Chapter 16 Secrets and Lies
Janelle
I barely slept that night. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw Princess Sophia's cold smile and heard her threats against Tommy echoing in my mind. The leather pouch of gold sat heavy on my small wooden table, gleaming in the moonlight like thirty pieces of silver.
By dawn, I would be gone. By dawn, I would never see Adrian again. The thought made my chest ache so fiercely I could barely breathe.
A soft knock on my door made me bolt upright in bed. My heart hammered as I crept to the door, pressing my ear against the wood.
"Janelle." Lord Darius's voice was barely a whisper. "I need to speak with you. It's urgent."
I hesitated. Princess Sophia had warned me not to seek help from him, but he was the one seeking me out. And after what I'd overheard about him knowing the truth about Crimson Moon Pack, maybe he could give me answers before I disappeared forever.
I cracked the door open. "My lord, it's very late.."
"I know what Princess Sophia threatened you with," he said quietly. "I heard everything."
My blood ran cold. "You were listening?"
"I was returning to my chambers when I heard voices. I stayed to make sure you were safe." His green eyes were intense in the dim candlelight. "We need to talk. Meet me in the old tower in ten minutes."
"I can't. If she finds out.."
"She won't. I promise." He stepped closer, and I caught that familiar scent of pine and mountain air. "Janelle, there are things you need to know before you make any decisions about leaving. Things about your family. About what really happened to them."
The words hit me like lightning. "What do you know about my family?"
"Everything." His voice was grim. "Ten minutes. The old tower. Please."
He melted back into the shadows, leaving me staring at empty air.
I should have stayed in my room. Should have packed my few belongings and waited for dawn. But the desperate need to understand, to finally have answers about my parents' deaths, drove me from my bed.
I threw on my cloak and slipped through the castle's sleeping corridors like a ghost. The old tower stood at the far end of the east wing, abandoned and forgotten by most of the court. Moonlight streamed through broken windows as I climbed the crumbling stone steps.
Darius was waiting at the top, silhouetted against the window like a dark angel. He'd changed from his court clothes into simple black, making him nearly invisible in the shadows.
"You came," he said, relief clear in his voice.
"You said you knew about my family." I clutched my cloak tighter against the night chill. "Tell me what you know."
"Sit down first." He gestured to a stone ledge beneath one of the windows. "This isn't easy to hear."
"I've been living without knowing for three years. Whatever the truth is, I can handle it."
Darius was quiet for a long moment, studying my face in the pale light. "My name is Darius Blackwood, but I'm not just a visiting lord from the Southern Kingdom. I'm an investigator. My government sent me here to look into the massacre of the Crimson Moon Pack."
My legs gave out, and I sank onto the stone ledge. "Why would the Southern Kingdom care about what happened to my pack?"
"Because we had spies embedded with Crimson Moon. Good people. People with families." His voice hardened. "When they were killed along with your pack, my king wanted answers."
"Spies?" The word felt foreign on my tongue. "My pack were spies?"
"Not your pack. Our agents who had taken refuge with your pack." Darius moved closer, his expression gentle despite the harsh truths he was revealing. "Your pack was known for taking in refugees, outcasts, people who had nowhere else to go. It made them perfect cover for our operatives."
My head spun. "I don't understand. If they were just refugees, why were they killed?"
"Because someone discovered what they really were." Darius's jaw clenched. "Someone who couldn't afford to have Southern Kingdom agents gathering intelligence in his territory."
"Who?" But even as I asked, cold dread was settling in my stomach.
"King Magnus."
The words hit me like a physical blow. I doubled over, gasping for air that wouldn't come. "No. No, that's not possible."
"I have proof." Darius knelt beside me, his hands gentle on my shoulders. "Documents. Witness testimony. Orders written in the King's own hand."
"Show me." My voice was barely a whisper.
He reached into his coat and withdrew a folded parchment. With shaking fingers, I took it and unfolded it in the moonlight. The royal seal was clear at the bottom, and the handwriting was unmistakably official.
By Royal Decree: The Crimson Moon Pack harbors enemies of the crown. They are to be eliminated completely. Leave no survivors to spread word of their treachery. - King Magnus
The parchment fluttered to the ground as my hands lost all feeling. "He ordered their deaths. All of them."
"I'm sorry," Darius said softly. "I know this is devastating."
"My parents..." Tears burned my eyes. "My little sister... They killed them all because of the spies they were helping."
"Your pack died protecting people who had nowhere else to turn. They died as heroes."
"They died because of that monster!" Rage erupted in my chest, hot and violent. "He murdered innocent people. Children. Babies."
"Yes, he did." Darius's voice was steady, letting me feel my fury without trying to calm it. "The question is, what are you going to do about it?"
I looked up at him, tears streaming down my face. "What can I do? I'm nobody. A servant girl with no power, no allies, no way to fight back."
"That's not true." His green eyes blazed with intensity. "You have something very valuable, Janelle. Something that could bring King Magnus to his knees."
"What?"
"You're the mate of his son."
The words hit me like ice water. "Adrian has nothing to do with this. He doesn't even know about the mate bond."
"Doesn't he?" Darius raised an eyebrow. "The way he nearly killed me over you suggests otherwise."
"Even if he did know, it doesn't matter. He can't act on it. They'll kill me if he tries to claim me officially."
"Exactly." Darius stood, beginning to pace the small space. "They'll kill you because they're terrified of what you represent. A mate bond with the prince would give you power, influence, protection. It would make you someone they'd have to respect."
"But I'm leaving tomorrow," I said desperately. "Princess Sophia will hurt my brother if I don't."
"What if I told you I could protect your brother?" Darius stopped pacing and fixed me with an intense stare. "What if I told you I could get him somewhere safe, somewhere even King Magnus couldn't reach him?"
Hope flared in my chest like a candle flame. "You could do that?"
"My kingdom has resources. Safe houses. People who specialize in making threats disappear." He knelt in front of me again. "But I need something in return."
"What?"
"I need you to help me bring down King Magnus. I need you to use your connection to Prince Adrian to gather evidence of the King's other crimes. Because I promise you, the Crimson Moon massacre wasn't his only atrocity."
My mind reeled. "You want me to spy on the royal family?"
"I want you to get justice for your pack. For your parents. For all the innocent people King Magnus has killed over the years." His voice was passionate, convincing. "Help me, and we can make him pay for what he's done."
"And Adrian?" My voice broke on his name. "What happens to him when his father falls?"
"That depends on him. If he's innocent of his father's crimes, he has nothing to fear. If he's not..." Darius shrugged. "Then he deserves whatever justice brings."
The thought of Adrian being hurt, of him paying for his father's sins, made my chest ache. But the image of my parents' faces, of my little sister who never got to grow up, burned brighter.
"If I do this," I said slowly, "if I help you, you swear you'll keep Tommy safe?"
"I swear it on my honor as a knight of the Southern Kingdom."
I stared at him for a long moment, weighing impossible choices. Trust this man I barely knew, or flee and spend the rest of my life wondering if I could have gotten justice for my family.
"I'll do it," I whispered.
"Then we need to start planning.."
"Janelle?"
The voice from the stairwell made my blood freeze. Adrian's voice, confused and angry and getting closer with each footstep.
"Damn," Darius muttered, moving toward the shadows. "He can't see me here."
"Why not?"
"Because then he'll know you've been meeting with me in secret. And that will raise questions neither of us can answer." He pressed something into my hand, a small silver pendant. "Wear this. It will let me find you when we need to meet again."
"But.."
"Go. Intercept him on the stairs. Don't let him up here."
I stumbled toward the stairwell just as Adrian appeared, his golden hair disheveled and his blue eyes wild with worry and something darker.
"Janelle, what are you doing here?" He climbed the last few steps, his gaze searching my face in the moonlight. "It's the middle of the night."
My mouth opened and closed like a fish gasping for air. I couldn't tell him about Darius, couldn't explain the pendant burning in my palm, couldn't reveal any of the truths that were tearing me apart.
"I couldn't sleep," I finally managed. "I came here to think."
"About what?" He stepped closer, and I caught his scent, pine and rain and something uniquely him that made my wolf whimper with longing. "Janelle, you're crying. What's wrong?"
I touched my face and felt the wetness there, the evidence of my breakdown. "Nothing. I'm fine."
"Don't lie to me." His voice was soft but commanded obedience. "Not now. Not when you look like your world is ending."
Because it is, I thought desperately. Because everything I thought I knew was a lie, and I'm about to betray the one person I love most in this world.
"Tell me what's wrong," Adrian said, reaching out to cup my face with gentle hands. "Please, Janelle. Let me help you."
But I couldn't. I couldn't tell him that his father was a monster, couldn't explain why I was really meeting Darius in secret, couldn't admit that I was about to become a spy against his own family.
"I can't," I whispered, pulling away from his touch. "I'm sorry, Adrian, but I can't tell you anything."
The hurt that flashed across his face nearly broke my resolve. But then his expression hardened, and
I saw suspicion creep into his blue eyes.
"This is about Blackwood, isn't it?" His voice was deadly quiet. "You were meeting him here."
My silence was answer enough.