Chapter 141 THE HARD TRUTH

Chapter 141 THE HARD TRUTH
NARRATOR
The Lycan prince wasn’t hurt. Not stabbed. Not weak. Not dying.
He was standing there, staring at him with eyes so threatening that Leonardo took a step back, realizing he wasn’t the hunter. He was the prey.
“How?” he stammered, looking at the tree trunk and finding not a single drop of blood. “I saw you. Right there, dying, stabbed by your mate! I SAW YOU!”
Leonardo roared, grabbing his hair and tearing down the whole calm-man act.
He turned and saw Isabella wiping her tears, way too composed.
“You only saw what we wanted you to see. You think you’re so smart, and in the end you were just a pathetic idiot, easy to play.” He looked back at Kaden’s cold face.
“You’ve been lied to this whole time, manipulated by someone else to hate me and hurt me. The one who pushed me to kill Isolde... was the Queen.”
It took Leonardo a second to process it. Then his stunned face twisted into a cold sneer.
“Guess there’s no point pretending in front of you anymore,” he said with a snort. “You really think I’m gonna believe that bullshit?! How could the Queen make you kill someone?! Now you’ll tell me you took some control potion too... which obviously doesn’t work.”
He spat it out, furious, still not understanding where he’d screwed up, even as everything started to click.
From the beginning. The lack of communication. The constant feeling of being watched. Kaden had known about his betrayal for a while, and he’d been setting him up.
“I remember your birthday party. That’s when the queen gave you that old grimoire... that spell should be in there, the one you were experimenting with to make me violent, right?”
Leonardo searched his memory. It was true. The foundation of his current formula book had come from the Queen.
“And what the hell does that have to do with you being a beast? With you raping Isolde and then killing her!”
“I didn’t do it by choice. Damn it! I loved her too!” Kaden roared back, dragged straight into his own torment.
Just thinking about the horrible way he’d cut that life short made him feel like the lowest kind of man.
But then he looked past Leonardo, to those clear eyes backing him up.
He’d been a victim too.
Leonardo kept roaring insults, ripping out everything he’d kept stuffed in his chest, and Kaden watched madness creep back into his eyes.
The knife in Leonardo’s hand tightened harder and harder.
“We were all manipulated by her,” Kaden cut in, so calm it made the air feel thinner. “And I can prove it. Agata!”
He called into nothing, and the wind kicked up, shaking the leaves.
A small swirl formed in front of Kaden, and a tiny woman stepped out of nowhere. Leonardo backed up, on edge.
He wasn’t a sorcerer, but he loved magic and he’d always studied it. Even without real power running through his veins, Leonardo could replicate a lot of spells with herbs and written incantations.
He knew right away this old woman was dangerous.
“I’m not going to hurt you. I’m just going to explain the truth... unless you do something as stupid as coming at us with that little knife,” Agata said, eyeing his white-knuckled grip around the handle.
“What’s a witch doing here?” Leonardo snapped. “You think you’re gonna enchant me against the Queen? It won’t be that easy. I’ll end your woman’s life first!”
Even with the warnings, Leonardo decided he needed a bargaining chip and moved toward the one he thought was weakest.
He turned and lunged at Isabella, refusing to die passively.
But Isabella was waiting for him.
She flicked her hand, and a blast of Seraphina energy hit him dead in the face.
“Aaggh!” Leonardo roared as he slammed to the ground, his body going numb, and for a second he couldn’t feel the connection to his wolf as it dropped into a deep sleep.
“Agata told you not to do something stupid, and it was the first thing you did,” Isabella said, cold and unimpressed. “I thought you were smarter. Or is it that you don’t want to face the reality that you were wrong?”
“You were faking too. You have Seraphina power! Everyone was faking!” he roared, furious, looking around like a trapped animal, hunting for a way out.
“Leonardo, I’m giving you one last chance to listen and live. Or you can choose to die here and now for treason.” Kaden’s voice hit his back, and Leonardo twisted around, hate warping his face.
Still, he didn’t want to die. He refused to die after all the scheming.
He pushed up slowly, fighting the weakness in his body, and looked at the witch.
“Tell me your lies,” he challenged Agata, spitting bile.
The old woman didn’t even flinch. She lifted her hand and moved her fingers through the air like she was writing with a magic brush.
Red strokes started to form, and a large rune appeared right in front of Leonardo’s eyes.
He couldn’t hide his shock, no matter how hard he tried.
“I know you recognize it.”