Chapter 76 Abandoned
"No... please. No! You can't allow them to take me. Father!" She screamed but he never turned toward her, never looked at her face. "Please, I didn't kill Celeste. They will kill me. Do you want to lose both your daughters? Please, Dad, have mercy on me!"
But her words fell on deaf ears. No one listened. No one moved to help her.
The soldiers of the Northern Kingdom dragged her outside despite her struggles. They had traced her through the blood she'd left on the forest floor, through the scent that clung to her clothes despite her attempts to cover it.
The man leading the search was strikingly huge, commanding attention without trying. He was handsome in a way that seemed wrong for someone whose job was hunting and killing.
Deep brown eyes the exact color of the wolf she'd seen that night, the hunter wolf who had saved her from the corrupted pack. His hair held the same brown shade as his eyes, the color of dried leaves during summer when the forest floor turned copper and gold.
Lila's eyes widened as recognition hit. He was the one. The eyes were undeniable, powerful and knowing in a way that made her certain. This was the wolf who'd given her a chance to escape.
Does his coloring change with the seasons? Is that why he hunts more brutally during summer when his camouflage is perfect?
No one in the Northern Kingdom walked in the forest during summer because that was hunting season, when this man and his wolf roamed free looking for threats to eliminate.
Yet according to everything she'd heard, this man had a nose that could track any scent and identify even the faintest smell from miles away. He was Hunter Keal, the Delta and border soldier of the Northern Kingdom, and he was strikingly, dangerously handsome.
Lila didn't realize she'd stopped struggling, lost in studying the man who was about to drag her back to her doom, until he stood directly in front of her.
His nose flared as he stared down at her, his brows twisting in an expression she couldn't name because it didn't look angry or worried. What did he seem to perceive in her scent that caused that reaction?
"Chain her!" The command came sharp and final.
Reality crashed back like cold water. "No, please. Don't take me back. Please, I didn't kill Celeste and I will never be the King's mate again."
Keal stopped in his tracks. Lila saw her scarf in his arms, the one she'd left behind when she fled.
Her brows twisted in realization. She'd thought they'd traced her through the blood trail, but they'd used her scarf and followed her scent the entire way.
She was certain they hadn't traced Red's scent because she'd been disguised in wolf form. Had he discovered she was Red? The wolf almost torn apart by rogues?
Keal turned, his eyes fierce and unyielding. He was not interested in negotiation and wasn't demanding her explanation or excuses.
"Throw her in and shut her mouth." That was it. That was all.
Like a flash she was pushed into a carriage that looked like an improvised prison, the kind used for transporting slaves to trading markets where hunters sold their captured goods for coin.
Her hands were locked in iron shackles. Her mouth was sealed with a rough cloth that tasted of dirt and sweat. A princess brought low to slave level in a matter of moments.
She heard whispers and that was when it dawned on her that people had been watching the entire scene.
Moonstone citizens had witnessed her banishment, heard her admit to following her sister's husband, watched her be condemned to death by the very kingdom that had written her doom.
"She's evil." The voices carried through the crowd.
"She killed the crowned Princess."
"She seduced her sister's husband."
"Serves her right. It was right she was banished and dismissed. She's evil to the core."
Lila's head lowered and she sobbed. The sobs came from years of accumulated pain and sorrow, crashing over her so heavily she couldn't hold them back any longer.
She had run miles through darkness and bushes, fought rogues and survived wounds that should have killed her, all just to come back to a place she'd thought was home.
But even her home had rejected her. Her home had banished her and stripped away her name and title.
Was there any place in the world better than home? Even if home wasn't perfect, wasn't home supposed to be good enough? Oh home sweet home, the saying went.
Who would ever have imagined that the beautiful Princess of Moonstone would be banished from her homeland by her own parents and sent to death itself as if she valued nothing at all?
But when she had the death of her sister hanging around her neck like a millstone, who would boldly plead her guiltless? Who would stand up and say she deserved mercy?
Tears streamed down her face unchecked. The weight of rejection felt more real than all the years of absence and neglect she'd ever faced at home. This was different from being ignored or overlooked. This was being erased, declared not to exist, cast out like refuse.
She didn't know how long they rode. It was a chariot and carriage arrangement with ten horse riders surrounding her prison on wheels. The horses were built for war, not like the gentle mare she'd ridden to escape.
These were powerful beasts bred for battle and endurance. But somehow the journey felt slow, each moment stretching into eternity. The soldiers who took her back seemed to have been advised to maintain solemn silence, mourning her fate even as they carried out their orders.
It was like life didn't exist around her anymore, like she'd already died and this was just her ghost being transported.
Or maybe that was just her thoughts spiraling into darkness. She couldn't tell anymore where reality ended and her despair began.
Lila didn't dwell on it long. She slumped back against the rough wood of the carriage and let sleep take her. The weight of mental and emotional exhaustion was too heavy to keep her eyes open any longer.
When she woke again, they were riding on smoother road. The path felt plane and wide, well-maintained in a way Moonstone's forest roads weren't. She felt a warm breeze carrying the smell of forests and vegetation that was distinctly different from her homeland. The Northern Kingdom. They were close now.
She peered through a small opening in the carriage and noticed it was the dawning of another day. The misty air typical of the Northern Kingdom was still strong, hanging low over the ground and making everything look ghostly and unreal.
As they rode farther, the smell changed dramatically. Death hit her nostrils like a physical assault. Burning and smoke filled the air, the scent of funeral pyres and mass graves.
When they finally arrived with her in chains, she saw so many people lining the way. They stood watching the soldiers ride past like kings returning from victorious battle. It was like these soldiers represented their salvation, their hope for an end to suffering.
The truth hit Lila with crushing force. She was the sacrifice who had run away. She was the sacrifice needed to end the deaths of the people they loved.
She was the offering required to appease the curse and restore balance to a kingdom tearing itself apart.
She was a sacrifice needed to cleanse a land filled with death. A land that could not be purified until the one who had killed was avenged.
Lila was doomed for death. But the method by which she would be killed was what she didn't know yet. Would it be quick? Painful? Public or private? Would they burn her like a witch or behead her like a traitor?
What could she do except accept it? Was living even any better than this slow march toward execution? At least in death she might find peace. At least in death the mate bond would finally release its hold on her heart.
The carriage rolled forward through streets filled with desperate, grieving people who looked at her like she was both monster and messiah. The one who had caused their suffering and the one whose death would end it.
Lila closed her eyes and waited for whatever came next.