Chapter 5 - The Mystery

Auden frowns at the plate of dinner in front of him, not touching it. He glances at his father a few seats away, eating lustily and laughing with the pack of Alpha Lords who have come to celebrate the selection of his bride. Every few minutes the King glances at the doors to the great hall, waiting for her to come through.

But Auden knows that something is off. As he sits watching his father watch the door, Auden taps the table with his forefinger, thinking it through. Something, in his gut, rings wrong about the situation.

And it all starts with that girl.

Everleigh. Celestial of the De Silva pack. Eldest daughter, but not Selene, a little piece of gossip he’d picked up in conversation this evening after she inexplicably left the ball with her sister, wanting “a moment” that has now stretched into an hour. According to gossip, Everleigh had given up her position as Selene of her pack in favor of her younger sister years ago. An almost unheard-of choice, for an elder sister to give up the coveted spot without being forced to by some kind of disgrace. So why on earth would she do it?

Auden wracks his mind, trying to figure her out, to make her discrepancies make sense. He knows that Mahl has long trusted his gut decisions in his selection of his brides, following his nose and his loins more than logic or the words of his advisors. So far, he’d had very little reason to believe that his instincts were anything but perfect.

Auden’s own mother Freya, for instance, had been chosen when Mahl was only a child – his best friend and first love – and she had loyally stood by the King’s side for twenty years until she died, suddenly, of a fever. Angeline and Edna had likewise been good matches made in the spur of the moment, though Auden had known Angeline far less well than he had Edna.

Auden stares down at the food on his plate and considers that Everleigh is certainly not off in terms of his father’s tastes. All three of Mahl’s wives had been beautiful, and Everleigh is certainly that.

And after Edna, who had been more engaged with her duties as a mother to their four children than those of a wife, it made a certain kind of sense that Mahl had moved, again, to someone more like Angeline – someone young and carefree, more lover than broodmare.

Still, Everleigh is more withdrawn than Angeline, whom Auden remembers as bold, cheerful, and full of pranks - though he’d only known her for six months before her death. And it isn’t Everleigh’s relative skittishness that strikes Auden as odd. Instead, it’s her inconsistencies that grind against something in his Alpha instincts.

Auden screws his mouth to the side as he considers dissonance in Everleigh’s behavior, using his fork to poke at the cold meat on his plate, the gravy beginning to congeal.

For instance, where was she tonight? Why was she so late for the feast being held in her honor?

And why – why had she claimed that she knew him? Had met him as a child? He couldn’t place her at all – and her scent was completely foreign to him. He would have sworn, and put a great deal of money on a bet, that he had never laid eyes on her in his life.

But then! Why didn’t he know her? Auden had spent more time in Angeline's company in the final months of her life. If Everleigh had been her best friend, as everyone he asked tonight claimed – even his own father, who does remember her - then Auden damn well should have known her.

So why the hell doesn’t he?

Auden stabs his fork into his dinner and then leans back in his chair, crossing his arms over his chest. The fork lists slightly in the meat, threatening to fall into the rest of the uneaten meal.

Who the hell is this girl?

Auden knows, deep down, that something is wrong here and that he needs answers to these questions, for his father’s sake, for the kingdom’s.

Plus, Auden thinks to himself, staring vaguely at his food, I can’t stand a mystery.

The doors to the hall fly open and a steady stream of Gamma servants come into the room sporting flaming cakes held high above their heads. The Alphas and Lunas seated in the hall gasp in surprise and then begin to applaud, the King laughing and pounding his goblet on the table in appreciation.

Auden sighs as a flaming cake is placed before him. Because, god damn it, he doesn’t want cake – he wants answers. Auden stands hastily then, turning away from the food and striding out of the crowded hall without a word to anyone.

A few minutes later, he arrives at the barred door to the Queen’s chambers and pounds his fist against it.

No one answers. He pounds again.

Auden hears anxious footsteps behind the door and takes a step back, staring intensely at the little aperture that’s revealed when the door opens just a crack. A sweet face appears there and he opens his mouth to speak, intending to interrogate Everleigh –

But then he pauses as he realizes that it’s not Everleigh who opens the door. That it is, instead, her dark-haired sister, whose face looks so much like Everleigh’s own.

“Where is she?” Auden demands.

“Um,” the girl says awkwardly, looking over her shoulder into the room. “She isn’t well, Prince. She wants to be alone.”

“Open the door,” he snaps, not caring if Everleigh is ill. She can answer questions even if she is laid up in bed. And if she’s too sick to do that, she needs more care than her sister alone can provide.

“Please,” the girl begs, her eyes frightened now. “Please, she just wants peace –“

“Open the door,” Auden demands once more. He pauses, waiting, but the girl doesn’t budge. “I will not ask you again,” he growls, meaning every word of it, his hand coming to rest on the sword strapped to his hip.

Her lip trembling, the girl stands back, allowing Auden to press his palm against the wood of the door and push it open.

A growl rips from his throat as Auden steps into the room and sees not Everleigh, but instead a pile of bedsheets heaped on the floor, tied together in knots that her sister was clearly in the process of un-tying.

“Where is she?” Auden demands, slamming the door shut behind him and spinning on the girl, who shrieks in fear and cringes away from him, her hands up to protect her head.

“She’s gone!” the girl gasps, still cowering.

Rage pulses through Auden as he realizes what happened. That Everleigh bided her time all evening, pretending to accept the King’s choice, because –

Well, because her other choice was to face his rage at being rejected, which, knowing Mahl, could very well have meant her death. So at the first opportunity of freedom, she had fled.

“God damn it,” Auden snarls, turning away from the girl and beginning to pace the room, coming up with a plan. Because the only choice at this point – the only choice that didn’t end in bloodshed – is to get Everleigh back here before the King notices.

Decided, Auden turns again to the girl, who flinches back from him. “Stay here,” he orders, advancing on her. Everleigh’s sister steps away from him but nods eagerly. “Do not let anyone in this room,” Auden continues. “No one – not your parents, no servants, not a single soul. If you want your sister to live, you will keep up this pretext that she is ill and taking no visitors.”

“But,” the sister asks, her voice wary, “the King? Will he come?”

“I’ll handle the King,” Auden grinds out, striding for the door. Before he pulls it open, he turns back to her. “Your life is on the line as well, girl,” he reminds her, his voice dark. “Your sister has wrapped you up in her lie – and the King will make you pay for it if he finds out. Do you understand?”

The girl’s face goes pale as she realizes the truth of this, but she nods, trembling.

Auden turns towards the door, done with her, but is surprised to hear her voice calling to him.

“Where are you going, sir?” the girl asks, her question barely audible.

“I’m going to get her back,” Auden snaps. “And convince her that running from him is the worst thing she can do. That there’s nothing anyone could do to keep him from hunting her down if she continues this ridiculous plan.”

Auden yanks the door open and leaves the girl alone, hoping to the Goddess that she’s capable of playing her part.