Chapter 64

Chapter 64
Abigail's POV

The stench of blood had not yet cleared when Elodie seized my arm, her fingertips ice-cold, her voice drawn tight.

"How are you? Let me see that wound — you couldn't even stand steady a moment ago."

"It's been bound already." I let her lift a corner of my coat, revealing the ring of bandaging that still seeped blood. "The pharmacist said the bone wasn't hit. Elodie, I'm fine."

She stared at my face for a long while, as if to make sure I wasn't putting on a brave front, and only when she was certain I could still stand here clear-headed did she slowly let go. Dara and Finn leaned against the rock wall, each tending their own wounds, their faces grim, none of them with any spare strength to speak.

Elodie lowered her voice, her gaze sweeping uneasily toward the middle distance. "Just now Nicholas said 'it's time' ... What did that mean? Who is he going after?"

I followed her line of sight.

Nicholas was crouched beside a beast-carcass. He had just examined the beast's clouded eyes, then checked the rigid set of its body, and finally leaned close to its muzzle and breathed in, his expression turning colder still.

"It means," I said quietly, "the one who drew the beasts has already been caught."

"Megan?" Elodie frowned. "Isn't she one of Olivia's team? Why ... why would she want to harm us?"

"Not 'us.'" I pressed down on the wound at my ribs and drew a slow breath. "Her target was me. Megan is only the hand that acted on orders. The one who truly gave the command is Olivia."

Elodie's face went pale in an instant. She seemed about to press further, but Nicholas had already risen to his feet, tucking the oiled cloth that sealed the sample away inside his coat, and gave a few cold instructions to the lieutenant at his side.

I did not catch all of it, only the last half of a sentence —

"Back to camp. It will be tried in the open."

For the rest of that day, the Winter warriors cleared the battleground, carried away the beast-carcasses, and escorted us wounded ones back to camp. The pharmacist redressed the wound at my ribs, winding the bandage tight.

Finn and Dara were settled into another tent to recover, but Elodie insisted on staying at my side, barely closing her eyes the whole night. And at the other end of the camp, I knew, Megan was being held apart by the Winter warriors, questioned line by line. Nicholas did not come to find me again, yet I could feel that net drawing tighter, inch by inch.

By the morning of the fifth day, the burning pain in my ribs had finally subsided, leaving only a steady, dull ache that tugged gently with each breath.

Nicholas, in his authority as security commander, ordered that all teams return to camp before sunrise. The plaza at the center of the camp was quickly cleared into a rough circle of open ground. As the horn-call died away, the crowd had already gathered in from every side, packing the space until there was no room to spare.

The pack representatives stood in an arc along one edge, the team captains behind them. On the other side, before the seat marked with the crimson claw, Matthew stood, his face drawn nearly to iron. And upon a raised seat at the head of the plaza sat Alpha King Elias himself.

I knew that what was about to happen, Matthew had already guessed at least half of.

They put me on the witness stand. Elodie pressed close at my shoulder, as if afraid I might not hold up and would collapse, her expression even more anxious than mine.

Nicholas stood at the center of the circle and announced that during this hunt, someone had deliberately used a forbidden means to endanger the lives of participants, and that the matter was grave. By his authority as security commander, it would be tried here and now.

He raised a hand. At once two Winter warriors stepped forward, bringing Olivia out from beside her team's seat and setting her in the middle of the ground.

She still wore that lavish hunting attire, her braid neat, not a single crease on her front. Even brought under every watching eye to the place of judgment, her face still wore that soft, bewildered look, her gaze sweeping once across the crowd as if searching for someone to speak on her behalf.

"Alpha Nicholas." She spoke first, her voice trembling faintly yet clear enough. "What is the meaning of this? Why bring me alone to this place, to be questioned before all the packs? What exactly have I done, to be treated this way?"

Nicholas did not answer at once.

His gaze fell first on me, and only after confirming that I stood steady did he turn it back to the center of the ground.

"At noon yesterday," he began, his voice level and cold, "this participant's team was set upon deep within Silver Wolf Forest by fifteen maddened marked beasts. They fell back to a rock wall and fought to the death without yielding. Two of her team were gravely wounded, and she herself had the old wound at her ribs torn open by a claw."

He paused, his gaze sweeping the surroundings.

"Had reinforcements not arrived in time, these four lives would all have been left in that forest today."

A muffled stir rose through the crowd.

Olivia's brow drew together, and her face took on a shock and concern pitched exactly right.

"That such a thing should happen ..." She turned her head to look at me, her eyes seemingly brimming with worry. "Abigail, you're hurt? But this ... what does this have to do with me?"

I looked at her, and at last I spoke.

"You did it, Olivia."

My voice was not loud, yet it made the whole circle fall abruptly still for an instant.

"You ordered someone to put a beast-luring substance into our water source, and drew that pack of marked beasts down upon us."