Chapter 13 MURDER ON MY MIND
CHAPTER THIRTEEN | MURDER ON MY MIND
LYRA
I clutched the knife tightly, my whole body trembling as I walked across the hall toward Damien's room. I held his key in my hand; Hailey had given it to me earlier.
She had put sleeping pills in both their meals during dinner so that I could easily kill them without them suspecting anything. I chose Damien first because he terrified me the most, and his death would hurt me less.
Sneaking into his room, I followed the illumination of the moon through his window to his bed. I stared at him as he lay there, sleeping peacefully. Tears rolled down my cheeks.
I didn’t want to do this, but I had no choice. Lifting the knife, I was ready to plunge it into his chest, but my hands paused just above him.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered, as if it would change the weight of what I was about to do. As if it would ease my guilt, ease the gravity of the crime I was about to commit.
But even after apologizing, I couldn’t bring myself to harm him. Not just because he was my mate, but also because he and his brother had treated me better than anyone had since my grandma’s death. I didn’t want to repay them with evil.
I bailed on the mission and would have left, but the door opened suddenly, and a scream echoed through the room.
Standing at the door entrance were Hailey and Damian. Hailey had been the one who screamed.
I took my gaze off them when I felt someone move. Damien was awake, and I was holding the knife just above his chest.
“Stop her!” Hailey yelled, jolting Damien to take action. He held my hands with the knife, slapping it off and keeping my hands still.
“I knew she was up to no good when she sneaked out. Thank God I was quick enough to catch her before she killed him,” Hailey said as she rushed and picked up the knife, keeping it away from me.
Suddenly, everything made sense. The deal. The pretense. The framing. The act of innocence. Everything suddenly made sense.
I laughed like a maniac, happy that things had finally fallen into place.
“She has lost it completely,” Hailey mumbled, staring at me like I was the lunatic in the picture.
Hailey never wanted to kill the twins; she just wanted them all to herself. She needed a reason for them to reject me as their mate…a solid one that would make them hate me and not just reject me, but possibly kill me.
The plan was never to kill them. It was to frame me as the person trying to kill them and make them hate me.
“You’re in love with them, aren’t you? Or is it Damian? You’re in love with him and wanted him all to yourself, and to do that, you needed me out of the picture for good. So you planned all this to make sure I’m not just hated, but hated to the point of death,” I said to her.
Her brows furrowed, another act. She was playing the angel again. I laughed harder, impressed by her manipulative skill.
And to think I thought my sister had a degree in lying and manipulation. Who would have thought I’d meet someone even better?
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Lyra. I never knew you could go this far. Were you planning to kill him and blame it on me? Was that why you tried to put something into their food this evening?” Her lips quivered like she was about to cry as she spoke.
Give this girl an Oscar already.
The twins, who had been shocked to the point of speechlessness after catching me trying to harm Damien, finally snapped out of their dazed state.
“What was she trying to put inside our food?” Damian asked her.
She looked away, then looked at me, shivering as if I had done something to her.
Damian noticed her fright and stood in front of her, blocking her view of me. “You don’t have to be afraid, Hailey. Speak to me. She can’t do anything to you on my watch.”
Hailey pretended to attempt to leave the room, but he dragged her back. She covered her face with her hands, her shoulders shaking as she cried. “She promised to make my life a living hell if I revealed her secret to anyone. I just couldn’t watch her harm either of you, so I switched the food after she left. I could only do that because I was the one serving the food. I’m scared of what she’ll do to me.”
Damian glared at me, comforting the crying Hailey. I just watched everything unfold in amusement. A part of me was completely numb. I thought I had escaped this form of abuse when I left my old pack. Who would have thought I’d find myself in something worse?
“Ignore anything she says. I’ll protect you. She can’t harm you when I’m here.”
Hailey nodded and slowly pulled out the small bag. The same one that contained the highly toxic poison. The same poison she had given me to kill the twins.
Damian took it, examined it, and I could see from the look on his face that he registered the fact that the contents of the bag were never meant to harm myself. It was meant to harm them.
Damien, who had been silent since the whole ordeal, suddenly spoke up. “I’ll give you one chance to explain yourself. Just one chance. And it must be a good explanation.”
I should have jumped at the chance to defend myself, but I didn’t. Why should I? They weren’t going to believe anything I said. Why should I waste my breath?
“This is your last chance, Lyra.” He emphasized my name, and for the first time since I met him, it felt so foreign coming out of his mouth. “Your last chance.”
“I have nothing to say. When the time is right, you’ll understand.”
Seeing that I had adamantly refused to explain the reason I did what I did, Damien’s face hardened.
“Take her to the dungeon. Make sure she is treated like every other prisoner. She’ll stay there until I decide what to do with her.”
Damian nodded, grabbed my hands roughly, and pulled me out of the room. I spared Hailey one last look as I was being taken away, and just as I expected, a smug grin was on her face.
She won.
Damian locked me up, but before leaving, he spoke. “The punishment for attempted murder of a Lycan is execution. You just killed yourself.”