it couldn’t be farther from the truth.”She turned to face the mir
CASSANDRAMy heart dropped suddenly in my chest as I stared at Lila in shock. Had I heard the little girl correctly?“What does that mean?” I managed to ask as my belly began to ache from nervousness.Lila shook her head and tugged at a strand of her hair anxiously. Her big eyes stared off in the distance for a moment and then she turned back to face me.“It could mean that Lady Helene doesn’t have any thoughts in her mind,” she mused, and then she took her head. “Sometimes it’s hard for me to read people’s minds when they have complicated thoughts. If there’s too much going on in their thoughts, the pictures I see are like a mosaic. But I’ve never seen complete darkness before, Miss Cassandra.”I considered the information for a second and then a thought crossed my mind.Mind control.A year ago, I never would have given the concept any of my time. It sounded so preposterous, so strange and fairytale-like that there was no reason to take it seriously. But now that I’d seen the magic-
KALEB Much to my surprise, Cassandra walked into my study with a smile on her lovely face. As she approached my desk, though, I could sense that there was nervousness beneath the surface, like she was cornered prey. She seemed prepared to run at any given moment, and the sight of it, as well as the very idea, made me feel strange. I remembered the first time I’d met Cassandra in the village square in Anemond, in the back alley behind the pet store. When I’d saved her from the kidnappers, she’d thanked me while wearing the same expression. Smiling, but nervous. “Take a seat,” I requested. Once she sat down in the chair opposite me, I cleared my throat and continued. “How was the part at Ronald’s residence?” She smiled politely. “It was quite lovely, thank you for asking.” My lips drew into a thin line. She was speaking to me as if she did not know me in the slightest, and I wasn’t a fan of it at all. Why was she behaving this way in front of me? Was she truly so scared of me that s
KALEBAfter my meeting with Cassandra, I escorted the healer back to her chamber, and once she was back there, safe and sound, I made the decision to pay Raven a visit. As I rushed straight to her laboratory in the prison tower, my hands balled into a fist at my sides. I was angry, more angry than I’d been in quite some time.I couldn’t let Ronald take my throne from me.I couldn’t let anyone take my power from me. Not after everything I’d been through to become the king of this country. I’d made too many sacrifices, shed too much blood, and cried too many tears in the quiet of my bedroom, to allow someone as terrible as Ronald to take my crown from me.No.This ended now.When I reached Raven’s laboratory, I wasn’t the least bit surprised to see her goofing around. She was playing with a pair of blood samples, combining them with some unknown chemicals and potions, and seeing how they reacted. I wanted to swipe them off of the table and throw them on the floor. She was behaving like
BECKYBefore Rayden departed for the king’s cousin’s wedding in Yurene, he came to visit us in Anemond. When he arrived at the clinic, he was disguised as one of the businessmen who had swarmed the city in the hopes of attracting the attention of Oliver Moses. They wanted to show their loyalty to the Moses Family since they now controlled all of Anemond.In the Alpha King’s absence, they had taken over the capital of Wegalla, and much to my surprise, as well as Dickson’s everyone seemed to forget about the king. I wasn’t an optimist in the slightest, but to see the citizens of Anemond switch up their loyalty so quickly only added to my dislike of this place. While the Alpha King and I didn’t know each other outside of our interactions at the clinic, he seemed like a nice enough man, one who didn’t deserve any of this.We accepted Rayden into the clinic and then escorted him to the meeting room in the back. Dickson prepared us some fragrant tea, and once it was ready, we all gathered a
CASSANDRA Through my chamber window, I could see cars and well-dressed werewolves cross through the main gate and enter the fortress every hour starting from the early morning hours. Even from my place on the second floor, I could hear the bustling sounds of the grounds. Vlokwell was alive with activity, and my heart was racing as I realized the scale of this impending wedding. Most of the guests attending Helene and Ronald’s ceremony were being accommodated in the main building, but a few were being housed in the side buildings, including the one where I resided. With all of the activity and movement throughout the fortress, Ms. Benn was incredibly busy. The head housekeeper stopped by my chamber early in the morning when she usually dropped off Lila and when I noticed her daughter wasn’t with her, mentioned that she would be bringing her daughter by later in the day. As I heard the noise from the hallway filter into my room, I felt uneasy. I hadn’t heard this much commotion in
ASHERThe capital city of Yurene was heavily guarded, even more so than I’d expected. While I’d been well aware that the place would be swarming with security, given the scale of the wedding, the sheer amount of guards that stood around was impressive.Our car joined the line of other vehicles waiting to approach the enormous gates, and when I rolled down the window, the guards began to speak. We were told once entered through the enormous gate that our identities needed to be triple-checked before we could enter the castle that stood in the distance. The castle was equally impressive, its walls soaring so high into the air that it looked like it was kissing the clouds. It was an amazing sight to behold, though I hated admitting that anything in Yurene was impressive.While I had been nervous to come here, I knew I had a low chance of getting caught, especially since I had disguised myself using Darwin’s identity.When I’d initially proposed the plan, the Sky Pride wolf had been agita