Chapter 25 25 REVELATIONS

Chapter 25 25 REVELATIONS
DARYL

A lot of things could go to hell in a few weeks. I was living proof.

Everything had gone sideways the moment Soraya Karter walked through Fenrir's gates. First, an attack that should've killed me. Then my sister showing up, dragging royal politics into this mess. Soraya becoming my "companion guard"—convenient timing. Two students dead in ways that mirrored my curse. Both of us branded as suspects. The haunted house that tried to kill us. And now we were stuck training for a Gala that felt more like a death march. How cinematic if you asked me.

"You look like you want to murder someone," Dolly observed as we settled down in class for our first lecture of the day. I did want to murder someone actually. I didn't answer Dolly but my gaze drifted towards the empty seats in front of me—Soraya and Adele were not in class yet.

"He always looks like he wants to murder someone, that is nothing new," Axel responded for me, chuckling to himself.

Dolly scoffed. "I wonder what the council has to say about all that is happening in the school right now. Have you heard from your father, Daryl?"

"When has Fenrir ever been on the list of Packs to care about? He is probably enjoying the lives of innocent pack members being taken one by one."

Without getting up, I immediately reached for my dagger and I swung to the side those words had came from, earning shudders and gasps from the students. I looked up with a smirk, grinning at my dagger impaling Ethan Farrow's jacket to the door. The owner's gaze on me was just as intriguing as the sight.

I cocked my head to a side. "The next time you dare open your mouth and speak against my Father with such audacity. I'll make sure I don't miss your head."

"You bas..."

"Now accept your loss and move on Ethan, sulking isn't a good look on you," Soraya's voice echoed through the class. she tapped Ethan's shoulder almost sympathetically before reaching for my dagger. She pulled it free with barely any effort, examined it briefly, then looked directly at me.

She mouthed: Catch.

The dagger flew through the air and I caught it effortlessly.

"Clean!" Axel exclaimed beside me, and I couldn't agree more.

But as Soraya walked to her seat, I noticed the limp in her gait, and the dull looks behind her eyes which she tried to hide so well.

Something was wrong.

She didn't look at me once during the entire lecture, that was also unusual. Normally she'd shoot me at least one sarcastic glare or eye-roll.

When class ended, I tapped her as she packed up her bag, ready to follow me.

"You're dismissed," I said curtly.

She blinked, surprised. "What?"

"I don't need a guard today. Go."

For a moment, I thought she'd argue because she always did, but instead, she just nodded.

"Okay."

That's when I knew for certain that something was very, very wrong, because Soraya Karter never agreed with me that easily.

How do you shadow someone who is supposed to shadow you? Not the strangest thing I'd done lately, but it was close.

Soraya Karter was leaving the school premises four hours after school was over, and I was going to follow her. We didn't have the gala training today, so that made it easier.

I knew some of my suspicions about Soraya were right, but yet I have to confirm myself. It was one thing to accuse a person of something, big it was another thing to have evidence to prove. I needed evidence, so I could hold that deal we made at the library over her head whenever I deemed fit.

When I thought of the library, I thought of the kiss,and the stupid longing that draws me to her. It was insane really, but I couldn't afford to be distracted by whatever this thing between us was. Attraction. Obsession. Stupidity.

I expected everything, but not Stratza bar—certainly not Stratza bar. What the hell was she doing here?

I slipped in, the wild crowd did a good job in hiding me so I was very sure she didn't know I was following her. By the time she got to a both at the far end of the club, I noticed who she has come to meet. Her mother—the woman who had recommended her as a companion guard to Alpha Talon. The woman looked formidable as he was dorned in a black dress, and face full of makeup with her red lipstick being the highlight.

Soraya sat.

But there was something telling in the way she sat before the woman. Soraya who was always prim, proper, and upright had a vulnerability to her that seemed born out of fear.

I slinked closer, adjusting my baseball cap and slipping to the booth just right beside them—close enough that I could hear every word of what they were saying.

"Ma'am," Soraya started. She addressed her mother as Ma'am?

"You're late," the woman criticized, her voice quiet yet so hard.

"I had to leave without raising suspicions. That took time."

Quinn's eyes flicked around the room, and I sank down in my chair thinking she had spotted me, but her gaze slipped past my booth without pausing.

"Good," she said. "Now, report."

"I can't do it. At least not yet, there's a lot of things going on at school, and it's just..."

Soraya didn't finish speaking before I heard a loud smack. The sharp crack echoed even over the bar's ambient noise. My hand went immediately to my sword, every muscle in my body coiling to spring.

Don't. Not yet. You'll blow your cover. I forced myself to stay calm, but my claws were extending beneath my gloves.

I peaked at the duo, registering the look of shock on Soraya's face. She hadn't expected that as well.

"How long have you been at that school now, Soraya?" Quinn asked, her voice terrifyingly calm, as if she hadn't just physically assaulted her own daughter.

"Two months," Soraya answered quietly.

"Two months. You did nothing for two months, and even within that time I had to step in and help you. I arranged your position. I orchestrated opportunities. I gave you every advantage." Quinn leaned forward. "And now I've given you three weeks with everything set in place, and you sit there and tell me you cannot do it?"

She paused, letting the question hang.

"Do you think this is a joke?"

"No, ma'am."

"Then explain to me why the prince is still breathing."

My blood went cold.

The prince.

Me.

"It's not that simple," Soraya said. "There are complications. Things happening at the school that make it difficult to—"

"I don't care about complications. I care about results." Quinn's finger jabbed the table between them. " Now you have until the gala night. If the prince isn't dead by then, I will have your Father in his grave before you can blink!"

The world tilted.

"Ma'am!"

I'd suspected. I'd known, on some level, that Soraya was hiding something. That she was dangerous.

But hearing it confirmed—hearing her mother say my name, say dead—made it real in a way that punched the air from my lungs.

Soraya was here to kill me.

And the worst past was that, if she didn't, her father would die.