Chapter 29

Rielle.

My mind was a mess after what she had revealed. I was still reeling by the time, I felt her really begin to shake violently. Then she fell and I caught her just in time.

"Aurora please," I begged, trying to reach her, but her eyes rolled back, and her shaking became even more violent. She picked up the vile that she had drunk from and smelt it. My heart dropped when I realized. She had taken Nightshade and by the smell alone, I could tell that it was a concentrated dose.

It was not fast, she would not survive, not to speak of the child whose existence I had yet to wrap my head around.

'We can heal her,' Nova said, tearing through the chaos of my mind. 'Let us use the gift. I know we can do it,'

I absorbed her words and took a calming breath. Panicking. She asked me to help her and I would do just that. I placed my hand over her still flat stomach and I let Nova come to the forefront of my mind. I let her energy flow through my veins and a warm light began to emanate from my palm. I could feel her rippling muscles, I could sense her heartbeat as though it was beating inside my chest. I could feel her nerves and I could feel her pain, raw, desperate, and consuming. The pure healing energy filled her body, breaking down the dark nightshade in her bloodstream, repairing damaged tissue, and effectively reversing the effects of the nightshade.

Then there was something else, another heartbeat. Small, almost unnoticeable, but it was there and alive. It was a child, her child. The one that she needed me to save. I could feel its life force, fragile but strong, vulnerable and tenacious. It wanted to live like its mother wanted. I reached for it and tried protecting it from the Nightshade that had invaded her bloodstream. Just until the healing was complete, and it would no longer be in danger of the poison. Soon, the deadly poison began to dissipate, being broken down by pure energy, just as the purity draught had saved me in the trial.

After minutes had passed, I looked and searched for the heartbeat of her child and I found it again. Her child was safe and I had been successful. Relief washed over me like rain on a scorching day.

"Lucianne!" Someone's scream cut my relief short. I turned to see my family approaching me, Logan in the front. His face was twisted in an expression that I could not recognize. It resembled disgust and almost bordering on loathing.

The others' expressions were not as intense, but it was a variation of his obvious displeasure. He reached up and pulled Aurora out of my arms, cradling her like the most precious thing.

"Aurora! Aurora!" He called her name, shaking her and willing her to wake up. "Please, wake up. Wake up." But she remained limp in his arms. The poison had been flushed out, I thought, my mind racing with horrible thoughts. What if I had not been fast enough, and she would never wake up? But I heard her child's heartbeat. I tried to convince myself.

Finally, when all his efforts to wake her went unrewarded, Logan looked up. His face contorted with hatred to visceral, I felt it deep in my marrow. "What have you done!" He bellowed.

I blinked, still unable to stomach the hate-filled expression on his face. "What are you talking about? Do you think I did something to her? It is not what it looks like." I rambled. "She told me..."

"Just because she revealed your secret?" Logan roared. "You hurt her for it?"

I could not really fathom what he was implying I did. "I did not do this! She told me that..."

"What did you do to her? What did you give her?" Logan demanded. "Where is the antidote?" Then he noticed the black vile on the ground, and he picked it up and smelt it.

"It's Nightshade. I have already healed..."

"And you claim you did not hurt her," Lance said, his tone chilly. "Yet you know the poison that was given to her."

"Let us listen to her..." Jules tried to speak through the chaos. But with a single glare from Lance, she was silenced.

I gaped at them, every emotion falling on me like a heavy blanket. My family was really accusing me of attempting to kill someone. My family accused me of murder. How could I tell them that she tried to kill herself by drinking Nightshade when they would not even let me get a word in? Tears filled my eyes from the overwhelming emotions, "You really believe I did this?" I asked them. "You believe me capable...of..." I could not say the words.

"Murder," a chilling voice completed for me. We all turned around to see Beta Reiner, his eyes bloodshot and filled with a mixture of sorrow and rage. And his eyes regarded me with venom. "You tried to murder my only child."

Then he lunged, he clasped both of his arms around my neck, pushing me onto my back. He began to squeeze, and I could do nothing but fight for air. He was far too strong. I was powerless. With what had just happened, the shock and the despair, I was not in any condition to fight and win. So I simply struggled, wondering what my family was doing.

"I will fucking kill you," he yelled in my face. But suddenly, I watched as the sorrow morphed into something far more chilling. Beta Reiner grinned. His lips lifted in a crazed smile that made my blood run cold. "I will fucking kill you," he said again. He was attacking me out of grief, but he was using it as an excuse to finally be rid of me. He was the Silent Reaper, it finally dawned on me what Aurora had said. The man that was strangling me now was truly a killer, an assassin.

The edges of my vision began to darken, and I felt my body go numb. Finally, his weight was lifted off me and air painfully filled my deprived lungs.

Beta Reiner was held back by force as I gasped for breath.

"He...he..." I choked on my words as I pointed at Beta Reiner. "He is the silent..."

"Lucianne!" A voice that made my heart stop called my name. I turned to find Raphael already towering over me. He assessed the situation. "What have you done?" He demanded.

I could barely speak, my throat still hurting me and my voice hoarse. "It is not what... it looks like. You have...to believe me." Then I pointed to Beta Reiner. "He is the silent..."

"Why would I believe you?" He asked, his voice devoid of a single warmth.

"That bitch killed my daughter!" Beta Reiner yelled.

"I did not!" I countered. "Please, he is the silent re..." But no one was listening.

"Guards!"

Guards arrived swiftly, their heavy boots thudding against the ground as they approached me. I struggled to my feet, but my body was weak, still recovering from the attack.

"Take her to her room," Raphael ordered, his voice cold and commanding.

Two guards grabbed my arms roughly, dragging me away. I caught a glimpse of my father, his face a mask of heartbreak and disappointment. He couldn't even look at me directly, his eyes focused somewhere far beyond me. My brother stood next to him, his expression twisted with disgust as if he couldn't believe I was his sister.

Jules watched me with pity, her eyes filled with unshed tears. She made a move to step forward, but Lance stopped her, shaking his head.

"Raphael, please, listen to me," I begged, my voice hoarse and desperate. "I didn't do it. Beta Reiner is the Silent Reaper. He..."

"Enough!" Raphael's voice cut through the air like a whip. He had not listened to a single word. "You've done enough damage. I don't want to hear any more lies from you."

As the guards pulled me away, I caught sight of Beta Reiner. He stood off to the side, a mocking smile playing on his lips. His eyes gleamed with satisfaction, knowing that he had successfully ostracised me from my family.

They threw me into my room and locked the door behind me. I stumbled to the floor. I crawled to the door, banging on it with my fists.

"Please, let me out! You have to believe me!" I screamed, my voice breaking.

But there was no response, only the sound of the key turning in the lock, sealing me in. I slumped against the door, tears streaming down my face.

I could still see Raphael as he stood there, watching me with pure, unadulterated hatred in his eyes. It was a look that shattered what was left of my heart.

Beta Reiner's mocking smile flashed in my mind, and I knew that my fight was far from over. I had to find a way to prove my innocence, to expose the real monster amongst us. Then it clicked, the traitor amongst us. Beta Reiner had been the one my mother had been talking about. He was the traitor. He was responsible for both her death and Rapheal's family's slaughter. He had been the masked man by Jameson's father's side in Raphael's memory. Yet, I could do nothing now that I was locked up.

For now, all I could do was sit in the cold, dark room, alone and heartbroken, with the weight of my family's betrayal pressing down on me. But I would have to find a way to let it finally sink into Raphael's head that my father's Beta is his family's murderer.