Chapter 53
“You will tell me what I want to know,” Caleb growls, voice far colder than he’s ever used with me, even at his most angry. “You will die either way, but the speed of your death is what remains on the table. If you wish to spare yourself any more pain, you will speak quickly”
The bound man raises his chin in defiance, even though it trembles. His voice cracks, “I–I’m not afraid!”
Suddenly, Caleb stabs the knife straight down into the bound man’s thigh
The man screams in pain so loud and bloodcurdling that it makes my entire body convulse. The peony slips from my
hands.
Tristan turns at the movement and sees me. He’s standing outside of the door.
Our eyes lock, but he doesn’t say a word. He’s wearing the same bored expression as always
They are both monsters.
What a fool I was to think Caleb might have a kind side. He is a bloodthirsty, ruthless villain who does not value anyone’s life but his own; A tyrant. A demon.
Fear shatters my mind, quaking through my body.
Tristan glances down at the flower.
I don’t wait around for him to question me. Instead, I spin on my heel and flee.
Once Caleb has the information he needs, he walks out of the interrogation chamber, leaving the rest, and the cleanup, to his guards. The traitor continues to whimper behind him. The guards will give him a quick end.
Tristan waits in the hallway. His back is turned to Caleb, he’s facing the stairs. Slowly, as Caleb approaches, Tristan turns around and reveals that he’s holding a pink peony.
Very much like the ones Caleb gifted to Harper.
“Where did you get that?” Caleb says. He starts to reach for it, but, catching sight of the blood on his hands, stops himself. Better to let Tristan hold it, untarnished.
She was here,” Tristan says.
Caleb’s blood turns to ice water. “Just now?”
“She saw.”
“She did, Tristan confirms.
Caleb isn’t a saint. What does it matter if Harper knows he has to commit darker deeds to protect his kingdom?
She is but a pawn to him, a means to an end. A wet hole who also holds vital information. Any kindness he has shown her has been a mistake.
He is a monster, and she went willingly searching into his lair. Of course she was going to see him covered in blood, sooner or later.
He won’t bother explaining himself. Let her be afraid of him if she wishes, just like everyone else. Even Tristan looks at him.
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Chapter 54
with fear now and again.
In the room Caleb left, the dying man’s whimpers are abruptly ceased. Good. It’s done.
“Did you get the information?” Tristan asks,
Caleb knew Tristan was watching, Harper’s appearance must have distracted him. Caleb will forgive him this once, particularly because the confession is on tape.
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If it wasn’t, he’d be more upset. When Caleb involves himself in these interrogations, a lot of times, his mind shuts off and he succumbs to his blood rage. He needs a constant second, someone he trusts, to watch everything and make sure he doesn’t go too far.
Caleb usually doesn’t remember anything afterwards.
He gave more information on the plotted attack on one of the packs,” Caleb says.
“Harper’s pack,” Tristan says, as if Caleb needs reminding.
“The enemy has been infiltrating for months. We have some names. Places to start to weed out this menace, but it will be a slow process…
“And Harper’s pack?” Tristan asks.
It would be so much easier to let the enemy make their move, destroying that pack, and then to sweep in after and clean up
the mess.
That had always been Caleb’s plan.
But… he supposes, with the level of infiltration the enemy has niade, there’s no guarantee that letting that pack die would solve the overarching problem.
Plus, losing the support of a pack, even a lesser one, would weaken his kingdom. The other packs might consider rebellion, if they ever discovered he left many of their own to die.
And then, there’s Harper. She shouldn’t be a consideration. She wasn’t really. An afterthought, at most… But it would devastate her to lose her pack.
She already knows he’s a villain. This wouldn’t change anything. But the thought of her in mourning… It just doesn’t sit right with him. He’ll be damned if he knows why.
“I suppose strategize.”
it would be most beneficial for us to step in,” Caleb says with reluctance. “Assemble my
advisors so we can
“At once, King Caleb.” Tristan doesn’t move right away. He holds out the flower. “What do you wish done about this?”
“Nothing,” Caleb snaps. He snatches the flower from Tristan and drops it to the ground. “She should know the kind of man she’s dealing with. Maybe it will help her finally fall in line.”
“Of course,” Tristan says with a small bow. When he agrees so readily, Caleb knows hts beta is holding back. But he does not press this time. He doesn’t really want to know the truth of what Trisum is thinking.
Just as he doesn’t want to face his own regret. Instead, he pushes down to the deepest parts of him to starve and die.
He’s done far too much in his reign as king. If he were to allow gret to claw at him now, he’d be overwhelme! There was too much to do, too much that needed done.
It was good for others to know he’s someone worth fearing,
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Chapter 53
His life is not one for kindness. Not if he wants to survive.
Looking at the peony on the floor, Caleb stomps on it, destroying the beauty and the softness both.
He’s a villain. That’s who he needs to be.
I don’t stop running until I’m back in my rooms with the door closed firmly behind me. Bethany hurries toward me. alarmed
“What happened? Did he hurt you?”
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er my face with my hands. So much blood. So much
“I’m not hurt.” I tell her with a shaky voice. “But I saw… He was….I cover my
rage.
At once in my mind, I’m standing in the coliseum certain I’m about to die.
Fear wracks my body, causing my arms and legs to shake.
“Here, Bethany says, moving quickly toward me. With her arm around my shoulders, she guides me to a chair to sit down.
Rest
“He was t–torturing that man…” I manage to say.
“Who
“I don’t know
Bethany moves the other chair closer to
mine and sits beside me Grimly, she looks into my face. “Did he see you?”
“Tristan did.”
“Do you think the King punish you?”
“I don’t know,” I admit. I don’t know anything anymore. Everything I thought I was learning about Caleb has burnt up into ash. There’s no softness in a man like that, covered in blood and willing to torture. “He’s a demon, through and through. I could be next_”
After everything else he’s done to me, I’m genuinely surprised I’m not in that chair. I’d been tortured before, but with a truth serum, which he had no idea would nearly kill me as it had
He never stabbed me.
But who is to say that he wouldn’t?
“I need to get out of here,” I say, my mind reeling
“What are you talking about? You can’t mean…” Bethany lowers her voice to a harsh whisper. “Escaping?”
I do mean that.
“I can’t stay another night under the same roof as him. I’m leaving. Now.”
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