Chapter 77 Seventy-Seven.

Chapter 77 Seventy-Seven.


KYLE’S POV.

“At the palace today, there was a commotion amongst the guards. Sven’s men are on the streets searching for you too,” Orion starts, ocean blue-eyes still placed on me. “Apparently bodies of ten guards and the son of the beta of a pack or whatever was found.”

I say nothing. The room is getting colder.

“Because the way I see it,” Orion continues, his eyes boring into mine, “mere physical strength cannot pull off what happened in that forest. I heard from the guards that the bodies look like they were squished beneath a boulder. And quite frankly, looking at you right now, you look entirely too weak to have taken down eleven werewolves with your bare hands. So tell me. Have you awoken?”

I freeze, my mind spinning into a chaotic maze of thoughts.

I think deeply about it.

If I tell him the truth, I admit to possessing a power I don’t even know how to control. But more importantly, I think about Olivia.

Why would she refuse to cooperate with this man? If Orion offered her a way out, a way to save us both, why would she turn her back on it? She knows how ruthless King Sven is. She knows what happened to Eris.

If she chose to stay silent, she must have seen a massive threat in Orion.

She is smart. If she doesn’t trust him, there has to be a reason.

I lift my hands to answer, but before I can form a single sign, Katniss speaks up.

“No,” Katniss says firmly, slamming her hand onto the table.

Orion cuts his gaze to her, an eyebrow arched. “No? Are you his spokesperson now, Omega?”

“The name is Katniss, not Omega. And I’m speaking the truth,” She counters, her voice completely steady as she locks eyes with him. “Kyle hasn’t awoken anything. Like I said before, we’ve been running for our lives. If he had that kind of power, do you really think we’d be hiding out in the first place. Do you really think he would not have attacked you on sight when he met you? He didn’t kill those guards. We never even met any guards.”

Orion analyzes her face for a long, silent moment, looking for a crack in her facade. “And how do you explain a squad of dead werewolves, then?”

“Maybe they ran into a rogue Alpha wolf or something else,” Katniss fires back without a single flinch. “Or maybe someone else wanted them dead. All I know is that Kyle didn’t do it. If you’re looking for a weaponized Fae to fight your war against the King, you’re looking at the wrong guy.”

“But there was a witness,” he says, and I see the dumbfounded look on Katniss before it is quickly masked. “Apparently a civilian hiding beneath a merchant’s cart swore to the guards looking into their death that it was you who did it. ‘The Fae whose picture was placed around the market square and he was with a girl’ is what she said before fainting. And I just happen to see you two at the forest not far off from the crime scene. How would you explain that?”

Neither Katniss and I say anything to that.

“Touché,” Orion smirks. “I won’t get angry at the fact that you guys are trying to lie to me, but if you haven’t awoken your Fae energy, you will be of no use to me, Kyle and Katniss.”

“And then what?” Katniss asks.

“I would have used you both as ragdolls for my hybrid since it’s been a while since I let it out,” he looks sinister now, smirk deepening, and it makes me nervous. I knew he could not be entirely trusted.

Katniss glances at me, and I can tell she feels the same way.

Orion scoffs, pulling back into his seat. He checks his pocket watch again, another habit I have noticed, and snaps it shut. “Maybe you were right, Omega—”

“Katniss. The name is Katniss.”

He smiles, but it’s wicked. “Maybe, you were right, Katniss. Maybe I do care about ten bags of Denarii, because if you both had proven useless, I would have been delivering your dead bodies to Sven. But now that I know you are not useless, my offer stands. You stay here and help me, and I will ensure you aren’t found by any bounty hunters or Sven’s guards or get killed by me or my men. It’s getting late already, and I have to be in the palace tomorrow. I will meet Olivia again in two days.”

He stands up, taking off his midnight-blue cloak over his shoulders, and nods to Helios and Toby.

“Watch the perimeters. Don’t let them pull anything stupid like escaping,” he orders.

With a final look at us, Orion exits down the hallway to a room I assume is his. The sound of a door clicks shut after a while. Helios and Toby do not look friendly to either Katniss and Me anymore as they immediately move outside, leaving Katniss and me alone.

The moment we are out of their earshot, I stand up and grab Katniss by her sleeve and pull her into the room we were given. I raise my hands, my fingers moving frantically.

‘Why did you lie?’ I sign, my chest heaving with anxiety. ‘You saw what happened in the woods. Why tell him no—’

Katniss catches my wrists, forcing my hands down. “Because I trust Olivia,” Katniss snaps softly, her eyes wide with absolute seriousness. “Think about it, Kyle. Orion told us himself that your sister refused to cooperate with him. She chose to keep fighting in the Dance of the Dead rather than give him what he wanted.”

I frown. It’s exactly what I thought. I sign back with one hand. ‘She probably knew he could not be trusted. Especially with how he threatened us just now.’

“Yes, she’s smart,” Katniss whispers back, her jaw setting into a hard line. “As we can tell from the conversation that just went down, we cannot trust him. And who is to say after giving him what he wants, he won’t kill us or Olivia? And knowing Olivia, she would have taken the deal in a heartbeat just to get you out of the kingdom if he could really be trusted. The fact that she did not and turned him down means she doesn’t trust him. And if she doesn’t trust him, we do not either.”

I take in her words, the logic piercing through the lingering fog of my migraine. But another realization hits me, cold and terrifying, overriding her caution. ‘I need to meet Olivia,’ I sign, my hands shaking. ‘I have to go to the palace.’

Katniss stares at me like I’ve lost my mind. “Are you crazy? If you go back there, King Sven will have your head before you can even get through the gates. Besides Olivia might have also awoken her Fae energy, and if it is just like yours then I think she stands a chance in her last two matches, and against the ripper ghost.”

‘Exactly. A chance. Not a guaranteed win. We cannot let her keep risking her life in the colosseum. It is a gamble,’ I sign back, my movements growing larger and more desperate. ‘I cannot sit here captive while she fights a battle for my freedom.’

Katniss opens her mouth to argue, but I press on, my fingers cutting through the air.

‘Even if she wins her next match, she will not survive against the Ripper Ghost, Katniss. No one can. I don’t care about the risks anymore. I do not care about Orion’s threats. And you do not need to come with me. I will escape because I am not a coward who hides while his twin sister gets torn to pieces,’ I pause, then continue. More determined. ‘I am going back for her like I should have done since she was taken.’

Katniss looks at me like I have said the most ridiculous thing. I expect her to object and leave me to myself, but she sighs.
“Maybe wait until we hear what Olivia says to Orion at their next meeting, but I’m going with you no matter what!”